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Mary Anne Rawson
Mary Anne Rawson 1840.jpg
Rawson in 1840.
Born
Mary Anne Read

1801
Sheffield, England
Died 1887
Nationality British
Occupation Campaigner
Known for Abolitionism
Spouse(s) William B. Rawson
Parent(s) Joseph and Elizabeth Read

Mary Anne Rawson (1801–1887) was an abolitionist who also a campaigned with the Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, for Italian nationalism and against child labour. She was first involved with a Sheffield group, which successfully campaigned for people to boycott sugar from the West Indies, as it was produced by slave labour. She is pictured attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.

Early life

Mary Anne Read was born to Joseph Read (1774-1837), of Wincobank Hall in the Wincobank suburb of Sheffield, and his wife Elizabeth, wealthy parents who encouraged her involvement in good causes. Joseph Read had taken over his father's business- which would later become the Sheffield Smelting Company- but later experienced financial difficulties and had to sell Wincobank Hall, which Mary, as the widow of a banker, was able to reclaim. Her sister, Elizabeth (1803-1851), was married to William Wilson (1800-1866), chairman of the Nottingham Anti-Slavery committee; their son was the MP Henry Wilson, his half-sister being the missionary Sarah Poulton Kalley. Henry Wilson and his brother John Wycliffe Wilson were beneficiaries and trustees of Mary's estate, and ensured her plans for Wincobank Hall were carried out.

Abolitionism and campaigning

Her abiding interest from the mid-1820s to the 1850s was a campaign in the Sheffield area against slavery. Rawson was a founding member in 1825 of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society, which campaigned for the rights of slaves in the British Empire. The Sheffield society was the first to campaign not for a gradual and managed end, but for an immediate end to slavery. The society used lectures and pamphlets to achieve a decrease in sales of slave-produced West Indian goods, such as coffee and sugar. It formally wound up after the passage of abolition legislation in 1833.

Mary Anne Rawson older
Mrs Rawson

In 1837 Rawson became secretary of the Sheffield Ladies Association for the Universal Abolition of Slavery, which continued the case for enslaved workers across the world. The anti-slavery organisations run by women were first started by Lucy Townsend and they were sometimes dismissed as of marginal interest, but recent research has revealed that these groups had a national impact.

Rawson corresponded with figures such as George Thompson in Britain as well as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison in the United States. Her visitors included Lord Shaftesbury and William Wilberforce. With her mother Elizabeth Read as treasurer, Rawson was prominent in the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society. Her father Joseph Read owned a business involved in the smelting of precious metals.

Her father having died subsequent to his financial difficulties and loss of Wincobank Hall, Rawson's early widowhood allowed her to return and pay off her father's debts. She and her mother resumed residence at Wincobank Hall, both leading politically active lives.

Isaac Crewdson (Beaconite) writer Samuel Jackman Prescod - Barbadian Journalist William Morgan from Birmingham William Forster - Quaker leader George Stacey - Quaker leader William Forster - Anti-Slavery ambassador John Burnet -Abolitionist Speaker William Knibb -Missionary to Jamaica Joseph Ketley from Guyana George Thompson - UK & US abolitionist J. Harfield Tredgold - British South African (secretary) Josiah Forster - Quaker leader Samuel Gurney - the Banker's Banker Sir John Eardley-Wilmot Dr Stephen Lushington - MP and Judge Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton James Gillespie Birney - American John Beaumont George Bradburn - Massachusetts politician George William Alexander - Banker and Treasurer Benjamin Godwin - Baptist activist Vice Admiral Moorson William Taylor William Taylor John Morrison GK Prince Josiah Conder Joseph Soul James Dean (abolitionist) John Keep - Ohio fund raiser Joseph Eaton Joseph Sturge - Organiser from Birmingham James Whitehorne Joseph Marriage George Bennett Richard Allen Stafford Allen William Leatham, banker William Beaumont Sir Edward Baines - Journalist Samuel Lucas Francis August Cox Abraham Beaumont Samuel Fox, Nottingham grocer Louis Celeste Lecesne Jonathan Backhouse Samuel Bowly William Dawes - Ohio fund raiser Robert Kaye Greville - Botanist Joseph Pease - reformer in India) W.T.Blair M.M. Isambert (sic) Mary Clarkson -Thomas Clarkson's daughter in law William Tatum Saxe Bannister - Pamphleteer Richard Davis Webb - Irish Nathaniel Colver - American not known John Cropper - Most generous Liverpudlian Thomas Scales William James William Wilson Thomas Swan Edward Steane from Camberwell William Brock Edward Baldwin Jonathon Miller Capt. Charles Stuart from Jamaica Sir John Jeremie - Judge Charles Stovel - Baptist Richard Peek, ex-Sheriff of London John Sturge Elon Galusha Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor Rev. Isaac Bass Henry Sterry Peter Clare -; sec. of Literary & Phil. Soc. Manchester J.H. Johnson Thomas Price Joseph Reynolds Samuel Wheeler William Boultbee Daniel O'Connell - "The Liberator" William Fairbank John Woodmark William Smeal from Glasgow James Carlile - Irish Minister and educationalist Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney Edward Barrett - Freed slave John Howard Hinton - Baptist minister John Angell James - clergyman Joseph Cooper Dr. Richard Robert Madden - Irish Thomas Bulley Isaac Hodgson Edward Smith Sir John Bowring - diplomat and linguist John Ellis C. Edwards Lester - American writer Tapper Cadbury - Businessman not known Thomas Pinches David Turnbull - Cuban link Edward Adey Richard Barrett John Steer Henry Tuckett James Mott - American on honeymoon Robert Forster (brother of William and Josiah) Richard Rathbone John Birt Wendell Phillips - American Jean-Baptiste Symphor Linstant de Pradine from Haiti Henry Stanton - American Prof William Adam Mrs Elizabeth Tredgold - British South African T.M. McDonnell Mrs John Beaumont Anne Knight - Feminist Elizabeth Pease - Suffragist Jacob Post - Religious writer Anne Isabella, Lady Byron - mathematician and estranged wife Amelia Opie - Novelist and poet Mrs Rawson - Sheffield campaigner Thomas Clarkson's grandson Thomas Clarkson Thomas Morgan Thomas Clarkson - main speaker George Head Head - Banker from Carlisle William Allen John Scoble Henry Beckford - emancipated slave and abolitionist Use your cursor to explore (or Click "i" to enlarge)The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 by Benjamin Robert Haydon
Rawson is to the far right in this painting which is of the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention. Move your cursor to the right hand side to identify her or click icon to enlarge

The painting shows Rawson in a commemorative painting of the world's first international anti-slavery conference, which attracted delegates from America, France, Haiti, Australia, Ireland, Jamaica and Barbados in 1840. With the exception of Mary Clarkson, all of the women in the painting are shown to the far right and none of them is in the foreground of the painting. No females were allowed into the main body of the convention. This caused some difficulties with the American delegation. Women included in the painting included Elizabeth Pease, Amelia Opie, Baroness Byron, Anne Knight, Mrs John Beaumont, Elizabeth Tredgold, Thomas Clarkson's daughter Mary and right at the back Lucretia Mott. After the convention she played host to Charles Lenox Remond as well as Nathaniel Peabody Rogers.

In 1841, Rawson and her sister, Emily Read, arranged for a day school to be created in the chapel on the grounds of Wincobank Hall. The school was open to local children. In 1860 the sisters created a trust to provide for its financial endowment and management. The school continued until 1905.

In 1899, Wincobank Hall was opened as a ‘rescue home’ by the Salvation Army, which ran on the site until 1915. By 1921, Wincobank Hall was said to be in ‘a state of desolation’. The hall was subsequently demolished to make way for the Flower Estate, a housing estate so-called as all the streets are named after flowers and plants.

Today the chapel has been restored for community use.

Personal life

She married William Bacon Rawson, a Nottingham banker and iron founder, but the marriage was short-lived due to William's early death in 1829. Their only child, Elizabeth, died in 1862 aged 33.

Legacy

The Indiana University's Lilly library has an extensive collection of Rawson's letters and photographs, including a collection of her watercolours of Italy. The University of Sheffield holds a collection of Rawson's materials related to the poet James Montgomery.

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