IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 106 2PRI
Held at: Women's Library
Title: Memento from 'Practical Suffragists' to Anna M. Priestman, Mary Priestman, Margaret A. Tanner and 'honoured friends'
Date(s): 1903
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 1 volume with enclosures
Name of creator(s): Union of Practical Suffragists
Priestman | Anna Maria | 1828-1914 | suffragist
Priestman | Mary | 1830-1914 | suffragist
Tanner | Margaret | 1830-1914 | nee Priestman | suffragist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The sisters Anna Maria (1828-1914), Mary (1830-1914) and Margaret (1817-1905) Priestman were daughters of Rachel Bragg, religious worker and anti-slavery campaigner, and Jonathan Priestman. They were born into Liberal and Quaker family networks, being sisters-in-law of John Bright (1811-1889) and friends of his sisters, including Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815-1906). All three Priestman sisters were born in Newcastle. In 1846 Margaret married Daniel Wheeler and moved away. Daniel died within a few years and she then married Arthur Tanner. Meanwhile, her sisters had moved to Bristol and Margaret also went to live there after the death of her second husband in 1869. All three were active in the suffrage campaigns and signed the 1866 suffrage petition and Anna Maria and Margaret were also involved in the Enfranchisement of Women Committee, 1866-1867. The sisters went on to be members of the Bristol and West of England Women's Suffrage Society, and the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage. They were also instrumental in founding the Women's Liberal Association in Bristol in 1881, the first in the country, and were involved in temperance and social work and in anti-Contagious Diseases legislation agitation. The Union of Practical Suffragists was formed within the Women's Liberal Federation in c.1896. Three years previously, Anna Maria Priestman had moved an amendment at a Women's Liberal Federation meeting to the effect that potential Liberal parliamentary candidates should be questioned about their support for women's suffrage before selection. The amendment was defeated but the 'test question' issue remained a live one for the Federation in subsequent years. In 1894 Anna Maria Priestman became president of a small organisation of those in sympathy with her position and by 1895 this group called themselves 'practical suffragists'. In 1896 they merged with a pre-existing Union of Practical Suffragists within the Women's Liberal Federation with the objective: 'to induce the Women's Liberal Associations to work for no Liberal candidate who would vote against Women's Suffrage in the House of Commons.' Mary Priestman was a member of the organisation's executive committee and Anna Maria Priestman was President from 1898-1899. Other members included Ursula Bright, Annie Leigh Browne, Louisa Martindale and Mary Kilgour. The Union was wound up in 1903 after it seemed that it had won its objective, although two years later the debate within the Women's Liberal Federation was re-opened. Margaret Priestman died in 1905, but both Anna Maria and Mary Priestman joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907 and carried on active support for suffrage activities in the Bristol area. They died, within a few days of each other, in October 1914.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Bound and illuminated volume, Sep 1903, comprising a form of thanks and list of names; manuscript key to the symbolism used in the illumination; signed letter of thanks from Anna and Mary Priestman, Nov 1903. Includes loose items.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
This collection is available for consultation. Intending readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Fonds Description (1 folder only) dated 2003
Collection level description available on-line on the Women's Library website
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Unknown - Found in the Library in boxes of 'unsorted archival miscellany' during the move into the new building, 2002 and formally accessioned into the collection in July 2003.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Further papers of the Priestman sisters may be found amongst the Millfield Papers, as part of the archives of CandJ Clark, Ltd, Street, Somerset. The Women's Library also holds records of the Bristol and West of England Society for Women's Suffrage ( GB 106 2/BWS). Records of the Women's Liberal Federation are held at the University of Bristol.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: This document was generated by Javascript from an HTML form which structured the input according to the elements of ISAD(G) Version 2. Collection description by Jennifer Haynes, Head of Special Collections, The Women's Library. Edited for AIM25 by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Dec 2008