Louisa Garrett Smith
Louisa Maria Garrett was born on 20th February 1835, the first of ten children born to Newson Garrett (1812-1893), a corn merchant of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and his wife Louisa Dunnell (1813-1903). Her siblings were Elizabeth Garrett (1836–1917), Newson Garrett (1839–1917), Edmund Garrett (1840–1914), Alice Garrett (1842–1925), Agnes Garrett (1845–1935), Millicent Garrett (1847–1929), Samuel Garrett (1850–1923), Josephine Garrett (1852–1925) and George Garrett (1854–1929). (1)
According to Janet Howarth: "The Garretts were a close and happy family in which children were encouraged to be physically active, read widely, speak their minds, and share in the political interests of their father, a convert from Conservatism to Gladstonian Liberalism, a combative man, and a keen patriot". (2)
Louisa's father, Newson Garrett, had originally ran a pawnbroker's shop in London, but by the time she was born he owned a corn and coal warehouse in Snape, five miles from Aldeburgh. Millicent later explained: "When railways became a practical proposition in our part of Suffolk my father exerted himself successfully to get a branch line, for goods only, extended to Snape." (3)
The business was a great success and by the 1850s Garrett could afford to send his children away to be educated. Louisa (1849-51) and her sisters were sent to a private boarding school in Blackheath. (4) Millicent Garrett wrote in her biography, What I Remember (1924): "She was an aunt of the poet and a remarkable person in many ways. She ruled her school with a rod of iron; but she was a born teacher, and we all appreciated her thoroughness and method, especially as our ancient governess at home had been incompetent to the last degree." (5)
The school was run by presided over by Miss Louisa Browning. an aunt of the poet Robert Browning. (6) When Louisa and Elizabeth were at Blackheath, they became friendly with two other pupils, Sophie and Annie Crowe. Their home was at Usworth and sometimes they spent part of their summer holidays there. On one of these visits they were introduced to Emily Davies, who at that time was one of the leading campaigners for women's rights. Davies also visited the Garrett family home in Aldeburgh: "She wanted women to have as good and thorough an education as men; she wanted to open the professions to them and to obtain for them the Parliamentary franchise. But she did not want any violence either of speech or action. She remained always the quiet, demure little rector's daughter, and she meant to bring about all the changes she advocated by processes as gradual and unceasing as the progress of a child from infancy to manhood." (7)
On 10th September 1857, Louisa Garrett married James William Smith (born 21st July 1832, South Audley Street, Mayfair, London), the son of Harriett and James Smith senior, a draper. When they married Smith was working as a "Draper & Mercer". The marriage produced five children: Godfrey (1858–1944), Adam (1859-1863), Dorothea (1861–1949), Alice (1862-1931) and Christopher (1865-?). (8)
Louisa invited her younger sisters to stay with her in London. Millicent, her younger sister, later recalled: "The wonder of the London streets, especially at night, when the shop windows were not shuttered as they are now, but were brilliantly illuminated, made London seem to me a sort of fairyland. Our eldest sister, Louie, had married in the previous autumn; we were her guests and were petted and made much of, to our hearts' content." (9)
Louisa Garrett Smith was a strong advocate of women's rights. In December 1859 she joined forces with Emily Davies, Helen Blackburn,Barbara Bodichon, Sophia Jex-Blake, Frances Power Cobbe, Jessie Boucherett and Emily Faithfull to form the Langham Place Group. Davies refused to be secretary because she thought it was prudent to keep her own name "out of sight, to avoid the risk of damaging my work in the education field by its being associated with the agitation for the franchise." Louisa agreed to take on the role of secretary and figurehead. (10)
The group played an important role in campaigning for women to become doctors. They arranged for Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to qualify as a doctor, to give a lecture entitled, "Medicine as a Profession for the Ladies". In 1862 they formed a committee to campaign for women's entry for university examinations, initially in support of Louisa's sister, Elizabeth Garrett, in her application to matriculate at London University. (11)
hiding first women’s suffrage petition under an apple-woman’s stall in Westminster Hall
until John Stuart Mill came to collect it.
Louisa Garrett Smith and her sisters, Millicent Garrett, Elizabeth Garrett, Agnes Garrett, and her cousin, Rhoda Garrett, all became involved in the women's suffrage campaign. It has been claimed they were converted to the cause in 1865 after hearing a speech made by John Stuart Mill during his campaign to be elected as the Liberal MP for the City of Westminster. "He (Mill) was, of course, a staunch upholder of an extended franchise which I should include the then voteless masses of working men and also women. I was a woman suffragist, I may say, from my cradle, but this meeting kindled tenfold my enthusiasm for it." (12)
The Enfranchisement of Women Committee was established in October 1866. However, its original name was the "Enfranchisement of Unmarried Women and Widows, Possessing the Due Property Qualification". (13) The society attracted 88 members including Louisa Garrett Smith, Emily Davies, Lydia Becker, Jessie Boucherett, Barbara Bodichon, Helen Blackburn, Clementia Taylor, Alice Westlake, Peter Alfred Taylor and John Westlake. Louisa Garrett Smith was honorary secretary. It had "for its object the abolition of the legal disability which at present disqualifies women as such from voting for Members of Parliament." It hoped to achieve this aim by presenting further petitions to parliament in order to demonstrate the earnestness of women in this matter." (14)
Helen Taylor had objected to having men on the Enfranchisement of Women Committee. She was supported by her step-father, John Stuart Mill, who argued it would be educationally useful to have an exclusively female's woman's movement. Barbara Bodichon disagreed, citing her experience of meeting leaders of the women's movement in America. She came home of the opinion that the women there had wasted their energy by trying to do too much at once, by not working with men and by being too sentimental. (15)
On 6th November 1867 Louisa Garrett Smith and a group of formed the London Society for Women's Suffrage (LSWS). Members included Helen Taylor, Frances Power Cobbe, Lydia Becker, Millicent Fawcett, Barbara Bodichon, Jessie Boucherett, Emily Davies, Francis Mary Buss, Dorothea Beale, Anne Clough, Elizabeth Garrett, Rhoda Garrett, Lilias Ashworth Hallett, Priscilla McLaren, Alice Westlake, Catherine Winkworth and Kate Amberley. (16) Louisa Garrett Smith was appointed Honorary Secretary of the LSWS. (17)
Louisa Garrett Smith, aged 31, died from appendicitis on 6th February 1867.
Primary Sources
(1) Millicent Garrett Fawcett, What I Remember (1924)
The wonder of the London streets, especially at night, when the shop windows were not shuttered as they are now, but were brilliantly illuminated, made London seem to me a sort of fairyland. Our eldest sister, Louie, had married in the previous autumn; we were her guests and were petted and made much of, to our hearts' content