Miss Eliza Wigham

Other sources: https://www.parliament.uk/1866
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey (2006); Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866?1928 (2001)

Family information: Father a shawl manufacturer.

Additional Information: Eliza was an executive committee member of the Central Committee of the NSWS in 1871, and of the Edinburgh NSWS by 1872. She was also its first joint secretary and spoke at a public meeting in Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. This was followed by many other local speeches at various meetings, and a 'Grand Demonstration' that took place in Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1884. Eliza was also a member of the Special Appeals Committee in 1896, which aimed to collect signatures to put before Parliament from 'Women of all Parties and all Classes' supporting female suffrage. In 1899, she was on the executive committee of the NUWSS.

Other Suffrage Activities: In 1840, Eliza attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London and was secretary of the Edinburgh Ladies Emancipation Society. In 1863, she wrote 'The Anti-Slavery Cause in America and its Martyrs'. In 1869, she was one of a handful of women who signed a public protest against the Contagious Diseases Acts, and in 1878, was a governor of the London School of Medicine for Women. From 1859, Eliza ran a Penny Savings Bank for the poor in Edinburgh for the next 40 years, and a Working Women's Society for Mothers Meeting from 1860 for almost as long. She was eventually presented with a financial reward as a thank you for all of her philanthropic work, including an album of photographs of all the ladies associated with much of her work.