Anna Maria Priestman (1828 - 1914)

Born 26 Mar 1828 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom

Died 9 Oct 1914 at age 86 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Early life Anna Maria Priestman was born on 23 March 1828, the seventh of nine children of Jonathan Priestman (d. 1863), a wealthy Quaker tanner from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Rachel Bragg (1791–1854), a travelling minister in the Society of Friends, and the daughter of Margaret Wilson Bragg, also a Quaker minister.[1] They lived in the Summerhill district of Newcastle.[1]

Career Priestman , along with members of hers and the Bright family, were important in the creation of some of the first women's suffrage societies, founded in London, Bristol, and Bath.[1]

She was also a supporter of the Ladies' National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, which was formed in 1870 by Josephine Butler to protest against legislation which undermined the civil rights of those who had been designated prostitutes by the authorities in specified naval and military towns.[1] Her sister Mary Priestman was the secretary of this organization and her sister Margaret Tanner was its treasurer.[1] All three sisters supported international campaigns against the government regulation of prostitution, and continued their family's close association with the temperance movement.[1]

Legacy Priestman's photographs, papers related to her speeches, diaries, and her correspondence including letters to Margaret Clark Gillett, Alice Clark, Helen Priestman Bright, Priscilla Bright McLaren and Margaret Tanner, covering the period from 1837 to 1913 are held by the National Archives.[2]

Personal life Priestman chose to remain single, and discussed her views on marriage in correspondence with her cousin and lifelong friend Jane Pease, who also never married.[3]

Later life Priestman died at their Bristol home, 37 Durdham Park, which she shared with her sister Mary Priestman, on 9 October 1914, five days after her sister died.[1] "The outbreak of the First World War was said to have been too much for either herself or Mary Priestman to bear."[1]

Sources

"Anna Priestman". oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 18 November 2017. Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2017. Sandra Stanley Holton (12 November 2012). Quaker Women: Personal Life, Memory and Radicalism in the Lives of Women Friends, 1780–1930. Routledge. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-135-14117-2. Retrieved 18 November 2017.