Jane Procter (2 November 1810 – 5 January 1882) was a

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headmistress, suffragist and temperance campaigner. She founded what would become the Quaker Polam Hall School in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

Life

Procter was born in

Kirklevington Kirklevington (also known as Kirk Leavington) is a village in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 809. The civil parish had a population of 1,361. The village shares it ...

. She was the eldest daughter of the four children of Elizabeth (born Thurnam) and James Procter. Her parents were Quakers who lived in

Yarm Yarm, also referred to as Yarm-on-Tees, is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It was previously a port town before the industry moved down the River Tees to more accessible settlements ne ...

but they later moved to

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

. In 1816 her father died and their mother moved the family to Yorkshire. Her own education was at

Ackworth School Ackworth School is an independent day and boarding school located in the village of High Ackworth, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school (or more accurately its Head) is a member ...

which was a Quaker school open to both boys and girls. She offered a job as a teacher there but chose to leave and teach in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

. When she was eighteen she found herself head of a family as her mother had died. She returned to the family home and a Quaker couple came to live with the family until they decided that she could cope with the responsibility. Jane Proctor founded her first school in

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...

which lasted for twenty years. Her ambitions turned to the nearby town of Darlington which was expanding due to the railway. She founded "Selby School" in 1848 as a boarding school for girls at Number 11 Townhouse, in Houndgate helped by her sisters Elizabeth and Barbara. The school moved to become Polam Hall School after six years with Jane as the head. Arthur Pease, became Polam Hall’s new owner in 1878. In 1850 she and her sister Elizabeth founded the "Darlington Women's Temperance Association" which met at the school. In 1866 a petition in support of giving women the vote was raised for presentation to parliament. Both Jane and her sister Elizabeth signed the petition. There was about 1,500 signatures on the petition and it was used in support of

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

's defeated proposal that the second reform bill should use the word "person" rather than "man" to define a voter. Procter died suddenly in

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and she was buried there. A group of her ex-students arranged for a memorial to be placed there. Polam Hall school was still running in 2013, when the school announced its intention to convert from a private to a free school in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Procter, Jane 1810 births 1882 deaths People from Stockton-on-Tees Heads of schools in Yorkshire People educated at Ackworth School