Emily Caroline Langton Massingberd (19 December 1847 – 28 January 1897), known as Emily Langton Langton from 1867 to 1887, Camp, Anthony J.br>Additions and Corrections to ''Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction 1714–1936'' (2007)
''AnthonyJCamp.com''. Retrieved 22 December 2015. was a

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

campaigner 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 ...

activist. Her husband, Edmund Langton, died in 1875. In 1877, Emily built and lived in the Red House in Bournemouth. Since the 1940s, the house has often been erroneously associated with

Lillie Langtry Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Born on the isl ...

and Bertie, the Prince of Wales. Upon her father's death in 1887, she inherited

Gunby Hall Gunby Hall is a country house in Gunby, near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, England, reached by a half mile long private drive. The Estate comprises the 42-room Gunby Hall, listed Grade I, a clocktower, listed Grade II* and a carriage house and st ...

. In 1892, she founded the Pioneer Club, with the object of the political and moral advancement of women.Obituary. Mrs Massingberd, ''The Times'', 29 January 1897; pg. 10; Issue 35113.CHAPTER IX: WOMEN'S CLUBS (1896)
In: Krout, Mary H. ''A Looker on in London''. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. p. 79. Reproduced at ''VictorianLondon.org''. Retrieved 24 December 2015. It was one of the first, and one of the most powerful and well known, of progressive women's clubs in the UK, and was particularly influential while she remained alive. Her birth surname was Massingberd, and her married surname was Langton. After her father's death, she re-assumed the surname Massingberd by royal licence on 20 May 1887, and went by "Mrs. Massingberd" rather than "Mrs. Langton".''The London Gazette''
9 December 1887. p. 6869.

Early life and family

Emily Massingberd was born Emily Caroline Langton Massingberd on 19 December 1847 in

East Stonehouse East Stonehouse was one of three towns that were amalgamated into modern-day Plymouth. West Stonehouse was a village that is within the current Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall. It was destroyed by the French in 1350. The terminology use ...

, Devon. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Langton Massingberd of

and Harriet Anne Langford. She married her

second cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

, Edmund Langton, in 1867. Edmund was the son of Rev. Charles Langton and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's sister-in-law Charlotte Wedgwood Langton. After Charlotte died Rev. Langton married Darwin's sister Emily Catherine Darwin in 1863. Emily and Edmund had four children, a son and three daughters: Charlotte Mildred (1868–1941), Stephen (1869–1925), Mary (1871–1950), and Diana (1872–1963). Her husband Edmund died, aged 34, in November 1875, at Eastwood, East Cliffe Road, Bournemouth, the home of his father Rev. Charles Langton. Her daughter Charlotte Mildred married Charles Darwin's son

Leonard Darwin Leonard Darwin (15 January 1850 – 26 March 1943) was an English politician, economist and eugenics, eugenicist. He was a son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and also a mentor to Ronald Fisher, a statistician and evolutionary biologist. B ...

. Her son Stephen became a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

and married

Vernon Lushington Vernon Lushington KC, (8 March 1832 – 24 January 1912), was a Positivist, Deputy Judge Advocate General, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was a Cambridge Apostle. Lushington was born in Westm ...

's daughter Margaret. Her daughter Mary married General Hugh Maude de Fellenberg Montgomery. Her daughter Diana married Hugh's brother

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd Field Marshal Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery-Massingberd, (6 December 1871 – 13 October 1947), known as Archibald Armar Montgomery until October 1926, was a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) ...

. Emily was great-grandmother to

Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd Hugh John Massingberd (30 December 1946 – 25 December 2007), originally Hugh John Montgomery and known from 1963 to 1992 as Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, was an English journalist and genealogist. He was chief editor of ''Burke's Peerage''/''Burk ...

(1946–2007), via her daughter Mary's son John Michael Montgomery. Emily died in 1897. In 1944 her daughter Diana and husband Field Marshal Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd gave the Gunby Hall estate to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when it was threatened with demolition to make way for an airfield.

Activist years

After marriage in 1867, Emily and Edmund Langton lived mainly in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

. Edmund died in 1875 at the age of 34, leaving Emily with a son and three daughters. She turned to

work with 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 ...

. She also built a new residence in Bournemouth, the Red House, at the junction of Knyveton Road and Derby Road, where she often lived, held meetings, and entertained. The foundation stone for the house, which includes a large assembly room, is inscribed "E.L.L. 1877". Emily Massingberd by Theodore Blake Wirgman (1848-1925)

Emily Massingberd by Theodore Blake Wirgman (1848-1925)

A portrait of Emily painted in 1878 by

Theodore Blake Wirgman Theodore Blake Wirgman (29 April 1848 – 16 January 1925) was a British painter and etcher who moved to London, studied at the Royal Academy Schools, became a painter of history and genre subjects, and worked as a portrait artist for ''The ...

shows her with a violin, and in December 1880 she was one of the instrumentalists for the Congregational Band of Hope in the Richmond Hill Congregational School-room, Bournemouth. In January 1881 she held a notable fancy dress dance "at the Assembly Room of the Red House, Bournemouth". In September 1882 she held a "fashionable concert" at the Red House in aid of funds for the Bournemouth Dispensary. By 1881, she was staying in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London. An enthusiastic supporter of

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 ...

, she made her first speech in favour of it at

Westminster Town Hall Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily noted for its historical associations. It hosted many mainstream and fringe political and art ...

in 1882. In Bournemouth, on 15 December 1883, suffragettes Laura Ormiston Chant and Caroline Biggs "held a drawing-room meeting at the home of Mrs Langton (The Red House, Derby Road)". Emily Langton is listed at the Red House in

Kelly's Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in England that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses o ...

of Hampshire for 1885. When her father died in 1887, she succeeded to Gunby Hall and resumed her maiden name by royal licence, and thenceforth went by "Mrs. Massingberd" rather than "Mrs. Langton". For the next four years she managed the estate herself, and then moved to London. In London, she involved herself in the temperance,

anti-vivisectionist Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal testi ...

, and

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

s. Becoming a vice-president of the

United Kingdom Alliance The United Kingdom Alliance (UKA) was a temperance movement in the United Kingdom, temperance movement in the United Kingdom founded in 1853 in Manchester to work for the prohibition of the trade in alcohol (drug), alcohol in the United Kingdom. ...

, a Manchester-based temperance movement, she was also honorary treasurer to

Lady Henry Somerset Isabella Caroline Somerset, Lady Henry Somerset (née Somers-Cocks; 3 August 1851 – 12 March 1921), styled Lady Isabella Somers-Cocks from 5 October 1852 to 6 February 1872, was a British philanthropist, temperance leader and campaigner for w ...

's Cottage Homes for Inebriates, a farm colony for women at Duxhurst, just south of

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earlie ...

Pioneer Club

Massingberd founded the Pioneer Club in 1892 to provide women, in particular middle-class women and unmarried women, with a place to socialise outside their homes, "a place where women gathered to meet each other, to help each other and to discuss the leading questions and principal progressive work of the day". It remained active until 1939. It was the only British club to be affiliated to the

General Federation of Women's Clubs The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of over 3,000 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Many of its activities ...

. By 1895, it had more than 300 members (by 1899 more than 600), stressed the unimportance of social position, provided members and their guests with meals and on Thursday evenings organised lectures, debates and discussion on social political and literary themes. Speakers included

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights associati ...

, Mrs Pearsall Smith,

and

Frances Willard Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 an ...

. Men might be invited by members on Wednesday evenings.

Illness and death

Following a long illness, Emily Langton Massingberd underwent a serious operation at

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craigsi ...

in Wales, but a few weeks later died on 28 January 1897. She was 49 years old. Following Massingberd's untimely death,

L. T. Meade L. T. Meade was the pseudonym of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844–1914), a prolific writer of girls' stories. She was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, daughter of Rev. R. T. Meade, of Nohoval, County Cork. Stephen Brown: A Reader's ...

wrote a novel in 1898 based on her life titled ''The Cleverest Woman in England''. In it she writes of the protagonist:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massingberd, Emily Langton 1847 births 1897 deaths 19th-century English people Anti-vivisectionists English feminists British women's rights activists British temperance activists English suffragists Feminism and history Women of the Victorian era British Women's Temperance Association people