Sarah Anne Curzon née Vincent (1833 – November 6, 1898) was a British-born Canadian poet, journalist, editor, and playwright who was one of "the first women's rights activists and supporters of liberal feminism" in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.Kym Bird, Curzon, Sarah Anne " ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton: Hurtig), Dominion Institute, Web, May 5, 2011. During her lifetime, she was best known for her closet drama, ''Laura Secord: The Heroine of 1812'', "one of the works that made
Laura Secord
Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American atta ...
a household name."Lorraine McMullen, Vincent, Sarah Anne (Curzon) , Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Web, May 5, 2011.
Life
She was born Sarah Anne Vincent in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, the daughter of George Philips Vincent, a wealthy glass manufacturer, and his wife. As a girl she was educated by tutors and at private girls' schools, and contributed prose and verse to English magazines, notably
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
's ''Leisure Hour''.
She married Robert Curzon in 1858, and the couple came to Canada between 1862 and 1864. Sarah Anne Curzon was a lifelong
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
. She was a founding member in November 1876 of the Toronto Women's Literary Club, which was based on the model of the American Society for the Advancement of Women. The club, whose founders also included
Emily Stowe
Emily Howard Stowe (née Jennings, May 1, 1831 – April 30, 1903) was a Canadian physician who was the first female physician to practise in Canada, the second licensed female physician in Canada and an activist for women's rights and suff ...
, "focused on advancing women’s rights, as well as literacy." Also in 1876 Curzon wrote what she called "Canada's first feminist play," the historical drama ''Laura Secord,'' but she could not get it published until 1887.
Curzon published "verse, essays, and fiction nthe ''Canadian Monthly'', the ''Dominion Illustrated, Grip, The Week, Evangelical Churchman'', and the ''Canadian Magazine''. She also published women's-suffrage articles in British and American newspapers." She was "a pioneer in educating readers ... about female suffrage, property rights equal to men and access to higher education for women." She was a founding member of the Toronto Suffrage Association and its successor, the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association, for which she also served as the recording secretary.Sarah Anne Curzon " Literary Encyclopedia, Web, May 6, 2011. In 1881 she became the associate editor of the ''Canada Citizen'', Canada's first
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
ist paper, where she wrote a regular column on women's issues. ''The Canada Citizen'' boasted the first
women's page
The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...
to cover the issues of women's suffrage and access to postsecondary education.
In 1882, Curzon wrote a
closet drama
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a large group. The contrast between closet drama and classic "stage" dramas dates back to the late eighteenth century. Al ...
in
blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...
, ''The Sweet Girl Graduate'', which "mocked the idea that women were not intelligent enough to study at the university level."Sarah Anne Curzon " Cabbagetown Preservation Association, CabbagetownPeople.ca, Web, May 5, 2011. The one-act vignette was solicited by
John Wilson Bengough
John Wilson Bengough (; 7 April 1851 – 2 October 1923) was one of Canada's earliest cartoonists, as well as an editor, publisher, writer, poet, entertainer, and politician. Bengough is best remembered for his political cartoons in '' ...
, editor of the satirical magazine ''Grip'', and printed in its first annual ''The Grip-Sack''. It deals with a woman who poses as a man to get a higher education, and graduates with top honors. It may have inspired the attempt by Emma Stanton Mellish six months later to enroll in
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
under a male name. It likely helped provoke the provincial
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...
of October 2, 1884, that admitted women to
University College
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...
.
Curzon supported the efforts of Dr. Emily Stowe to found the Women’s Medical College in Toronto (now
Women's College Hospital
Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of University Avenue where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions as an independe ...
), which opened in 1883.
Curzon suffered from
Bright's Disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...
, and in 1884 she had to leave her position at ''The Canada Citizen'' due to complications related to the disease.
''Laura Secord''
Curzon's verse drama, ''Laura Secord, the heroine of 1812'', a tribute to
Laura Secord
Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American atta ...
's heroism in the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, was published in 1887. According to its preface, the play was written to solicit recognition for
Laura Secord
Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American atta ...
's contribution to the victory of the
Battle of Beaver Dams
The Battle of Beaver Dams took place on 24 June 1813, during the War of 1812. A column of troops from the United States Army marched from Fort George and attempted to surprise a British outpost at Beaver Dams, billeting themselves overnight in ...
: "to rescue from oblivion the name of a brave woman, and set it in its proper place among the heroes of Canadian history." The preface called for a fundraising campaign to build a monument to Secord. It was also an intervention into the debate over pensioning the veterans of that war.
''The Week'' called ''Laura Secord'' “a dramatic poem of much strength” and praised "Mrs. Curzon’s conscientious researches, and her efforts in providing something for her Canadian public which shall possess a lasting and tangible value.”
Matilda Edgar
Matilda Ridout Edgar (29 September 1844 – 29 September 1910) was a Canadian historian and feminist.
She was born Matilda Ridout, became Matilda Edgar by marriage, and became Lady Edgar in 1898 when her husband was knighted.
The mother of nine ...
, and others. Curzon was elected the society's first president. She was also an honorary member of the Lundy’s Lane Historical Association, the York Pioneer and Historical Society, and the Women’s Art Association of Canada.
Sarah Anne Curzon's daughter was one of the first females to receive a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
.
Curzon's correspondence indicates that her husband died in 1894. She died in 1898, in Toronto, from Bright's Disease. She is buried in Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
1887
Events
January–March
* January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
* January 20
** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...
. Welland, ON: Lundy's Lane Historical Society, 1898.
*''Canada in Memoriam 1812-1814''. Welland, ON: Telegraph Steam Printing House, 1891.Search results: Sarah Anne Curzon Open Library, Web, May 9, 2011.
*"The Battle of Queenston Heights, Oct. 13, 1812," Women’s Canadian Hist. Soc. of Toronto, ''Trans.'', no.2 (1899): 5–12.
Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available for ...
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
The ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (''DCB''; french: Dictionnaire biographique du Canada) is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The ''DCB'', which was initiated in 1959, is a ...
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...