Matilda Sturge (29 May 1829 – 13 June 1903) was a British Quaker minister, poet and essayist from Bristol. She wrote about the lives of four Quaker women who had achieved because they were allowed the freedom to do so. Sturge is considered to have taken an underrated role in the renaissance in the Quaker movement.

Life

Sturge was born in Wilson Street in the area of Bristol known as

St Pauls St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

in 1829. Her parents were Sarah (born Stephens) and Jacob Player Sturge. Her father was a surveyor. She was raised in a strict Quaker family where her dress was restrained and her reading and entertainment was restricted. These strict rules were imposed when most of her peers were experiencing more freedom from their Quaker families.

Joseph Sturge Joseph Sturge (1793 – 14 May 1859) was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (now Anti-Slavery International). He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions suppo ...

the leading abolitionist was her first cousin. She was the sixth of a family of eight. Her brothers were teased for their clothes but their father told them it was "suffering for righteousness". She wrote essays and biographies of leading Quakers that were published in Quaker periodicals over a period of three decades. Her subjects included the educationalist

Mary Carpenter Mary Carpenter (3 April 1807 – 14 June 1877) was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunitie ...

in Bristol, the activist for women's rights in India

Pandita Ramabai Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati (23 April 1858 – 5 April 1922) was an Indian Social Reformer. She was the first woman to be awarded the titles of '' Pandita'' as a Sanskrit scholar and ''Sarasvati'' after being examined by the faculty of the Unive ...

, Sister Dora Pattison who had created hospitals in Walsall. Closer to home she wrote about her niece

Emily Sturge Emily Sturge (20 April 1847 – 3 June 1892) was a British campaigner for women's education. She was secretary of the west of England branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Life Sturge was born in 1847 in Cotham, Bristol. She was t ...

and her friend the Quaker minister Ann Hunt. She also wrote about other issues including social issues, temperance, history and religion. Sturge taught at Sunday School and at a First Day School. Many of her contemporaries were attending lectures for women in Bristol and Matilda may well have attended. In 1870 she began a thirty year association with the ''Friends’ Quarterly Examiner''. She contributed her writing and at some time she may have been editing. In 1880 she wrote about four leading Quaker women Mary Dudley who was a preacher, her daughter Elizabeth Dudley, the prison reformer

Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the tr ...

, and Hannah Chapman Backhouse. The book was titled ''Types of Quaker Womanhood'' and it was published by the Friends' Tract Association. The short work showed how these Quaker women who had enjoyed less restrictions in their lives and as a result they had contributed good works. Her poetry was included in ''The Quaker Poets of Great Britain and Ireland'' in 1896. Sturge died in

Winscombe Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare and southwest of B ...

in 1903. Sturge is considered to have taken an underrated role in the renaissance in the Quaker movement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturge, Matilda 1829 births 1903 deaths Clergy from Bristol Quaker ministers