{{Short description|British reformer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Mary Estlin | image = Mary A Estlin abolitionist from Bristol.jpg | caption = Mary A Estlin abolitionist | birth_name = Mary Anne Estlin | birth_date = 31 July 1820 | birth_place = Bristol, England | death_date = 14 November {{death year and age|1902|1820}} | death_place = Bristol, England | known_for = Abolitionist | parents = John Bishop Estlin | signature = Mary A Esltlin abolitionist from Bristol 01.png }} '''Mary Anne Estlin''' (31 July 1820 – 14 November 1902) was a British abolitionist and leading figure in anti-slavery and anti-prostitution campaigns in Britain.
==Life== Mary Anne Estlin was the daughter of John Bishop Estlin, a leading ophthalmologist in Bristol and his wife Margaret née Bagehot. Her mother died when she was a small child, and she took her father's religion as well as his opposition to slavery. Estlin lived in the family home and never married.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB | first=Clare | last=Midgley | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50721 | title=Estlin, Mary Anne (1820–1902) | year=2004 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/50721 | access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref>
In 1832 she followed her father to the West Indies where she saw the colonial slave system.<ref name=odnb />
From 1851 she led the Bristol and Clifton Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. She and Eliza Wigham were active in the campaign in England and in 1863 they both served on Clementia Taylor's Ladies' London Emancipation Society.<ref name=reference/> [[file:Wighams jane and eliza and another.JPG|thumb|Eliza and Jane Wigham with Estlin between them]] In 1854 Parker Pillsbury came to Britain to discuss the differing politics of the American and British abolitionists. Estlin and her father became involved in Pillsbury's problematic correspondence with the British activist Louis Chamerovzow, the secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Estlin arranged for the letters to be made public.<ref name=robertson>{{cite book| last1=Robertson| first1=Stacey M.| title=Parker Pillsbury: Radical Abolitionist, male feminist| date=2007| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca, N.Y.| isbn=978-0801473951| pages=95–98| edition=1st Cornell pbk. [ed.].| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCXh2u1JTloC&pg=PA98}}</ref>
In 1867 she helped establish the Bristol Women's Suffrage Society in which she acted as a treasurer.<ref name=odnb />
In 1868 she travelled to America, where she met other leading activists including Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony.<ref name=reference>{{cite book| last1=Crawford| first1=Mary| title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928| date=2003| isbn=1135434026| page=209| url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135434026}}</ref>
During 1870-1886 she was a member of the executive committee of the Ladies' National Association. This organization co-ordinated the feminist campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.<ref name=odnb /> There was a schism within the abolitionists between the radical views of William Lloyd Garrison and the more conservative position of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, who was content to see a gradual end to slavery. Eliza Wigham and Jane Smeal of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society supported Estlin's initiative to find common ground between the Garrisonians and the BFASS.<ref name="midg">{{cite book| last1=Midgley| first1=Clare| title=Women Against Slavery: The British Campaigns, 1780-1870| date=2004| isbn=1134798814| page=134| url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1134798814}}</ref>
Estlin was among the signatories of a supportive letter sent to the first meeting of the International Council of Women, which was held in 1888 in America. Other signers included Margaret Tanner, Helen Priestman Bright Clark, Emily Sturge, Maria Colby and Louisa Swann, all under the title "In the Fellowship of Womanhood."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rowbotham |first=Sheila |author-link=Sheila Rowbotham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gm7nDwAAQBAJ&dq=Maria+Colby+suffrage&pg=PA1888 |title=Rebel Crossings: New Women, Free Lovers and Radicals in Britain and the United States |date=2016-10-11 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78478-590-1 |pages=1888 |language=en}}</ref>
Mary Anne Estelin died aged 82 on 14 November 1902 in her residence, 36 Upper Belgrave Road, Clifton, Bristol.<ref name=odnb />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Estlin |birth=1820 |death=1902}} * [https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bname_facet_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Estlin%2C+Mary+Anne%2C+1820-1902 Correspondence to and from Mary Anne Estlin] held in the Anti-Slavery Collection at Boston Public Library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Estlin, Mary}} Category:1820 births Category:1902 deaths Category:Politicians from Bristol Category:British abolitionists Category:Anti-prostitution activists Category:British women human rights activists