Margaret Mylne (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Thomson, 2 December 1806 – 15 January 1892) was a Scottish suffragette and writer. She was a signatory to the petition for women's suffrage presented to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in 1866.

Life

Mylne née Thomson was born in Colinton, Midlothian in 1806 to Professor John Thomson of Edinburgh and Margaret Millar. She married John Millar Mylne in Edinburgh in 1843 and had two daughters. The family later moved to London.

Writer

Mylne published an article in the

Westminster Review The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until ...

in 1841 on 'Woman and her Social Position' under the pseudonym P.M.Y. It explored progress towards gender equality in western civilisation and called for women who exercised the duties of citizens to be given the right to vote:

"As soon as ever I understood the benefits expected from a £10 franchise, I began to wish the female householders should have it too, thinking it only fair", she wrote.

Mylne republished the article using her real name in 1872 in which she reiterated her support for women's suffrage.

Family

Her younger brother was

Allen Thomson Allen Thomson Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE FRCSE (2 April 1809 – 21 March 1884) was a Scottish physician, known as an anatomist and embryologist. Life The only son of John Thomson (physician), Dr John Thomson by his second wife, Marg ...

and William Thomson her half-brother, from her father's first marriage. Her paternal grandfather was John Millar of Glasgow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mylne, Margaret 1806 births 1892 deaths Scottish women writers Scottish suffragettes 19th-century women writers