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Draft:Elizabeth Spence Watson

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Elizabeth Richardson, 1855 photograph

Elizabeth Spence Watson (1838–1919) née Richardson was an English social reformer.[1] Married to Robert Spence Watson, she campaigned as a suffragist, pacifist and temperance activist.

Background, early life and the family leather business

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She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the third daughter of Edward Richardson (1806–1863) who was a tannery owner, and his wife Jane Wigham, in a family of seven daughters and four sons. The family leather business, Edward & James Richardson, was still in existence in 1969, when it was taken over by Barrow, Hepburn & Gale.[2] John Wigham Richardson, born 1837, was her elder brother, and wrote in his memoirs of his father "He was always more or less of an invalid".[3]

Edward Richardson was the second son of Isaac Richardson, eldest son of the tanner John Richardson of Low Lights, North Shields and brother of William Richardson, partner in a Newcastle tannery with Jonathan Priestman.[4][5] James Richardson was Edward's nephew, son of his brother John Richardson, and lived in Elswick, Newcastle, the long-term location of the business.[6][7]

James's brother David Richardson (1835–1913) took over the management of the business, and was father of Lewis Fry Richardson; he brought in the chemist Henry Richardson Procter FRS to the works at Elswick.[8][9] Procter was a family member, son of John Richardson Procter to whom the Low Lights tannery had passed.[10][11]

The Gables, Elswick Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, home of David Richardson, 1870s photograph

Education

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Elizabeth Richardson was educated at a Quaker school in Lewes, Sussex. This was the boarding school run by the Dymond sisters, where her elder sister Anna Deborah Richardson had already been a pupil; Elizabeth (Lizzie) went there in 1853, after some home tuition by Anna.[12][13] Then she attended an art school in Newcastle where she was a student of William Bell Scott.[12]

John Wigham Richardson was a contemporary of Robert Spence Watson at John Collingwood Bruce's Newcastle school.[14][15][12]

Anna Deborah Richardson

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Anna Deborah Richardson, at age 25

Family

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Her sister Alice Mary married John Theodore Merz, who with her husband Robert, and six others, founded the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company.[16][17]

Notes

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  1. ^ "Watson, Elizabeth Spence (1838-1919) social reformer - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk". archives.trin.cam.ac.uk.
  2. ^ "Edward and James Richardson - Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk.
  3. ^ Richardson, John Wigham (1911). Memoirs of John Wigham Richardson, 1837-1908. Privately printed. p. 173.
  4. ^ Baker, Anne Pimlott. "Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48151. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Richardson, George (1850). The Annals of the Cleveland Richardsons and Their Descendants, Compiled from Family Manuscripts, Etc. Privately printed. p. 63.
  6. ^ Richardson, George (1850). The Annals of the Cleveland Richardsons and Their Descendants, Compiled from Family Manuscripts, Etc. Privately printed. p. 63.
  7. ^ Dendy, Frederick Walter (1921). Three Lectures Delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Old Newcastle, Its Suburbs and Gilds, and an Essay on Northumberland. The Society. p. 23.
  8. ^ Brezinski, Claude; Meurant, Gérard; Redivo-Zaglia, Michela (6 December 2022). A Journey through the History of Numerical Linear Algebra. SIAM. p. 546. ISBN 978-1-61197-723-3.
  9. ^ Sansbury, Ruth (1998). Beyond the Blew Stone: 300 Years of Quakers in Newcastle. Newcastle upon Tyne Preparative Meeting. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-9534308-0-2.
  10. ^ Boyce, Anne Ogden (1889). Records of a Quaker Family: the Richardsons of Cleveland. S. Harris & Company. pp. 290–291.
  11. ^ "Procter, Henry Richardson". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  12. ^ a b c Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. pp. 776–777. ISBN 978-1-135-43402-1.
  13. ^ Richardson, Anna Deborah (1877). Memoir of Anna Deborah Richardson: With Extracts from Her Letters. For private circulation. pp. 5 and 25.
  14. ^ Matthew, H. C. G. "Watson, Robert Spence (1837–1911)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36777. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  15. ^ Baker, Anne Pimlott. "Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48151. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  16. ^ Snow, Albert. "Merz, Charles Hesterman (1874–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34999. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  17. ^ Hughes, Thomas Parke (March 1993). Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. JHU Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-8018-4614-4.
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