{{short description|English social reformer}} thumb|Elizabeth Richardson, 1855 photograph '''Elizabeth Spence Watson''' ({{nee}} '''Richardson'''; 1838–1919) was an English social reformer.<ref>{{cite web |title=Watson, Elizabeth Spence (1838-1919) social reformer - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk |url=https://archives.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php/watson-elizabeth-spence-1838-1919-social-reformer |website=archives.trin.cam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> Married to Robert Spence Watson, she campaigned as a suffragist, pacifist and temperance activist. She was known as '''Mrs Spence Watson'''; the surname was double-barrelled, but not hyphenated.

==Background and early life== She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the third daughter of Edward Richardson (1806–1863) who was a tannery owner, and his wife Jane Wigham, in a family of seven daughters and four sons. The Richardson clan were a "close-knit Quaker family".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Faulkner |first1=T. E. |last2=Lowery |first2=Phoebe |title=Lost Houses of Newcastle and Northumberland |date=1996 |publisher=Jill Raines |isbn=978-0-9516494-2-8 |page=20 |language=en}}</ref> John Wigham Richardson, born 1837, was her elder brother, and wrote in his memoirs of their father Edward "He was always more or less of an invalid".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=John Wigham |title=Memoirs of John Wigham Richardson, 1837-1908 |date=1911 |publisher=Privately printed |page=173 |language=en}}</ref>

===Edward & James Richardson=== The family leather business, Edward & James Richardson, was still in existence in 1969, when it was taken over by Barrow, Hepburn & Gale.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward and James Richardson - Graces Guide |url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Edward_and_James_Richardson |website=www.gracesguide.co.uk}}</ref>

Edward Richardson (1806–1863) was the second son of Isaac Richardson, eldest son of the tanner John Richardson of Low Lights, North Shields and brother of William Richardson, partner in a Newcastle tannery with Jonathan Priestman.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=48151|first=Anne Pimlott|last=Baker|title=Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)}}</ref><ref name="GR">{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=George |title=The Annals of the Cleveland Richardsons and Their Descendants, Compiled from Family Manuscripts, Etc |date=1850 |publisher=Privately printed |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AN9rAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA63 |language=en}}</ref> James Richardson was Edward's nephew, son of his brother John Richardson, and lived in Elswick, Newcastle, the long-term location of the business.<ref name="GR"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Dendy |first1=Frederick Walter |title=Three Lectures Delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Old Newcastle, Its Suburbs and Gilds, and an Essay on Northumberland |date=1921 |publisher=The Society |page=23 |language=en}}</ref>

James's brother David Richardson (1835–1913) took over the management of the business, and was father of Lewis Fry Richardson; he brought in the chemist Henry Richardson Procter FRS to the works at Elswick.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brezinski |first1=Claude |last2=Meurant |first2=Gérard |last3=Redivo-Zaglia |first3=Michela |title=A Journey through the History of Numerical Linear Algebra |date=6 December 2022 |publisher=SIAM |isbn=978-1-61197-723-3 |page=546 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4IGhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA546 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sansbury |first1=Ruth |title=Beyond the Blew Stone: 300 Years of Quakers in Newcastle |date=1998 |publisher=Newcastle upon Tyne Preparative Meeting |isbn=978-0-9534308-0-2 |page=183 |language=en}}</ref> Procter was a family member, son of John Richardson Procter to whom the Low Lights tannery had passed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=Anne Ogden |title=Records of a Quaker Family: the Richardsons of Cleveland |date=1889 |publisher=S. Harris & Company |pages=290–291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWnBaEmOuVcC&pg=PA290 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Who's Who|title=Procter, Henry Richardson|id=U201850}}</ref> thumb|left|The Gables, Elswick Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, home of David Richardson, 1870s photograph

==Education== Elizabeth Richardson was educated at a Quaker school in Lewes, Sussex. This was the boarding school run by the Dymond sisters, where her elder sister Anna Deborah Richardson had already been a pupil; Elizabeth (Lizzie) went there in 1853, after some home tuition by Anna.<ref name="Crawford">{{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 |date=2 September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-43402-1 |pages=701–702 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&pg=PA701 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=Anna Deborah |title=Memoir of Anna Deborah Richardson: With Extracts from Her Letters |date=1877 |publisher=For private circulation |pages=5 and 25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ihsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA5 |language=en}}</ref> Then she attended an art school in Newcastle where she was a student of William Bell Scott.<ref name="Crawford"/>

==Activism== ===Suffragist=== In April 1884 Spence Watson organised an at-home meeting for the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage; and, in another event that month, spoke with her sister Alice Mary Merz and others at a suffragist meeting. (Alice Mary Richardson had married John Theodore Merz, who with Robert Spence Watson, and six others, founded the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company.) In 1886 she set up a Newcastle branch of the Women's Liberal Association, of which she became President.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey |date=15 April 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-01062-0 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uoe5GSopaUC&pg=PA34 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions |date=1887 |publisher=Garland Publishing |isbn=978-0-8240-3744-4 |page=567 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-rs5Pjdo64C&pg=PA567 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=34999|first=Albert| last=Snow|title=Merz, Charles Hesterman (1874–1940)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Thomas Parke |title=Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 |date=March 1993 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-4614-4 |page=449 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g07Q9M4agp4C&pg=PA449 |language=en}}</ref> At the branch in 1887 she read a paper "A Summary of the Reforms Passed Since 1832", which was published.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Elizabeth Spence |title=A Summary of the Reforms Passed Since 1832: A Paper Read Before the Womens' Liberal Association, Newcastle-on-Tyne ... 1887 |date=1887 |publisher=Womens' Liberal Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZMUMwEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> In 1890 she was on the council of the Women's Franchise League.<ref name="Crawford"/>

Making a comparison of "Christian suffragists" with Jane Elizabeth Strickland JP née Slade of Hastings,<ref>{{cite web |title=Strickland, Jane |url=https://friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk/stricklandj.html |website=friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk}}</ref> Inkpin wrote that Strickland was "a dedicated Christian feminist to whom her religious faith was a crucial element of her being", while Watson

<blockquote>is perhaps better regarded as [an] example of that strand of equal rights Victorian Liberalism, which had led her into many associated campaigns, and latterly into the presidency of her local suffrage society in Gateshead.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Inkpin |first1=Jonathan David Francis |title=Combatting the 'sin of self-sacrifice'?: Christian feminism in the women's suffrage struggle, 1903-1918 |degree=PhD |url=https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1517/1/1517.pdf |page=344 |publisher=Durham University|date=1996}}</ref></blockquote>

===Pacifist=== At the beginning of 1900, during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Elizabeth Spence Watson signed the manifesto of the Stop the War women's group led by Sarah Amos and Jane Cobden.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Stop-The-War Movement |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002947/19000210/052/0006 |work=Westminster Gazette |date=10 February 1900|page=6}}</ref> Robert Spence Watson was approached by Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle for support with the local peace campaign in the north-east, and Elizabeth was invited to speak at a women's peace event in London.<ref name="Mood">{{cite web |last1=Mood |first1=Jonathan William |title=Employment, politics and working-class women in north east England, c. 1790-1914 |url=https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2687/1/2687_700.pdf |website=etheses.dur.ac.uk |publisher=Durham University|date=2006|pages=242–244}}</ref> In January 1900 Elizabeth was one of four conveners of a meeting in Liverpool Town Hall, of northern Women's Liberal Associations. An anti-war resolution drafted by Sarah Anne Byles, another of the conveners and wife of William Byles MP, was passed unanimously.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hirshfield |first1=Claire |title=Liberal Women's Organizations and the War against the Boers, 1899-1902 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |date=1982 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=37 |doi=10.2307/4048484 |jstor=4048484 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4048484 |issn=0095-1390}}</ref>

====Cronwright-Schreiner in Gateshead==== Samuel Cronwright-Schreiner, husband of Olive Schreiner, made a lecture tour in the United Kingdom in 1900, speaking against the war. On 9 March he was in Gateshead, where a "Stop the War" committee had George Kitchin as president.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cronwright-Schreiner |first1=Samuel Cron |title=The Land of Free Speech. Record of a campaign on behalf of peace in England and Scotland in 1900 |date=1906 |publisher=New Age Press |location=London |page=211 |url=https://archive.org/details/landfreespeechr00crongoog/page/n211/mode/1up}}</ref> The previous day he had been in Dundee, attempting to speak with Keir Hardie at the Gilfillan Hall, but had been met with a hostile reception and was unable to proceed.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dundee's Detestation of Pro-Boers |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/19000310/022/0007 |work=Manchester Courier |date=10 March 1900|page=7}}</ref> Robert, who with Thomas Burt had spoken against the war at Newcastle Town Hall at a disrupted event, on the day was at Hexham addressing a literary society.<ref name="Mood"/>

The Gateshead Town Hall event was ticket-only, for speeches by Kitchin and Cronwright-Schreiner; but opposition from local councillors meant pro-war protesters were briefed in advance, and were outside the Hall to ensure it did not take place.<ref name="Mood"/> Elizabeth Spence Watson then decided to adjourn to her family home, Bensham Grove, for a meeting with the local committee. They were followed by pro-war protesters, with a band.<ref name="Mood"/> The local press reported that "Dr Abraham marched the Gateshead Jingo crowd" in the direction of Bensham Lodge.<ref>{{cite news |title=Snapshots of the War |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000289/19000313/017/0003 |work=Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette |date=13 March 1900|page=3}}</ref> Andrew Arthur Abraham, an Irish surgeon (LRCSI 1875) known also as an amateur cricketer, was at some point a Gateshead councillor, and was also a reserve surgeon-captain for the Durham Light Infantry.<ref>{{cite book |title=Irish Medical Directory |date=1859 |page=976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-YTAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA976 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Yeomanry and Volunteer Gazette |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001104/18990224/068/0014 |work=Volunteer Service Gazette and Military Dispatch |date=24 February 1899|page=14}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Some notable tenants of 7 Walker Terrace |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004697/19611117/006/0006 |work=Gateshead Post |date=17 November 1961|page=6}}</ref>

Cronwright-Schreiner described that evening, with around 20 policemen guarding the Watson home. There were speeches made outside, including by Abraham. There were stones thrown at the house, causing some damage. Robert Spence Watson returned later.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cronwright-Schreiner |first1=Samuel |title=The Land of Free Speech. Record of a campaign on behalf of peace in England and Scotland in 1900 |date=1906 |publisher=New Age Press |location=London |pages=152–157 |url=https://archive.org/details/landfreespeechr00crongoog/page/152/mode/1up}}</ref>

==Alpine pioneer== The Watsons climbed during their 1863 honeymoon in Switzerland, in July. On 6 July with guides they made the first ascent of Balfrin.<ref name="InMemoriam">{{cite book |title=The Alpine Journal |date=1911 |publisher=Alpine Club |page=648 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VyZNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA648 |language=en}}</ref> On 10 July they climbed the Jungfrau, and then experienced a brush discharge on the Aletsch Glacier.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=W. Grylls |title=Sound of the Aurora |journal=Nature |date=May 1881 |volume=24 |issue=602 |page=29 |doi=10.1038/024029a0 |bibcode=1881Natur..24...29A |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/024029a0 |language=en |issn=1476-4687}}</ref> Elizabeth Spence Watson made the first female ascent of Ortler in 1867.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roche |first1=Clare A. |title=The Ascent of Women: How Female Mountaineers Explored the Alps 1850-1900 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33269169.pdf|page=186 |website=core.ac.uk |publisher=Birkbeck, University of London|date=2015}}</ref>

==Tasmania visit== Spence Watson was in Hobart, Tasmania in September 1913, and addressed a Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting, speaking of the life of Josephine Butler.<ref>{{cite Trove newspaper|10299177 |title=The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) View title info Fri 12 Sept 1913 Page 3 MEETINGS, ETC. |access-date=29 June 2025}}</ref> While there, she sketched,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=William |last2=Backhouse |first2=Sarah |last3=Tuke |first3=Samuel |last4=Seebohm |first4=Benjamin |last5=Seebohm |first5=Esther Wheeler |last6=Sewell |first6=Joseph Stickney |last7=Newby |first7=John |last8=Robinson |first8=William |last9=Knight |first9=Francish Arnold |title=The Annual monitor... or, Obituary of the members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland |date=1919 |publisher=W. Alexander; et al. |location=York |page=288 |url=https://archive.org/details/annualmonitororo1071alex/page/288}}</ref> and climbed Mount Wellington.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Craven |first1=Ann |title=The Genteel Militant: Elizabeth Spence Watson's Work for Women's Suffrage and Peace |journal=North East History |date=2016 |volume=47 |page=73 |url=https://nelh.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/North-East-History-Issue-47.pdf}}</ref>

==Family== thumb|left|Robert Spence Watson, 20th century portrait Elizabeth Richardson on 9 June 1863 married Robert Spence Watson at the Friends' meeting house, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref name=watburt>{{Cite web |url=http://www.watsonburton.com/page/robertspencewatson.cfm |title=Archived copy |access-date=27 June 2025 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230131/http://www.watsonburton.com/page/robertspencewatson.cfm |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Watson had been a contemporary of her brother John Wigham Richardson at John Collingwood Bruce's Newcastle school.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=36777|first=H. C. G.|last= Matthew|title=Watson, Robert Spence (1837–1911)}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=48151|first=Anne Pimlott|last=Baker|title=Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)}}</ref>

A description of their entry into "Newcastle drawing-rooms":

<blockquote>He with his splendid lion's head and golden mane, and she with her hair braided round her head in a coronet, when all the other mothers wore ''caps''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vernon |first1=Anne |title=Three Generations: The Fortunes of a Yorkshire Family |date=1966 |publisher=Jarrolds |page=140 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

The couple had six children: see Robert Spence Watson#Family.

===Anna Deborah Richardson=== thumb|Anna Deborah Richardson, at age 25 Elizabeth's eldest sister Anna Deborah Richardson (1832–1872) knew Emily Davies, at Gateshead Rectory; she was on the local committee of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women founded by Davies. They became good friends.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephen |first1=Barbara Nightingale |title=Emily Davies and Girton College |date=1976 |publisher=Hyperion Press |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=978-0-88355-282-7 |pages=53–54 |url=https://archive.org/details/emilydaviesgirto0000step/page/53/mode/1up}}</ref> In the period from 1867 to 1870, covering the efforts to found Girton College, Anna wrote to Davies a series of letters that include her views on fundraising. A chapter on this correspondence was included in the memoir of Anna Deborah, in which Elizabeth appears as Lizzie, written by their brother John Wigham Richardson.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Richardson |editor-first1=John Wigham |title=Memoir of Anna Deborah Richardson, with extr. from her letters.|date=1877 |publisher=privately published |location=Newcastle-on-Tyne |pages=213–226 |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirannadebor00unkngoog/page/n236/mode/1up |language=English}}</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links==

* [https://benbeck.co.uk/fh/richardson.html#o1.%20elizabeth%20richardson Entry on Elizabeth Spence Watson, on Ben Beck's website]

* [https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/elswick-leather-works-1863-1971/ Co-Curate: Elswick Leather Works (1863 - 1971)]

* [https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/gateshead-home-womens-rights-pioneer-and-social-reformer-be-restored ''Gateshead home of women's rights pioneer and social reformer to be restored'', 2012], heritagefund.org.uk

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Elizabeth Spence}} Category:1838 births Category:1919 deaths Category:English suffragists Category:English pacifists Category:English Quakers Category:English mountain climbers Category:People from Newcastle upon Tyne