Emily Davison

This week was International Women's Day, so I have to find a courageous and brave woman in my family.  It was difficult as I have discovered so many but it was Emily Wilding Davison who comes to mind.  Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was an English suffragette who fought for votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century.  Emily Wilding Davison was born at Roxburgh House, Greenwich, in south-east London on 11 October 1872. Her parents were Charles Davison, a retired merchant, and Margaret Caisley, both of Morpeth, Northumberland. At the time of his marriage to Margaret in 1868, Charles was 45 and Margaret was 19.  Emily was the third of four children born to the couple; her younger sister died of diphtheria in 1880 at the age of six. The marriage to Margaret was Charles's second; his first marriage produced nine children before the death of his wife in 1866.

My journey to Emily Wilding Davison begins with John James Bainbridge who is my 2nd great granduncle.  He was born in 1868 in Gateshead, County Durham and married Isabella Wilkie in 1889.  Isabella's uncle is Joseph Bannister and it is this side of the family that we begin with.  Joseph was a mariner and was born and died in Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland.  The 1841 Census shows that Joseph was an Apprentice Shoemaker.  By the 1861 Census Joseph was a seaman based in Fife.  In 1868 he would marry Jane Weatherston and they would go on to have eight children. In 1891 he returned to Berwick with his wife.  Let's talk about two of his sons,  firstly his namesake Joseph who was born in 1861 and died in Singapore in 1896.  He died in Pulau-Brani, Singapore Straits Settlement which was a crown colony where tin ore mined in mainland Malaysia was processed.  Another son, Archibald Weatherston Bannister was born in 1873 and would die in 1916 in Cape Town, South Africa.  Archibald saw service in the Second Boer War in the South African Light Horse Regiment between 1899 and 1902.  Wikipedia tells me that The Second Boer War (Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, lit. 'Second Freedom War', 11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict which was fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.  

We then meet Thomas James Chandler who was born in 1865 in Jarrow and he died in 1921.  Like his cousin before him, Archibald Bannister, he fought in the Second Boer War but as part of The Durham Light Infantry where he joined up in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1885.  Thomas’ aunt was Annie Chandler and her husband was Thomas Lanaghan and it is his grandmother, Mary Woodhams who takes us on the next part of our journey.

Here we meet Williams Woodhams who was born in Fairlight, Hastings, Sussex and would marry Margaret Ward in 1805 at St Hilda’s Church, South Shields, Durham.  The first Census I found is the 1841 Census which has him and his family living in Harton, Jarrow.  His brother David would marry Lucy Richardson Thwaites in 1817 in Hastings and in 1839 they would leave for Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1839 on board the ship Neptune.  The reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) marked a period of extraordinary growth and change for Sydney and indeed for New South Wales and Australia as a whole. During the early years of this period, Sydney was declared a city, New South Wales was granted self government and convict transportation was abolished.  David’s grand-daughter was Lucy Mutton and her husband was Thomas Townsend.  Thomas’ father William was born in London, England in 1793 and was transported to Australia for seven years after being indicted for stealing a shawl which was valued at 2s. He would begin by being imprisoned in 1816 in the bulk prison ship in 1816 called Bellerophon.  He would then be transported in 1817 on the prison ship Batavia finally arriving in 1818.   William  is listed as one of 30 who are for general distribution among the Settlers within the district.  William Townsend and Rebecca Sunderland were married on the 2nd October 1820 at St.John's, Parramatta NSW.  William Townsend would obtain his Certificate of Freedom on the 5th of February 1824, officially ending his seven year sentence.  In 1848 William sadly went missing and was discovered dead in Fish Creek, O’Connell Plains, NSW.  His son William born in 1820 would sadly die in similar circumstances in 1842 when he accidentally drowned near Kurrajong, NSW.  His brother Thomas’s niece Ettie Venables is our next part of the journey.

Ettie would marry James McIntosh who’s great grandfather was born in 1836 in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland and who sailed aboard the William Nicol in 1837 and settled on the Limestone Plains of Majura, Queanbeyan, NSW.  In 1865 Walter McIntosh was born to John and Elizabeth McIntosh.  Walter’s brother in law Gilbert McInnes would marry Jane Land in 1885 after the death of her first husband.  Her brother, Edwin Land was born in 1858, would travel on the ship Palestine to Sydney Grove, and would then work as an overseer at Booroomba Station near Tharwa.  Edwin would move to Queanbeyan and at the age of 27 would be elected to the council in the first municipal elections in 1885.  Five years later he would be elected Mayor.  In 1890 he would light the first kerosene street lamp.

Now we are nearing the end of our journey.  Edwin’s daughter Edith Clara Land was born in Queanbeyan and in 1927 she would marry John Seaton Davison.  John Davison was born in 1875 in Morpeth, Northumberland to Charles Chisholm Davison and Margaret Cranston.  He would marry Margaret Cranston initially (wonder if they were blood relations?) in Morpeth, Northumberland in 1898 and then Edith Clara Land in 1927 following Margaret’s death.  John’s father Charles Chisholm Davison was a solicitor and was born in 1849 in Bengal, India and died in West Ham, Essex in 1926.  Charles’ two brothers William Edward Septimus and Charles Edward would journey in the 1840’s to start a new life in India.  The sons of George Davison, a gunmaker ‘of high repute’ and his second wife Mary Anderson.  George had died in 1827 aged 44 leaving his widow to continue the business with the help of his foreman. William and Charles went to Bengal to work with their uncle Joseph Anderson who was a merchant. All three settled in Simla where they became members of the Himalayan Brotherhood Masonic Lodge. Joseph died aged 39 in June 1850, leaving a widow and children.

In August 1848 Charles married Sarah Seton Chisholm, daughter of the late George Wilding Chisholm, a successful Calcutta merchant, and his wife Sarah Knight (née Hay).  George Wilding Chisholm was the ‘natural’ or illegitimate son of merchant George Chisholm, a Scot from Leith who had arrived in Calcutta in 1774. George senior died in 1833 and his will included a bequest of 15,000 sicca rupees for his Indian housekeeper. Could his housekeeper have also been the mother of his son?

George Wilding Chisholm's wife Sarah Knight Hay was the daughter of Scottish trader John Hay, possibly from Tranent in East Lothian, who migrated to Bengal in the early 1780s. John Hay died at Madras in 1825, having been taken ill as he sailed from Calcutta on the ship Circassian on his way to Europe. His will is interesting. First he makes a bequest to his daughter Sarah Knight Chisholm, and then one to Soonah ‘my housekeeper and mother of my Children’. Provision was also made for Soonah’s adopted daughter Bebee Bunnoo. John then gives legacies to three more children whom he specifically describes as ‘natural’: Thomas William Henry Hay, George Chisholm Hay (the middle name suggests that the Hays and Chisholm families were friends), and Margaret Hay. Calculating from their ages given at death, Sarah was born in January 1786 and Thomas in December 1787.  In September 1849 William Davison married 18 year old Mary Emily Pym Mellar at Simla.  She was the daughter of soldier Henry Richardson and his wife Ann, and the widow of merchant William Mellar, whom she had married in June 1845 when just 13½ years of age. William Davison died at Simla in June 1854 aged only 33.

Charles and Sarah Davison left Madras for Southampton with their two children on the ship Hydaspes in January 1854. In September the Alnwick Mercury reported Charles’s donation of a Burmese idol to the local museum. Sarah died in April 1866, and Charles married Margaret Caisley from Morpeth in August 1868.  Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was a child of this second marriage but her middle name came from the India-born father of Charles Davison’s first wife.

Charles’ sister was Emily Wilding Davison who was born in 1872 and died in 1913.  Between 1909 and 1913 Emily was arrested ten times as she protested for the votes for women as a Suffragette.  The 1911 Census shows Emily as being found in a cupboard in the Houses of Parliament which she had done as a protest.  Sadly she would be killed at Epsom Race Course where she ran in front of the King’s horse.

When I discovered this link I can honestly say that I was proud to be related, although in a convoluted way, to an amazing and heroic woman who would die fighting for what she believed in. I think I need to read a bit more about this fascinating lady.