Mary (Walsh) Lee (1821 - 1909)

Born 14 Feb 1821 in Kilknock Estate, County Monaghan, Ireland

Wife of George Lee — married 1844 in Ireland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 18 Sep 1909 at age 88 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

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Biography

Mary (Walsh) Lee is Notable.

Mary (Walsh) Lee was a part of the Suffragette Movement.

Mary Lee, née Walsh, was an Irish-Australian suffragist and social reformer in South Australia, the first Australian state in which women gained the right to vote in State elections, and the first in the world where women could be elected members of Parliament in 1894.^[1] Her battles were fought and won against a barrage of antagonism from politicians and the public.^[2]

Early Years

Mary (Walsh) Lee was born in Ireland.

Born on St Valentine's Day in 1821 at Kilknock Estate, County Monaghan, the Irish born Mary was raised in a politically active home. Her father John was master of the local Orange Lodge. Nothing is known of Mary's elementary education, although clearly she acquired the necessary foundation to train as a school teacher. Her formative years marked by the presence of famine, starvation, disease, poverty and death, Mary grew disenchanted with English political leaders immune to the needs of the destitute. In 1844 she married fellow school teacher George Lee, a member of the prominent and musical Lee family, active in the Armagh church and business community. The couple departed Ireland for England, as the Great Famine took hold.^[3][4]

Teaching in England

Soon after the birth of their first born, Mary Lillias Jane, about 1846 in Stepney, Middlesex,^[5] the family relocated to Oundle, a market town in Northamptonshire. Two more children were born in Oundle, George Henry in 1847,^[6] and Annie Isabelle, who died shortly after her birth in late 1848.^[7][8] The family then moved to Cambridge,^[5] where Mary's last four children were born: Evelyn (1850),^[9] Malcolm (1852),^[10] Charles Walsh (1853),^[11] and John Benjamin Stedham (1856).^[12]

The Lees worked and lived in the harsh reality of the growing working class in Barnwell, where children from poverty-stricken families roamed the streets. Raised in an environment of filth and petty crime, children as young as five worked 16 hour days in factories, and many never survived childhood. George and Mary took up the positions of school master and mistress, respectively, at the Barnwell National School. Records show that George was master and teacher of 231 boys in 1855, while Mary was mistress and teacher of 187 girls.^[13]

By 1860, the family were in Hammersmith, Middlesex. George was the school master at St Peter's National School, adjacent to the family's modest three storey home, where Mary established a small private girls' school and boarding facility.^[14]

On 30 June 1860, Mary notified her intention (left) on the front page of the West London Observer, to open a school.^[15]

The Young Ladies Educational Institute opened in Hammersmith on 26 July 1860. Catering for both boarders and day students, Mary employed a variety of teachers she referred to as Professors of Eminence, as she educated girls to move into professions that were previously only the domain of men. The lessons included music both vocal and instrumental, literature, history, geography, natural science, languages - French, German, Italian and Spanish, dancing, calisthenics, and religious instruction.^[16][17][18]

Sometime between 1861 and 1871, Mary was widowed, and relocated to Belsize Park, where she continued to run a boarding school for young ladies at 50 Belsize Park Garden.^[19]

Activism in South Australia

Mary and her daughter Evelyn arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, on 15 December 1879, on the maiden voyage of the steam ship Orient, a journey which took just 37 days.^[20] Her son Ben's (John Benjamin Stedham Lee) arrival in the colony preceded that of his mother, who arrived to care for him in his final months of illness, until his death on 2 November 1880.^[21]

Mary was one of the earliest members of the Society for the Promotion of Social Purity (SPS), which was formed in Adelaide in 1882, with a women's division the following year. The Society spoke out against a number of social evils, including drunkenness, prostitution and other forms of sexual licentiousness. It campaigned to put an end to child labour, to protect girls from abuse and prevent them from becoming prostitutes and child brides.^[22] The group's success was the passage in 1885 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Amendment Act 1885, that raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16 years, thus making it illegal for men to have sexual intercourse with females under the age of 16 years.^[23] With varying degrees of success, the SPS agitated for legislation that would establish inheritance rights for children born out of wedlock and ensure that fathers contributed to their welfare, laws to curb public drunkenness, reform of laws that disadvantaged women financially and politically, and for an institution to teach girls ‘their womanly domestic pursuits’.^[24]

Mary and other Purity Society members realised that women's suffrage was essential to their further improved status, and so the Women's Suffrage League was inaugurated in 1888, with Mary as its secretary. Mary was a vigorous campaigner, and she traversed South Australia to speak at meetings, while also organising petitions, deputations and corresponding with women in the other colonies on how to organise suffrage leagues.^[25]

In letters to Adelaide newspapers, Mary wrote:

"I mean to live for this reform, and if I die before it is achieved, like Mary Tudor and Calais, "Woman's enfrancisement" shall be found engraved upon my heart."^[26]

"Let husbands, brothers fathers be kept in mind that it is the duty of every honest man to be just and see justice done; that it is the right of every free man to leave his daughters as free as his sons..."^[27]

"... as women assist in maintaining Government they have a right to a say how and by whom they shall be governed."^[27]

Largely due to the hard work of Mary Lee, Mary Colton, Catherine Helen Spence and Elizabeth Webb Nicholls, in 1894 South Australia became the first Australian state in which women gained the right to vote in State elections, and the first in the world where women could be elected members of Parliament.^[1][2][28]

The Social Purity Society was also was concerned with the working conditions of women. In 1889 Mary proposed the formation of a trade union for women and became secretary of the Working Women's Trades Union when it was inaugurated the following year. She was a delegate to the Trades and Labor Council and committee member of the Female Refuge ladies' committee as well as the Distressed Women's and Children's Committee, which provided clothes and food to women suffering the effects of the depression of the early 1890s.^[29]

In 1895 two trade unions nominated Mary to stand for parliament, but she refused. On her 75th birthday she was awarded the sum of fifty sovereigns donated by the public in recognition of her key role in securing the vote for women. In the lead up to the election in 1896 when South Australian women were to exercise their voting rights for the first time, Mary held public lectures advising women on their voting responsibilities. Also in 1896 Mary was appointed the first woman official visitor to the lunatic asylums; a position that she held for the next twelve years.^[2]

Struggling financially in the later years of her life, Mary asked Sir Josiah Symon to sell her library. All of her hard work fighting for the rights of others and providing the relief she gave to many had been at her own expense.^[2]

Mary died in her North Adelaide home on 18 September 1909, from pleurisy following influenza,^[30] and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery, Walkerville, with her son Ben.^[31] Her work remained unrecorded until 1980; her only memorial her tombstone, a small white marble scroll, engraved with the words:

"Late Hon. Sec. Women's Suffrage League of S.A."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Women's Suffrage. (National Museum of Australia, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/womens-suffrage : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Helen Jones, 'Lee, Mary (1821–1909)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lee-mary-7150/text12345, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 20 March 2021.
3. ↑ George, Denise, Chapter 1.
4. ↑ Evening Journal, Adelaide, SA, 20 September 1909, page 2, column 2, Death of Mrs Mary Lee (Trove, National Library of Australia, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?type=newspapers : accessed 20 March 2021)
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGCR-MFZ : accessed 20 Mar 2021), Mary Lee in household of George Lee, Saint Andrew The Less, Cambridgeshire, England; citing Saint Andrew The Less, Cambridgeshire, England, p. 12, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
6. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 29 October 2020) database entry for Lee, George Henry (Mother's maiden name: Walshe) GRO Reference: 1847 Q3 in Oundle, Volume 15, Page 302.
7. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 30 October 2020) database entry for Lee, Annie Isabelle (Mother's maiden name: Walshe) GRO Reference: 1848 Q4 in Oundle, Volume 15, Page 306.
8. ↑ Northamptonshire Record Office; Northampton, England; Register Type: Parish Registers; Reference Numbers: 249P/378 (Ancestry.com. Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1912 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014., Free Ancestry Image : accessed 30 Oct 2020) burial record for Lee, Annie Isabelle (Age: Infant, Burial Date: 1 Jan 1849, Residence: Oundle)
9. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 30 October 2020) database entry for Lee, Eveline (Mother's maiden name: Welsh) GRO Reference: 1850 Q1 in Cambridge, Volume 14, Page 11.
10. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 29 October 2020) database entry for Lee, Malcolm (Mother's maiden name: Walshe) GRO Reference: 1852 Q2 in Cambridge, Volume 03B, Page 467.
11. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 29 October 2020) database entry for Lee, Charles Welsh (Mother's maiden name: Welsh) GRO Reference: 1853 Q4 in Cambridge, Volume 03B, Page 406.
12. ↑ England & Wales General Register Office, GRO Online Index - Birth (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content : accessed 30 October 2020) database entry for Lee, John Benjamin Stetham (Mother's maiden name: Welsh) GRO Reference: 1856 Q3 in Cambridge, Volume 03B, Page 437.
13. ↑ George, Denise, Chapter 2.
14. ↑ George, Denise, Chapter 3.
15. ↑ West London Observer, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England. 30 Jun 1860. Page 1. Column 4. (British Newspaper Archive, Female Education, accessed 20 Mar 2021)
16. ↑ George, Denise, Chapter 3.
17. ↑ West London Observer, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England. 29 Sep 1860. Page 1. Column 5. (British Newspaper Archive, Young Ladies' Educational Institute, accessed 20 Mar 2021)
18. ↑ West London Observer, Hammersmith, Middlesex, England. 12 Jan 1861. Page 1. Column 4. (British Newspaper Archive, Young Ladies' Educational Institute, accessed 20 Mar 2021)
19. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRJW-6CS : 29 September 2019), Mary Lee, 1871, citing The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1871 England Census; Class: RG10; Piece: 193; Folio: 48; Page: 24; GSU roll: 823312. Ancestry Record 7619 #11119563 Free Ancestry Image
20. ↑ Mansutti, Elizabeth. Mary Lee 1821-1909. (State Library of South Australia, Who was Mary Lee? archived at Trove : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
21. ↑ South Australia Deaths 1842-1972 (FindMyPast, https://www.findmypast.com : accessed 30 October 2020) database entry for Lee, John Benjamin Stedham (Death Date: 2 November 1880, Marital Status: Not recorded, Age: 21y, Residence: North Adelaide, Death Place: North Adelaide) Reference: District: Adelaide, Book/Page: 106/230.
22. ↑ South Australia Women: Women's Suffrage (State Library of South Australia, https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/SAwomen/womens_suffrage : accessed 20 Mar 2020)
23. ↑ Hayes, Sharon, Carpenter, Belinda and Dwyer, Angela. Sex, Crime and Morality. Page 26. (Google Books, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=CniPzWe4pKwC&pg=PA26 : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
24. ↑ Jose, Jim. Social Purity Society (SA History Hub, https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/organisations/social-purity-society : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
25. ↑ Heywood, Anne & Secomb, Robin. Lee, Mary (1821-1909) (The Australian Women's Register, http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0823b.htm : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
26. ↑ South Australian Register, Adelaide, SA, 27 July 1888, page 3, column 6, To the Editor (Trove, National Library of Australia, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?type=newspapers : accessed 20 March 2021)
27. ↑ ^{27.0 27.1} Adelaide Observer, SA, 22 March 1890, page 8, column 1, The Ladies Page (Trove, National Library of Australia, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?type=newspapers : accessed 20 March 2021)
28. ↑ Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 South Australia (Museum of Australian Democracy, https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-8-aid-6-pid-10.html : accessed 20 Mar 2021)
29. ↑ Lee, Mary 1821-1909 (State Library of South Australia, SA Memory, archived at Wayback Machine 6 Dec 2014, retrieved 20 Mar 2021)
30. ↑ South Australia Deaths 1842-1972 (FindMyPast, https://www.findmypast.com : accessed 20 March 2021) database entry for Lee, Mary (Death Date: 18 September 1909, Marital Status: Widowed, Age: 88y, Relative: George Lee (Deceased husband), Residence: North Adelaide, Death Place: North Adelaide) Reference: District: Adelaide, Book/Page: 343/369.
31. ↑ Burial Record (Town of Walkerville, https://www.walkerville.sa.gov.au/ : accessed 20 Mar 2021) database entry for Lee, Mary (Cemetery: Walkerville Wesleyan, Burial Date: 20 Sep 1909, Age: 88y, Location: Plot 315).

• George, Denise. Mary Lee. The life and times of a 'turbulent anarchist' and her battle for women's rights. Wakefield Press. 2018. ISBN 9781743056264.

See Also

• Wikipedia contributors, "Mary Lee (suffragette)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Lee_(suffragette)&oldid=994945683 (accessed March 20, 2021).

See Also:

• Australian Suffragettes