Lucy Townsend

Lucy Townsend

Lucy and Charles Townsend's grave
Born Lucy Jesse
25 July 1781
Died 20 April 1847(1847-04-20) (aged 65)
Thorpe, Nottinghamshire, England
Nationality British
Known for Abolitionist
Spouse(s) Rev. Charles Townsend
Children 6
Parent(s) William Jesse

Lucy Townsend (née Jesse; 25 July 1781 – 20 April 1847) was a British abolitionist. She started the first Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Birmingham titled The Ladies' Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves. Her society was a model for others in Britain and America. The British Ladies' Society's role in abolitionism is considered to have had a national impact.

Life

Townsend's family came from Staffordshire. Her father, William Jesse, was the evangelical incumbent at All Saints Church in West Bromwich.[1] In 1807 she married Rev. Charles Townsend, who was the curate of West Bromwich and a campaigner against slavery. They became the parents of six children and they were both opposed to cruel sports as well as slavery.[2]

"I am very anxious that the historical picture now in the hand of Haydon should not be performed without the chief lady of the history being there in justice to history and posterity the person who established (women's anti-slavery groups). You have as much right to be there as Thomas Clarkson himself, nay perhaps more, his achievement was in the slave trade; thine was slavery itself the pervading movement."[3]
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Anne Knight

Townsend founded the first Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Birmingham on 8 April 1825. She and Mary Lloyd were the first joint secretaries of what was at first called The Ladies' Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves. Other founding members included Elizabeth Heyrick, Sophia Sturge and Sarah Wedgwood (daughter of Josiah Wedgwood). By 1831 there were over seventy similar anti-slavery organisations.[3] Townsend's organisation was publicised in America and it became a model for similar organisations in the USA. Townsend published To the Law and to the Testimony in support of anti-slavery in 1832.[2]

Whilst she was in Birmingham she started an organisation to assist deaf-mutes with Mary Lloyd. In 1836 Townsend moved to Thorpe in Nottinghamshire. She gave up the job of honorary secretary, but remained as a committee member.[2]

Isaac Crewdson (Beaconite) writer Samuel Jackman Prescod - Barbadian Journalist William Morgan from Birmingham William Forster - Quaker leader George Stacey - Quaker leader William Forster - Anti-Slavery ambassador John Burnet -Abolitionist Speaker William Knibb -Missionary to Jamaica Joseph Ketley from Guyana George Thompson - UK & US abolitionist J. Harfield Tredgold - British South African (secretary) Josiah Forster - Quaker leader Samuel Gurney - the Banker's Banker Sir John Eardley-Wilmot Dr Stephen Lushington - MP and Judge Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton James Gillespie Birney - American John Beaumont George Bradburn - Massachusetts politician George William Alexander - Banker and Treasurer Benjamin Godwin - Baptist activist Vice Admiral Moorson William Taylor William Taylor John Morrison GK Prince Josiah Conder Joseph Soul James Dean (abolitionist) John Keep - Ohio fund raiser Joseph Eaton Joseph Sturge - Organiser from Birmingham James Whitehorne George Bennett Richard Allen Stafford Allen William Leatham, banker William Beaumont Sir Edward Baines - Journalist Samuel Lucas Samuel Fox, Nottingham grocer Louis Celeste Lecesne Jonathan Backhouse Samuel Bowly William Dawes - Ohio fund raiser Robert Kaye Greville - Botanist Joseph Pease, railway pioneer M.M. Isambert (sic) Mary Clarkson -Thomas Clarkson's daughter in law William Tatum Saxe Bannister - Pamphleteer Richard Davis Webb - Irish Nathaniel Colver - American not known John Cropper - Most generous Liverpudlian Thomas Scales William James William Wilson Thomas Swan Edward Steane from Camberwell William Brock Edward Baldwin Jonathon Miller Capt. Charles Stuart from Jamaica Sir John Jeremie - Judge Charles Stovel - Baptist Richard Peek, ex-Sheriff of London John Sturge Elon Galusha Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor Rev. Isaac Bass Henry Sterry Peter Clare -; sec. of Literary & Phil. Soc. Manchester J.H. Johnson Thomas Price Joseph Reynolds Samuel Wheeler William Boultbee Daniel O'Connell - "The Liberator" William Fairbank John Woodmark William Smeal from Glasgow James Carlile - Irish Minister and educationalist Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney John Howard Hinton - Baptist minister John Angell James - clergyman Joseph Cooper Dr. Richard Robert Madden - Irish Thomas Bulley Isaac Hodgson Edward Smith Sir John Bowring - diplomat and linguist John Ellis C. Edwards Lester - American writer Tapper Cadbury - Businessman not known Thomas Pinches David Turnbull - Cuban link Edward Adey Richard Barrett John Steer Henry Tuckett James Mott - American on honeymoon Robert Forster (brother of William and Josiah) Richard Rathbone John Birt Wendell Phillips - American M. L'Instant from Haiti Henry Stanton - American Prof William Adam Mrs Elizabeth Tredgold - British South African T.M. McDonnell Mrs John Beaumont Anne Knight - Feminist Elizabeth Pease - Suffragist Jacob Post - Religious writer Anne Isabella, Lady Byron - mathematician and estranged wife Amelia Opie - Novelist and poet Mrs Rawson - Sheffield campaigner Thomas Clarkson's grandson Thomas Clarkson Thomas Morgan Thomas Clarkson - main speaker George Head Head - Banker from Carlisle William Allen John Scoble Henry Beckford - emancipated slave and abolitionist Use your cursor to explore (or Click "i" to enlarge)
1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.[1] Move your cursor to identify delegates but you will not find Townsend.
  1. ^ The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG599, Given by British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1880

The role of abolitionist women in Britain was independent. For many years these anti-slavery organisations, which were run by women, were dismissed as of marginal interest, but recent research has revealed that these groups had a distinct and national impact.[4]

Townsend's organisation was not affiliated to any national organisation, neither was it a partner organisation for Birmingham's (men's) Anti-Slavery Organisation. In fact women like Elizabeth Heyrick, Eliza Wigham and Jane Smeal believed that slavery should not be gradually abolished but it should be immediately abolished.[3] The Sheffield organisation was the first Anti-Slavery organisation in Britain to propose an immediate end to slavery.[3] Conversely Townsend's organisation took a more conservative line in 1839 when they followed the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society's policy of supporting a more gradual move.[2]

Townsend attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. Anne Knight who was also a delegate encouraged Townsend to volunteer to be included in the large painting of all the notable delegates because she was "the chief lady" of the campaign for anti-slavery.[2] Knight was included, but Townsend was not.[5] There is no known picture of what Townsend looked like.[2] At the convention she would meet women who represented other leading ladies' organisations. Eliza Wigham was there representing the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, Mary Anne Rawson was from the Sheffield Society; Jane Smeal from Glasgow; Amelia Opie from Norwich; Elizabeth Pease from Darlington and Anne Knight from Chelmsford.[3]

Townsend lived at the rectory where her husband was the clergyman at St. Lawrence's Church.[6] She died in Thorpe in 1847.[2] Townsend was survived by her husband[6] and there is a brass memorial to her and her husband in the church.[7]

References

  1. ↑ West Bromwich Churches, British History online, Retrieved 30 July 2015
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Clare Midgley, "Townsend , Lucy (1781–1847)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 July 2015
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Women's Anti-Slavery Organisations, Spartacus Educational, Retrieved 30 July 2015
  4. ↑ Clare Midgley, "Lloyd , Mary (1795–1865)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2013 accessed 30 July 2015
  5. ↑
  6. 1 2 White's "Directory of Nottinghamshire,", 1853, Retrieved 30 July 2015
  7. ↑ Thorpe, Southwell Churches, Retrieved 30 July 2015
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