Catherine Helen Spence
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Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of electoral
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. Called the "Greatest Australian Woman" by
Miles Franklin Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 187919 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel ''My Brilliant Career'', published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While ...
and by the age of 80 dubbed the "Grand Old Woman of Australia", Spence was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia.


Early life and family

Spence was born in
Melrose, Scotland Melrose ( gd, Maolros, "bald moor") is a small town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders, historically in Roxburghshire. It lies within the Eildon committee area of Scottish Borders Council. History The original Melrose was ''Mailros'', me ...
, in October 1825, as the fifth child in a family of eight. Her father David Spence was a banker and lawyer, her mother was Helen nee Brodie. Her eldest sibling, Agnes died in infancy, and her sisters were Jessie, Helen, Mary and brothers David, William and John. Spence said she had a "happy childhood' and felt "well brought up" with her parents being "of one mind regarding the care of the family". Spence had an early memory of the large funeral for
Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...
novelist
Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
, in 1832. Spence's schooling from age four to thirteen, was at St. Mary's Convent School, Melrose whose head teacher was a Miss Phinn, whom Spence admired as "a born teacher in advance of her own times". In 1839, following sudden financial difficulties, the family emigrated to
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, leaving her brother David jnr. in Scotland. Arriving on 31 October 1839 (her 14th birthday), on ''Palmyra'', at a time when the colony had experienced several years of drought, the contrast to her native Scotland made her "inclined to go and cut my throat". Nevertheless, the family farm endured seven months of the drought, an "encampment", growing wheat on an eighty-acre (32  ha) selection before moving to
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. Her father, David Spence, was elected first Town Clerk of the
City of Adelaide The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of South ...
. He was important in the City holding its elections using an early form of
Single transferable voting Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
, inspiring Catherine to later engage in activism in the cause of
Proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
. In 1843, the municipality of Adelaide collapsed and her father died three years later. Spence wrote later that "after the break up of the municipality and loss of his income, my father lost health and spirits". Spence's mother died in 1886. Of the "land of her adoption", Spence later wrote "As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager to develop a perfect society." Unusually for a woman in those times, Spence learned about production, exchange and wealth in this early developing country, "the value of machinery, of roads and bridges, and of ports for transport and export". With her sisters, Spence opened a school and orphanage. She never married but did state she had refused two offers to wed. Her brother John Brodie Spence went on to become a prominent banker and parliamentarian and her sister Jessie married Andrew Murray Hamdache.


Journalism and literature

Spence had a talent for writing and an urge to be read, so it was natural that in her teens she became attracted to journalism. Through family connections, she began with short pieces and poetry published in ''
The South Australian ''The South Australian'' was a newspaper published in Adelaide, the capital of colonial South Australia from 2 June 1838 to 19 August 1851. Between 1838 and 1844, it was published as The ''Southern Australian.'' History ''The Southern Australia ...
''. Catherine and her sisters also worked as governesses for some of the leading families in Adelaide, at the rate of sixpence an hour. For several years, Spence was the South Australian correspondent for '' The Argus'' newspaper writing under her brother's name until the coming of the telegraph. Spence's first work, before the age of 30, was the novel ''Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever''. It was initially rejected, but her friend John Taylor found a publisher in J. W. Parker and Son, and it was published in 1854. Spence received forty pounds for it, but was charged ten pounds for abridging it to fit in the publisher's standard format. It was given good reviews, and was the first novel written in Australia by a woman. At the same time Spence became employed as a journalist on ''
The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...
,'' but not initially with her own
byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's ...
. Spence's second novel ''Tender and True'' was published in 1856, and to her delight went through a second and third printing, though she never received a penny more than the initial twenty pounds. Then followed her third novel, published in Australia as ''Uphill Work'' and in England as ''Mr Hogarth's Will'', published in 1861 and several more though some were unpublished in her lifetime including ''Gathered In'' (unpublished until 1977) and ''Hand fasted'' (unpublished until 1984). In 1888, she published ''A Week In the Future'', a tour-tract of the utopia she imagined a century in the future might bring; it was one of the precursors of
Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 – May 22, 1898) was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel ''Looking Backward''. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerou ...
's 1889 ''
Looking Backward ''Looking Backward: 2000–1887'' is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a journalist and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first published in 1888. The book was translated into several languages, and in short o ...
''. Her final work, called ''A Last Word'', was lost while still in manuscript form.


Social work and issues

Although Spence rejected marriage for herself, she had a keen interest in family life and marriage, and other people, and her life's work and her writing were devoted to raising the awareness of and improving the lot of women and children. She successively raised three families of orphaned children, the first being those of her friend Lucy Duval. She was one of the prime movers, with Emily Clark, of the "Boarding-out Society". This organization had as its aim removing children from the Destitute Asylum into approved families and eventually to remove all children from institutions except the delinquent.Miss C. H. Spence
''South Australian Register'' 4 April 1893 p.5 accessed 26 May 2011
At first treated with scorn by the South Australian government, the scheme was encouraged when the institutions devoted to the handling of troublesome boys became overcrowded. Spence and Clark were also appointed to the State Children's Council, which controlled the Magill Reformatory. Spence was the first (and to 1905 the only) female member of the Destitute Board. Spence also got involved in co-operative garment manufacture to employ and give skills to those with no incomes, as a founding shareholder in the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company.


Religion

Around 1854, having become disillusioned with some doctrines of the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
, she began attending meetings of the Adelaide Unitarian Christian Church. She preached her first sermons at the
Wakefield Street Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting the centre of the South Australian capital, Adelaide, from east to west at its midpoint. It crosses Victoria Square in the centre of the city, which has a grid street plan. It continues as ...
church in 1878, (though she was not the first woman to preach there, Martha Turner of
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, sister of Gyles Turner, having preached there in the 1870s) and she filled in for the minister J. Crawford Woods during his occasional absences between 1884 and 1889.


Politics - feminism, suffrage and "Effective Voting"

Spence was an advocate of Thomas Hare's scheme of
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
(PR), the
single transferable voting Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
(STV) system. At one stage, she said she considered this reform more pressing than that of
woman suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
itself. Her 1861 book ''A Plea for Pure Democracy'' was an important stimulus to Australia's adoption of PR. Spence campaigned for both female political involvement and PR. She spoke at events across Australia and to large political rallies. When Spence became vice-president of the
Women's Suffrage League The Women's Suffrage League, founded in 1888, spearheaded the campaign for women's right to vote in South Australia. In 1894 South Australia became the first Australian colony and the fourth place in the world to grant women's suffrage. At the s ...
, she toured and was recognised as a powerful speaker for feminism, women's suffrage and electoral reform in Britain and the USA, This included speaking in 1893 conferences at Chicago World's Fair. She returned to find women's suffrage won in 1894 South Australia but did not live to see this in her native Scotland, where the vote was granted, for some women only, in 1918. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate when she stood (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. (The first women candidates for the South Australia Assembly ran in the 1918 general election, in
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
and Sturt). Spence spoke at her 80th birthday in 1905:
'I am a new woman, and I know it. I mean I am an awakened woman . . . awakened into a sense of capacity and responsibility, not merely to the family and household, but to the state: to be wise, not for her own selfish interests, but that the world may be glad that she had been born.'
Spence travelled and lectured both at home and abroad for what she called Effective Voting, also known as
Proportional Representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
. During her North American tour, she contributed a comprehensive essay to a seminal book on electoral reform published by
Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...
in Canada. She helped organize a trial of STV in city elections in Tasmania in 1896, it was not permanently adopted until shortly after her death. STV (sometimes known as the Hare-Spence voting system or the Hare-Clark electoral system) has been in use in Tasmania elections since that time.


Support of the arts

She was an early advocate of the work of Australian artist
Margaret Preston Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) was an Australian painter and printmaker who is regarded as one of Australia's leading modernists of the early 20th century. In her quest to foster an Australian "national art", she was al ...
and purchased her 1905 still-life "Onions". In 1911 Preston received a commission to paint a portrait of Spence, now held by the Art Gallery of South Australia, from a citizens' committee of Adelaide.Seivl, Isobel
'Preston, Margaret Rose (1875–1963)'
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 6 April 2012


Death

She died at her home in Queen Street, Norwood, on Sunday 3 April 1910, at the age of 84. According to her wishes, her remains were buried in the General Cemetery,
Brighton, South Australia Brighton is a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, situated between Seacliff and Glenelg and aside Holdfast Bay. Some notable features of the area are the Brighton-Seacliff Yacht Club, the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club, the Brighton J ...
alongside the grave of her brother J. B. Spence.


Recognition

On her 80th birthday, in 1905, a public gathering was held and South Australia's chief justice, Sir
Samuel James Way Sir Samuel James Way, 1st Baronet, (11 April 1836 – 8 January 1916) was an English-Australian jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia from 18 March 1876 until 8 January 1916. Background Way was born in P ...
said that Spence was "the most distinguished woman they had in Australia". There are numerous memorials to Spence around the
Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...
, including: * a bronze statue in
Light Square Light Square, also known as Wauwi (formerly Wauwe), is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre. Located in the centre of the north-western quarter of the Adelaide city centre, its southern boundary is Waymouth Street, while Curr ...
* the Catherine Helen Spence building in the City West campus of the
University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...
* the Spence wing of the
State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...
* Catherine Helen Spence Street in the south-east of the city centre * a plaque on the
Jubilee 150 Walkway The Jubilee 150 Walkway, also variously known as the Jubilee 150 Commemorative Walk, the Jubilee 150 Walk, Jubilee 150 Plaques, the Jubilee Walk, or simply J150, is a series of (initially) 150 bronze plaques set into the pavement of Nort ...
on North Terrace At her birthplace in
Melrose, Scotland Melrose ( gd, Maolros, "bald moor") is a small town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders, historically in Roxburghshire. It lies within the Eildon committee area of Scottish Borders Council. History The original Melrose was ''Mailros'', me ...
there is also a memorial plaque to Spence, now part of the Townhouse Hotel. The posthumous portrait of her, by Rose McPherson (later to become famous as
Margaret Preston Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) was an Australian painter and printmaker who is regarded as one of Australia's leading modernists of the early 20th century. In her quest to foster an Australian "national art", she was al ...
) is held by the Art Gallery of South Australia. This portrait was used as the basis of her appearance on 2001 edition of the Australian five dollar note, In 1975 she was honoured on a postage stamp bearing her portrait issued by
Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post o ...
. The Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship was instituted by the South Australian Government in her honour for women aged 20–46. See separate article for a list of recipients. Her image appears on the commemorative Centenary of
Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
Australian five-dollar note issued in 2001 replacing that of the
Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
.Catherine Helen Spence on the five-dollar-note
One of the four schools at
Aberfoyle Park, South Australia Aberfoyle Park is a suburb in the City of Onkaparinga in the state of South Australia. It is located in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, approximately 20 km from the city centre. Aberfoyle Park has a shopping mall called "The Hub", sever ...
was named Spence in her honour. That school has since been amalgamated with another school to form Thiele Primary School. The name of the suburb Spence in the ACT is sometimes mistakenly associated with Catherine Spence, but was actually named after the unrelated William Guthrie Spence.


Bibliography

Novels * ''Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever'' (1854) * ''Tender and True: A Colonial Tale'' (1856) *
Mr. Hogarth's Will
' (1865) originally serialised as ''Uphill Work'' in the (Adelaide) ''Weekly Mail'' * ''The Author's Daughter'' (1868) originally serialised as ''Hugh Lindsay's Guest'' in the (Adelaide) ''Observer'' * ''Gathered In'' serialised in ''Observer and Journal'' and ''Queenslander'', possibly never published in book form * ''An Agnostic's Progress from the Known to the Unknown'' (1884) * ''A Week in the Future '' (1889) * ''Handfasted'' (1984) Penguin Originals Non fiction * ''A Plea for Pure Democracy'' (1861) pamphlet praised by
John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
and Thomas Hare * ''The laws we live under'' (1880) for South Australian Education Department * ''State children in Australia: A history of boarding out and its developments'' (1909) principally dealing with the work of Emily Clark This book was used by the British Home Secretary when at the end of her reign Queen Victoria asked him to formulate Child Laws in Britain that up until that time were non-existent. He wrote and thanked her for her work. *
Catherine Helen Spence: An autobiography
' (1910) (unfinished, but completed posthumously by Spence's friend
Jeanne Young Sarah Jane Young (; known as Jeanne Forster Young; 1 July 1866 – 11 April 1955) was an Australian political reformer. Born at Unley in Adelaide to smith John Forster and Sarah Jane, ''née'' Jarvis, she received a private education before beco ...
, working from diaries.)


References


External links


"Catherine Helen Spence: a bibliography"
''State Library of South Australia'' * *
Spence, Catherine Helen: An Autobiography at Project Gutenberg
* * *
Gathered In: A novel
' at Sydney University *
Mr. Hogarth's Will
' at Sydney University * * Susan Magareybr>Unbridling the Tongues of Women: a biography of Catherine Helen Spence
University of Adelaide Press, 214 pp,
Free Download
* * Vicki Moore Grand Old Woman of Australia (1996) A stage play State Library of South Australia Manuscripts * Vicki Moore Catherine Helen Spence: An Essay Makers of Miracles The Cast of the Federation Story Melbourne University Press
Office for Women
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Catherine Helen 1825 births 1910 deaths Australian autobiographers Australian feminist writers Australian Christian religious leaders Australian suffragists Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia People from Melrose, Scottish Borders Women autobiographers Australian women novelists Scottish literary critics Scottish women literary critics 19th-century Australian writers 19th-century Australian educators 19th-century Australian women writers 19th-century Australian women Australian literary critics Australian women literary critics Scottish suffragists 20th-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian writers 19th-century women educators Georgists Australian women educators