Ursula Mellor Bright or Ursula Mellor (5 July 1835 – 5 March 1915) was a British activist for married women's property rights.
Life
Bright was born in 1835 to Joseph and Catherine Mellor. Her father, brother and grandfather,
Frederick Pennington
Frederick Pennington (7 March 1819 – 11 May 1914) was an English merchant and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons from 1874 to 1885.
Life
Pennington was the son of John ...
M.P., were noted for their support for women's rights.
[ In 1855 she married ]Jacob Bright
The Rt Hon. Jacob Bright (26 May 1821 – 7 November 1899) was a British Liberal politician serving as Mayor of Rochdale and later Member of Parliament for Manchester.
Background
Bright was born at Green Bank near Rochdale, Lancashire. He was ...
who was an M.P. for Manchester. She and her husband were founder members of the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage
The Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage, whose aim was to obtain the same rights for women to vote for Members of Parliament as those granted to men, was formed at a meeting in Manchester in January 1867. Elizabeth Wolstenholme claimed it had b ...
in 1867. Alongside Lydia Becker
Lydia Ernestine Becker (24 February 1827 – 18 July 1890) was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy. She established Manchester as a centre for the suffrage mo ...
the organisation's Secretary, they encouraged Lilly Maxwell, a widowed shop owner, whose name had mistakenly appeared on the register of voters in Manchester, to cast her vote in a by-election on 26 November 1867, which Bright went on to win.
When the was formed in 1869 then Bright was a founder member. She became the treasurer of the Married Women's Property Committee and remained active there until the Married Women's Property Act 1882
The Married Women's Property Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.75) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that significantly altered English law regarding the property rights of married women, which besides other matters allowed married women ...
was passed. This was an act that gave women the right to control their own property. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca ...
credited Bright with the achievement in getting the bill passed, writing 'for ten consecutive years she gave her special attention to this bill … was unwearied in her efforts, in rolling up petitions, scattering tracts, holding meetings' The passing of the Married Women's Property Act was important, as Bright had not considered that married women required the vote until this law was enacted.
She is credited with ensuring that the Local Government act of 1894 was passed which gave the vote to women in local elections. It also allowed women to stand as parish or district councillors.
Personal life
Ursula and Jacob Bright had five children, although two sons died very young of diphtheria
Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
within a fortnight of each other. Two further sons were born followed by a daughter Esther in 1868.
Bright's brother and sisters in law included John Bright
John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies.
A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws ...
, Priscilla Bright McLaren
Priscilla Bright McLaren (8 September 1815 – 5 November 1906) was a British activist who served and linked the anti-slavery movement with the women's suffrage movement in the nineteenth century. She was a member of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emanci ...
and Margaret Bright Lucas
Margaret Bright Lucas (14 July 1818 – 4 February 1890) was a British temperance activist and suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although th ...
, with whom she shared some political beliefs.
Esther Bright was interested in Theosophy
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
. Ursula was not a Theosophist but she did give Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist.
Regarded as a champion of human f ...
, who was a friend of her daughter, £3,000 towards their cause.
Bright died at her home in Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
in 1915 where she had suffered from osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone which affects 1 in 7 adults in the United States. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the w ...
for some time. Her biographer Elizabeth Crawford notes that her obituaries hardly mentioned her campaigning work because her osteoarthritis had prevented her from involvement with the women's suffrage movement.[Elizabeth Crawford, ‘Bright, Ursula Mellor (1835–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 7 July 2017
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Ursula Mellor
British women's rights activists
British suffragists
British women activists
1835 births
1915 deaths