Lydia "Lizzie" Burns (6 August 1827 – 12 September 1878 in London) was a
working-class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
cotton mill
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Althou ...
, and of Mary Conroy. The family may have lived off Deansgate. Her mother died in 1835, and her father remarried a year later.
Lizzie had an elder sister
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
(1821–1863), a lifelong partner of Engels until her sudden death of a heart disease. Mary Burns and Engels considered marriage a bourgeois institution and never married. In the 1850s, when Mary Burns and Engels lived in
Ardwick
Ardwick is a district of Manchester in North West England, one mile south east of the city centre. The population of the Ardwick Ward at the 2011 census was 19,250.
Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from ...
, Lizzie stayed with them as a housekeeper, and after her sister's death eventually became Engels' partner. In the 1870s they lived openly as a couple in London, with Lizzie's niece, Mary Ellen (known as Pumps), as a housekeeper.
Both Lizzie and her sister were known as formally illiterate yet intelligent women, with strong working-class ties. They showed Engels the actual conditions of the factory employees in Britain.
Eleanor Marx
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a ...
wrote that
Rachel Holms notes that "Like her sister, Lizzie Burns was a dedicated player in the
Irish Republican
Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.
The develop ...
movement, and the house she shared with Engels at 86 Mornington Street was a meeting place and a safe house for Fenian activists. She was freedom-loving, uncorseted, fiercely political and sparkling with fun". Lizzie had considerable influence on the young Eleanor Marx, converting her to an enthusiastic supporter of Irish Nationalism and the Fenians (Rachel Holmes "Eleanor Marx - a life", London, 2014, p. 88.) While her father Karl Marx had some reservations about the Fenians' violent methods, Eleanor completely identified with them, regularly signing her letters to Lizzie as "Eleanor, F.S." (Fenian Sister).
In early September 1878 Burns fell seriously ill with some kind of tumor, and to please her religious beliefs, Engels married her. She died hours later. Her death made a strong impression on Engels. He later wrote about her:
Engels had Lydia buried at
St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green
St Mary's Catholic Cemetery is located on Harrow Road, Kensal Green in London, England. It has its own Catholic chapel.
History
Established in 1858, the site was built next door to Kensal Green Cemetery. It is the final resting place for mo ...
and wrote on the gravestone: ″LYDIA , Wife of Frederick Engels".Photography in Walther Vicror: Kehre wieder über die Berge. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1982, after p. 240.