Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829-1925)
Bessie Parkes was the daughter of a solicitor and the grand-daughter of the famous
scientist, Joseph Priestly. In 1846 she met Barbara Bodichon, who was the headmistress
of a progressive school in London. They shared an enthusiasm for women’s
rights, and together wrote a pamphlet, Remarks on the Education of Girls in
1856. In 1858 they founded a journal, The Englishwoman’s Review. Bessie
Parks edited the journal and in her articles campaigned for the education of
women in universities and medical schools. In 1886 she wrote Essays on Women’s
Work, arguing that the law was biased because it treated women as if they should
be supported by their fathers or husbands and did not need to be educated to
do professional work.
In 1866 the two women together formed the Woman’s Suffrage Committee, to campaign for women to have the right to vote. In 1867, against the advice of her family and of Barbara Bodichon, Parkes decided to get married to a Frenchman, Louis Belloc, who was already seriously ill. Sadly Belloc died in 1872.
Both her children were authors who were not interested in women’s rights. Her daughter was the novelist Marie Belloc-Lowndes and her son was the famous anti-feminist Hillaire Belloc. The Town library has a biography of Bessie Parkes, and many books by Hillaire Belloc, mostly concerning his musings on life as he wandered around England.
Bessie
Rayner Parkes.
From
Portraits of Men of Eminence Vol. 5 p.43
