Miss Frances Power Cobbe

Other sources: https://www.parliament.uk/1866
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7037
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/frances-power-cobbe/YwFCxHNc7CrP4A
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866?1928 (2001)

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3214/how-effective-was-the-votes-for-women-campaign-in-bristol

Family information: From a wealthy Anglo-Irish family.

Additional Information: Frances wrote articles and papers on social issues, particularly women's rights, before her signing of the 1866 petition. These included 'Social Science Congresses and Women's Part in Them' and 'University Degrees for Women' in 1862. She was one of the earliest members of the influential Kensington Society in 1865 and was involved in formulating the 1866 petition itself. She subscribed to the Enfranchisement of Women Committee (EWC) until it dissolved in 1867, and was a founding member of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage (LNSWS) in 1867 (though she resigned that same year over differences with other committee members). She was concerned over the union of the London and Manchester NSWS, fearing that London might be held accountable for what she deemed would be the more 'radical' actions of the Manchester wing. However, she later overcame her doubts, becoming a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the NSWS (CCNSWS) in 1872, and remaining so for over ten years.

Other Suffrage Activities: Frances had found the limits of home life and her chief role as her father's housekeeper frustrating and unsatisfying. An annual payment of £200 per year upon her father's death enabled her to pursue journalism and philanthropic causes as well as women's suffrage. She was a supporter of the parliamentary Conservative Party, becoming a dame in their women's wing, the Primrose League. The Primrose League was looked at by many suffrage campaigners with hostility, because it was often elitist in its outlook that those with the desire for stability and good government of the country should have the power and not (as Frances herself put it) 'those who were in the habit of turning the world topsy turvy'. She was involved with the Married Women's Property Committee and was co-founder of the Victoria Street Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection.