Eliza Wigham (23 February 1820 – 3 November 1899), born Elizabeth Wigham, was a Scottish campaigner for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

anti-slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

, peace and

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland. She was involved in several major campaigns to improve women's rights in 19th-century Britain, and has been noted as one of the leading citizens of Edinburgh. Her stepmother,

Jane Smeal Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...

, was a leading activist in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and together they made the

Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society The Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society was a leading Abolitionism, abolitionist group based in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the nineteenth century. The women associated with the organisation are considered "heroines" and the impact of these aboli ...

. Her brother

John Richardson Wigham :''This article concerns the Irish-based inventor and lighthouse engineer, not his cousin the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson''. John Richardson Wigham (15 January 1829 – 16 November 1906) was a prominent lighthouse engineer of the 19th cen ...

was a prominent lighthouse engineer.

Life

Elizabeth Wigham, later known as "Eliza", was born on 23 February 1820 in Edinburgh to Jane ({{nee Richardson) and John Tertius Wigham, a cotton and shawl manufacturer. The family grew to include six children, residing at 5 South Gray Street, Edinburgh.S.E. Fryer, 'Wigham, John Richardson (1829–1906)', rev. R. C. Cox, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 3 June 2015
/ref> The Wighams were a part of a network of leading

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

anti-slavery families of the period operating in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, and Dublin. Eliza's mother, older sister, and younger brother died when she was around ten years old. In 1840, her father remarried to

,{{cite book, editor-last=Ewan, editor-first=Elizabeth L., editor2-last=Innes , editor2-first=Sue , editor3-last=Reynolds , editor3-first=Sian , display-editors = 3 , editor4-last=Pipes , editor4-first=Rose, title=The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women From the Earliest Times to 2004, date=2006, publisher=Edinburgh University Press, location=Edinburgh, isbn=0748626603, page=376, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zs6qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA376 who was a leading abolitionist and suffragist.

Campaign work

Wigham was the treasurer of the

.{{cite journal, last1=Edinburgh Ladies Emancipation Society, title=Annual Report of the Ladies' Emancipation Society, journal=Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection, date=15 February 1866, page=2, jstor=60238978 Unlike other abolitionist organisations which splintered, the Edinburgh organisation was still running in 1870. Credit for this is given to Wigham and her stepmother Jane Smeal.Eliza Wigham
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531015350/http://www.latebloomers.co.uk/wforum/ScottishSuffragists/elizawigham.html , date=31 May 2015 , The Scottish Suffragists. Retrieved 30 May 2015 In 1840, Wigham and her friend

Elizabeth Pease Nichol Elizabeth Nichol (''née'' Pease; 5 January 1807 – 3 February 1897) was a 19th-century British abolitionist, anti-segregationist, woman suffragist, chartist and anti-vivisectionist. She was active in the Peace Society, the Temperance movemen ...

travelled to London to attend the

World Anti-Slavery Convention The World Anti-Slavery Convention met for the first time at Exeter Hall in London, on 12–23 June 1840. It was organised by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, largely on the initiative of the English Quaker Joseph Sturge. The exclu ...

, which began on 12 June. Also in attendance at this event were British activists like

Lucy Townsend Lucy Townsend (née Jesse; 25 July 1781 – 20 April 1847) was a British abolitionist. She started the first Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Birmingham, UK, titled the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves. Although slavery had ...

and Mary Anne RawsonWomen's Anti-Slavery Organisations
Spartacus Educational, Retrieved 30 July 2015 and also American

activists Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

including

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott (''née'' Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongs ...

and

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca ...

. The female delegates were obliged to sit separately. Wigham, her stepmother, and some of their friends set up the Edinburgh chapter of the National Society of Women's Suffrage. She and her friend

Agnes McLaren Agnes McLaren (4 July 1837 – 17 April 1913) FRCPI was a respected Scottish doctor who was one of the first to give medical assistance to women in India who, because of custom, were unable to access medical help from male doctors. Agnes was a ...

became the secretaries,

Priscilla Bright McLaren Priscilla Bright McLaren (8 September 1815 – 5 November 1906) was a British activist who served and linked the anti-slavery movement with the women's suffrage movement in the nineteenth century. She was a member of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emanci ...

was the president, and Elizabeth Pease was the treasurer. In 1863 Wigham served on the committee of

Clementia Taylor Clementia Taylor (Name at birth, née Doughty; 17 December 1810 – 11 April 1908) was an English women's rights activist and radical.''ODNB''. Life Clementia (known as Mentia to her friends) was born in Brockdish, Norfolk, one of twelve childr ...

Ladies' London Emancipation Society The Ladies' London Emancipation Society was an activist abolitionist group founded in 1863, which disseminated anti-slavery material to advance British understanding of the Union cause in the American Civil War as one pertaining to morality rather ...

with

Mary Estlin Mary Anne Estlin (31 July 1820 – 14 November 1902) was a British abolitionist and leading figure in anti-slavery and anti-prostitution campaigns in Britain. Life Mary Anne Estlin (31 Jul 1820-14 Nov 1902) was the daughter of John Bishop Estli ...

.{{cite book, last1=Crawford, first1=Mary, title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928, date=2003, isbn=1135434026, page=209, url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135434026 In the same year, she wrote ''The Anti-Slavery Cause in America and its Martyrs'', a short book intended to influence the British government. At the time it was feared that Britain might side with the Confederates in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

and thus would be supporting

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

.{{cite book, last1=Wigham, first1=Eliza, title=Anti-slavery cause in America and its martyrs, date=2014, publisher=Cambridge Univ Press, isbn=978-1108075640, orig-year=1863, url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1108075649 Wigham was also involved with the campaign to repeal acts of Parliament which aimed to contain prostitution. The

Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts The Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was established in 1869 by Elizabeth Wolstenholme and Josephine Butler in response to the Contagious Diseases Acts that were passed by the British Parliament in 1864. T ...

was formed in response to these acts, and was successful in its aims. She played an active role in the

British Women's Temperance Association The White Ribbon Association (WRA), previously known as the British Women's Temperance Association (BWTA), is an organization that seeks to educate the public about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, as well as gambling. Founding of British Wom ...

Scottish Christian Union Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

, becoming a national vice president.{{Cite thesis, last=Smitley, first=Megan K., url=https://theses.gla.ac.uk/1488/, title='Woman's mission': the temperance and women's suffrage movements in Scotland, c.1870-1914., publisher=University of Glasgow, year=2002, location=Glasgow, pages=42, type=PhD

Life as a carer

Wigham's father died in 1864, after which she continued to live at her stepmother Jane's house at South Gray Street, Edinburgh. She cared for Jane, who was in ill health until her death in November 1888. After her brother's death in 1897, Wigham sold the property to and moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, where she in turn was cared for by her relatives. Wigham died in

Foxrock Foxrock () is an affluent suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Roman Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was developed by William a ...

near Dublin in 1899.Lesley M. Richmond, 'Wigham, Eliza (1820–1899)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 30 May 2015
/ref>

Legacy

A memorial book for Wigham was published in 1901.{{cite book, author=Eliza Wigham, title=Eliza Wigham. (A Brief Memorial. Reprinted and Revised from the "Annual Monitor".) [With a Portrait.]., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gb3JOwAACAAJ, year=1901 In 2015, four of the women associated with suffragist and abolitionist campaigns in Edinburgh were the subject of a project by local historians. The group aimed to gain recognition for Wigham,

, and

– the city's "forgotten heroines".Campaign to honour four 'forgotten' heroines of Scottish history
''The Herald'' (Glasgow), 2 June 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2015

References

{{Reflist, 30em {{Commons category

External links

* {{Internet Archive author , sname=Eliza Wigham {{Authority control {{Women's suffrage in Scotland {{DEFAULTSORT:Wigham, Eliza British suffragists British women activists Politicians from Edinburgh 1820 births 1899 deaths National Society for Women's Suffrage