Guide to the Records of the British Women's Emigration Association (as filmed by the AJCP), 1861-1901

Summary

Collection number:

M468

Creator:

British Women's Emigration Association

Extent:

6 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the London School of Economics and Political Science and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy. Example: M Series: Cannan to S Evans, 12 December 1920, London School of Economics and Political Science. (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1080498921)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Letter-books 1862-1882 containing copies of letters, with index, from women emigrants in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, mainly to Maria Rye and Jane Lewin, giving first impressions of the colonies and details of employment. There are also letters from the Society's New Zealand representative, Harriet Herbert.

Press cuttings 1880-1895 from English and Canadian journals and newspapers relating to women's emigration.

Minutes of the Finance Committee of the United Englishwomen's Emigration Association, March 1885-March 1886, with statements of its aims and organisation.

Letter 1949 from G.F. Plant and typewritten reply concerning the history of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society and the Colonial Intelligence League.

Minutes of the Council and some sub-committees of the United British Women's Emigration Association, May 1896-December 1901.

Published addresses: Emigration of Educated Women (1861) by Maria S. Rye and Female Middle Class Emigration (1863) by Jane E. Lewin.

Printed annual reports of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society 1861-1872, 1874-1879 and 1883-1885.

Biographical / Historical:

The formation of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society in London 1862 was largely due to the exertions of Maria Rye (1829-1903). The daughter of a solicitor, she was the manager of a law stationery business and was active in the Society for Promoting Employment of Women. She was convinced that there were many opportunities in the colonies for 'educated women of a respectable character' to find work as teachers or governesses. The aim of the Society was to help such women to emigrate by securing passages, purchasing cabin fittings and making loans, to be repaid within two years. Correspondents were appointed in major colonial posts who undertook to meet the emigrants and help them to obtain employment. They included Jane Barker and Fanny Perry, the wives of the Anglican bishops of Sydney and Melbourne.

Maria Rye and Jane Lewin were appointed the honorary secretaries of the Society. Rye left England in 1863 on a long visit to Australia and New Zealand and Lewin was the sole secretary until 1882. The Society sponsored 302 women between 1861 and 1885. By far the largest group went to Australia, followed by New Zealand and South Africa. Small numbers also went to Canada and the United States. Economic depression in the late 1860s and the expansion of public education in the Australian colonies in the 1870s meant that there were fewer opportunities for governesses and by the early 1880s the activities of the Society had virtually ended. Its final report in 1886 announced that its work had been transferred to the Colonial Emigration Society.

The writer and social reformer Louisa Hubbard (1836-1906) set up the Women's Emigration Society in 1880 and the United Englishwomen's Emigration Association in 1884. The later became the United British Women's Emigration Association in 1889. (The 'United' was dropped in 1901.) In 1919 the Association amalgamated with the Colonial Intelligence League and the South African Colonisation Society to form the Society for Overseas Settlement of British Women. It was dissolved in 1964.

Reference: Patricia Clarke. The Governesses: letters from the colonies 1862-1882, Melbourne, Hutchinson of Australia, 1985.

Related

Existence and Location of Copies:

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn653018] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Existence and Location of Originals:

The Women's Library, formerly the Fawcett Library, Calcutta House, London.

For further information see The Women's Library (http://www.lse.ac.uk/Library/Collections/Collection-highlights/The-Womens-Library).

Conditions Governing Access:

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use:

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the London School of Economics and Political Science and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy. Example: M Series: Cannan to S Evans, 12 December 1920, London School of Economics and Political Science. (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1080498921)

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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