Mary elizabeth stephenson autobiography

Few autobiographies of working-class women were published in the early and mid-Victorian period, and these were generally accounts of severe mistreatment which had attracted the compassion and assistance of middle-class patrons. In this chapter I consider two such early memoirs of abused women who, along with their sponsors, strove to present their lives as representative of a larger cause.

Both Storie and Prince made direct polemical appeals to their intended audiences, and each needed personal assistance and financial subvention to further her cause.

Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Stephenson,

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access. Institutional subscriptions. Valerie Sanders. London: Ashgate, , 9. George Stephenson — , English mechanical engineer and inventor born in humble circumstances, drafted plans for the first railroad utilizing steam engines, completed in He was often cited as a model of self-education and perseverance.

Another name on the list is that of Alexander Watson , the minister who had earlier suspended her, and against whose actions she had petitioned the Synod; either this is another Alexander Watson, or he seems to have felt impelled to seem sympathetic to his former parishioner. Lawyers employed in the matter seem to have included John Kerr whom she found dishonest and against whom she later brought a suit , David Campbell, Mr.

Macqueen, S. Perhaps she depended on fellow churchgoers for patronage. As noted in Chap. Another instance occurs in the letter from an elder of St. She has, during all that time, been in very poor health.