{"id":16680,"date":"2025-03-21T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=16680"},"modified":"2025-03-24T08:55:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T08:55:56","slug":"womens-suffrage-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/03\/21\/womens-suffrage-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The first humble beginnings of an agitation\u2019: the women\u2019s suffrage petition of 7 June 1866"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The campaign to secure the parliamentary vote for women was a long-running one. Dr Kathryn Rix<\/a>, assistant editor of our House of Commons, 1832-1868<\/a> project, looks at the first mass petition on this issue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 7 June 1866 the first mass petition for women’s suffrage was presented to Parliament. Signed by around 1,500 women, it was presented to the Commons by John Stuart Mill, who had been returned as Liberal MP for Westminster at the general election of July 1865. Among the most prominent signatories were Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Emily Davies, Elizabeth Garrett (later Anderson) and the mathematician and scientist, Mary Somerville. Only two known copies survive of an 1866 pamphlet which listed the names of 1,499 women who signed the petition. This has been transcribed and is available in a searchable format via the UK Parliament’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petitioning was a well-used method of bringing issues to the attention of parliamentarians, having been deployed by anti-slavery campaigners, the Chartists and the Anti-Corn Law League<\/a>. The Liberal ministry\u2019s introduction of a reform bill in 1866 had brought the question of the franchise to the fore, but its proposals for widening the electorate applied only to men. The women\u2019s petition \u2013 couched in cautious terms, and side-stepping the potentially contentious issue of marital status \u2013 asked the Commons to \u2018consider the expediency of providing for all householders, without distinction of sex, who possess such property or rental qualification as your Honourable House may determine\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For Mill, the petition provided an important weapon against the argument that \u2018the ladies themselves see no hardship\u2019 in their exclusion from the suffrage \u2018and do not care enough for the franchise to ask for it\u2019. Writing to Caroline Liddell on 6 May 1866, he encouraged her to draft a petition, urging that \u2018a woman who is a taxpayer is the most natural and most suitable advocate of the political enfranchisement of women\u2019. In the event, it was Mill\u2019s stepdaughter, Helen Taylor (who urged Bodichon that they should \u2018commence the first humble beginnings of an agitation\u2019), who produced the initial draft of the petition presented by Mill, although Liddell was among the signatories. The signatures, reportedly gathered within a fortnight, were collated at the London home of Clementia Taylor, whose husband Peter \u2013 a member of the Courtauld business dynasty \u2013 was Liberal MP for Leicester, 1862-84.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With discussions on petitions occupying an increasing amount of the time of the Commons, the Liberal and Conservative front benches had agreed informally in 1835 not to allow debates when petitions were presented. Debates on petitions were formally abolished by a standing order in 1843. This meant that there was no substantive discussion when Mill presented the women\u2019s petition on 7 June 1866.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mill was, however, able to make some remarks on the petition when he moved on 17 July 1866<\/a> for the compilation of a return of the number of freeholders, householders and others who fulfilled \u2018the conditions of property or rental prescribed by Law as the qualification for the Electoral Franchise\u2019 but were \u2018excluded … by reason of their sex\u2019. Informing his fellow MPs that the petition had originated \u2018entirely with ladies, without the instigation, and, to the best of my belief, without the participation of any person of the male sex in any stage of the proceedings, except the final one of its presentation to Parliament\u2019, he emphasised \u2018the number of signatures obtained in a very short space of time, not to mention the quality of many of those signatures\u2019. Mill himself had been surprised by the petition\u2019s size, having been willing to present a petition containing just 100 signatures. Seeing the \u2018large roll\u2019 containing the petition for the first time when he met Davies and Garrett in Westminster Hall, he declared, \u2018I can brandish this with effect\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Benjamin Disraeli; W. & D. Downey (c. 1878)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Although Mill\u2019s speech was brief \u2013 it occupied less than two columns of Hansard<\/em> \u2013 he took the opportunity to note that Benjamin Disraeli, who had since become chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Derby\u2019s newly formed Conservative government, had suggested during the debates on the Liberal ministry\u2019s reform bill<\/a> that there was \u2018no reason why women of independent means should not possess the electoral franchise, in a country where they can preside in manorial courts and fill parish offices\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the failure of the Liberals\u2019 reform bill had removed the possibility of introducing an amendment on women\u2019s suffrage, Mill, showing his shrewdness as a parliamentary tactician, had decided that it was imprudent to pursue the matter any further that session. He did not wish, as he told a fellow MP, to be accused of \u2018taking up the time of the House\u2019. Pressing a matter which had no chance of practical success risked being seen as deliberately obstructive. Mill did, however, achieve his aim of laying \u2018the foundation of a further movement when advisable\u2019. Outside Parliament, women continued to organise, and further petitions were presented in spring 1867.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Text<\/a>
Mill\u2019s women’s suffrage amendment, 20 May 1867 (House of Commons division lists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mill\u2019s opportunity for bolder action came when the Conservative ministry introduced its own reform bill in 1867. On 20 May<\/a> \u2013 which was, coincidentally, Mill\u2019s birthday \u2013 he moved, in a powerful and eloquent speech, to replace the word \u2018man\u2019 in clause 4 of the bill with \u2018person\u2019. His amendment for female suffrage was defeated by 196 votes to 75 (including tellers). Petitions continued to be presented to Parliament as part of the women\u2019s suffrage campaign, including a \u2018survivors\u2019 petition\u2019<\/a> in 1890, signed by 78 of those whose names had been included on the original petition of 1866.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Reading: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

J. Rendall, \u2018The citizenship of women and the Reform Act of 1867\u2019, in C. Hall, K. McClelland & J. Rendall, Defining the Victorian nation<\/em> (2000)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Richardson, The Political Worlds of Women: Gender and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Britain<\/em> (2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1866 petition name list is available to download<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. Dingsdale, ‘”Generous and lofty sympathies”: the Kensington Society, the 1866 women’s suffrage petition and the development of mid-Victorian feminism’ (PhD<\/a>, University of Greenwich, 1995)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an updated version of an article originally published on the Victorian Commons website<\/a> on 7 June 2016, written by Dr Kathryn Rix<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The campaign to secure the parliamentary vote for women was a long-running one. Dr Kathryn Rix, assistant editor of our House of Commons, 1832-1868 project, looks at the first mass petition on this issue. On 7 June 1866 the first mass petition for women’s suffrage was presented to Parliament. Signed by around 1,500 women, it was presented to the Commons by John Stuart Mill, who … Continue reading \u2018The first humble beginnings of an agitation\u2019: the women\u2019s suffrage petition of 7 June 1866<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37726181,"featured_media":16686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[124494893,4706867,774275566,126553,774275561,1450539],"tags":[35890,762283908,371582,8299858,1110039],"class_list":["post-16680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-victorian-commons","category-19th-century-history","category-benjamin-disraeli","category-electoral-reform","category-victorian","category-women-and-parliament","tag-featured","tag-female-political-activity","tag-john-stuart-mill","tag-petitioning","tag-womens-suffrage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/J_S_Mill_and_H_Taylor-1.jpg?fit=500%2C662&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-4l2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16740,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/03\/28\/john-stuart-mills-womens-suffrage-amendment\/","url_meta":{"origin":16680,"position":0},"title":"\u2018The only really important public service I performed\u2019: John Stuart Mill\u2019s women\u2019s suffrage amendment, 20 May 1867","author":"Kathryn Rix","date":"March 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Having looked at John Stuart Mill's role in presenting the first mass petition for women's suffrage, our colleague Dr Kathryn Rix explores his continued efforts for the cause of 'votes for women', bringing forward an amendment on women's suffrage as part of the debates on the 1867 Reform Act. John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Victorian Commons"","block_context":{"text":"Victorian Commons","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/victorian-commons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/john_stuart_mill_by_london_stereoscopic_company_c1870.jpg?fit=800%2C1005&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/john_stuart_mill_by_london_stereoscopic_company_c1870.jpg?fit=800%2C1005&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/john_stuart_mill_by_london_stereoscopic_company_c1870.jpg?fit=800%2C1005&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/john_stuart_mill_by_london_stereoscopic_company_c1870.jpg?fit=800%2C1005&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2015\/06\/09\/petitioning-in-manchester\/","url_meta":{"origin":16680,"position":1},"title":"Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Henry Miller, \u2018Popular politics before democracy: the culture of petitioning in Manchester, c. 1780-1914\u2019","author":"History of Parliament","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr Henry Miller, formerly of the History of Parliament Trust, but now at the University of Manchester,\u00a0reports back from his recent seminar paper discussing the enormous popularity of petitioning in the \u2018long 19th century\u2019 (c. 1780-1914)... 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