Bridport. Dorsetshire

April 29^th 1876

Dear Mr. Douglass

Miss Amé-DrazAmé-Draz, Rosine

A Swiss national, Rosine Amé-Draz (c. 1816–?) first arrived in England on 11 July 1838, listing her profession as teacher. In 1841 she was teaching and living in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devonshire. After spending an undetermined length of time back in Switzerland, she returned to England in July 1848, this time listing her profession as governess. According to the 1861 English Census (where she was recorded as “Rosine Ann Davy,” a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland), she was staying in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Read of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. By 1871 she was serving as governess to the children of George S. Kemp, a wealthy Lancashire manufacturer. 1841 England Census, Devonshire, Egg Buckland, 11; 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Ecclesfield, 56; 1871 England Census, Lancashire, Castleton, 1; “England, Alien Arrivals, 1810–1811, 1826–1869,” Ancestry.com. has been writing to you this morning & she has kindly offered to slip a note from me with her envelope. So, tho' I don't know that I have any thing to write about that will interest you, I shall just send a line to ask how you are after your Winter's works, w^ch I suppose is now over. I don't think I have written to thank you for your very welcome letter received last November, but you know very well without my saying it that your letters are always a great pleasure to me,—& when the letter comes saying that you have taken your passage to England by such a ship, & that we may expect you at Bridport, a

month after you sail we shall rejoice still more.

We are going on much as usual Excepting an attack of bronchitis last November Mr CarpenterCarpenter, Russell Lant

The Reverend Russell Lant Carpenter (1816-92), a Unitarian minister, spent his childhood in Bristol, England. He attended Bristol College in preparation for a life of ministry, continued his studies at Manchester and York Colleges and was one of the first to graduate from London University in 1840. Carpenter became intensely involved in the temperance movement and subsequently quit his pastorate at Bridgwater, England, since part of the church's endowment came from taverns selling liquors. In August 18-19 he journeyed to the United States, where he spent a full year preaching from Montreal to St. Louis to Boston. His father, Dr. Lant Carpenter, was a well-known teacher whose Unitarian writings were already known to the antislavery men of the day. Thus, Carpenter became acquainted with Garrison, Douglass, and others. Having returned to England, he married in 1853 and continued his ministerial work there until his death. His works include Memoirs of Lant Carpenter (1842), Discourses and Devotional Services (1849), A Monotessaron (1851), and a biography about his brother, Philip, Memoirs of the Life and Work of Philip Pearsall Carpenter (1880). Carpenter also contributed frequently to the Inquirer and to other periodicals. London Inquirer, 30 January 1892. has passed well thro' the winter, & now he is beginning to go out again of an Evening, & to give up some invalid ways. He is going to. Bristol next week to see his sisterCarpenter, Mary

Mary Carpenter (1807-77) was the daughter of British reformer and Unitarian minister Lant Carpenter, and with her brother Philip Lant Carpenter, was a social justice activist. She began operating a girls' school in Bristol in 1829 with the help of her mother, Anna Penn Carpenter. Finding the care of poor children her life's calling, in 1835 Mary formed the Working and Visiting Society and in 1852 opened her own reformatory for boys. In the 1850s and 1860s she lobbied for industrial schooling in Britain and opened two schools of her own. In her later years she traveled widely and lectured in Britain and India on education and penal reform. She was inspired to visit India as a result of her father’s friendship with Rammohun Roy, a Bengalese teacher and religious educator who established the Brahmo Samaj, a brotherhood made up of Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. Roy visited Mary’s father, Lant Carpenter, at the Lewis Mead Unitarian Church in Bristol, but died shortly afterward from meningitis in 1833. Mary visited India four times, where she established a school for Hindu girls and became active in social reform. Jo Manton, Mary Carpenter and the Children of the Streets (London, 1976), 18-30; Jennifer S. Uglow, ed., The International Dictionary of Womens Biography (New York, 1982), 94; Mary Carpenter, Six Months in India (London, 1868).ACAB, 1:531-32; DNB, 3:1068-70, 1071-72; DAB, 1:561. on her return from India. You will no doubt see Messrs Wilson & GladstoneGladstone, William Ewart

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British prime minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94), was the personification of Victorian liberalism. The fourth son of a Liverpool merchant, he was educated at Oxford University. Intensely religious in his early years, Gladstone was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1832. In 1859 Gladstone quit the Conservative party and joined Lord Palmerston's Liberal ministry. As chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held in four different terms, Gladstone set out to complete the Free Trade program and to reduce taxes and public expenditures. Gladstone placed as much emphasis on the moral basis of politics as he did on the material basis. His drive for the abolition of church rates endeared him to the Nonconformists and helped transform the Liberal party into a powerful political force. Gladstone's first term as prime minister (1868-74) featured significant reforms of the army, civil service, local government, and law courts. In foreign affairs, Gladstone was committed to the notion of the "Law of Nations," an overriding imperative for world peace and mutual understanding. In an age of resurgent British imperialism, however, Gladstone's pacifist outlook toward foreign affairs rendered him a target for critics who demanded a more aggressive foreign stance. Gladstone retired from politics after Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative government came to power in 1874, but in 1879 he returned to the political stump to protest Disraeli's foreign policy. Gladstone's later ministries of 1880-85, 1886, and 1892-94 were less productive than his first one. The Liberal party, distracted by the Irish problem, became less responsive to the changing interests of the working classes, more interested in economic and social improvements than on constitutional and religious questions. Gladstone's great oratorical skill, organizational flair, and capacity to meet new challenges with fresh ideas made him one of the most enduring political figures in British history. Cannon, Oxford Companion to British History, 415-417; Gardiner and Wenborn, Columbia Companion to British History, 340-341; DNB, Supplement, 22:705-54. during their visit to the United States. They go as a Deputation from the English Association to speak of the work going on in England France Switzerland & Italy to oppose the State Regulation of Vice―which we find that some are trying to introduce into Canada & The U.S. They will tell you the terrible results of this vile system which has been in operation for longer or shorter periods in many countries in Europe, —& I trust that there are enough of earnest pure & good men & women amongst you to prevent its introduction in America. It is much easier to prevent than to cure an evil, we are painfully feeling this. The odious C.D. Acts were passed almost in secrecy, & now no one can tell when we shall see them swept from the Statute book,―we only know that the workers for Repeal will give themselves no rest, nor let the promoters of a system of legalized prostitution have any rest, till this is done. We shall look with extreme interest for an account of Mr. Wilson's

mission in your Country. I hope to be in London in May to attend some Meetings of the British & Continental Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution—Père HyacintheLoyson, Charles Jean Marie (Père Hyacinthe)

Born in Orleans, France, Charles Loyson (1827-1912) took the name Hyacinthe before entering the Carmelite Order of monks. A capable preacher and teacher, doctrinal conflicts over papal infallibility and related issues led to his excommunication from the Catholic Church. After his marriage in 1872, he briefly joined the Old Catholic Church in Geneva as a curate. Hyacinthe quit that group in 1874 and went to Paris where, in 1879, he founded the Gallican Church. Ferm, Encyclopedia of Religion, 454; Thomas, Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, 1139. , M. Ed. de PréssenséPressensé, Edmund de

& others will take part in these Meetings. My sister LucyThomas, Lucy Browne

The third daughter of Mary and William Browne, Lucy Browne (1825–1909) married Charles Thomas of Bristol in May 1850. 1851, 1871, 1901 England Census, Gloucestershire, Bristol, FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Death Index, 1837–1915”; London Christian Reformer, 6: 452 (July 1850). & I mean to go together she is a zealous worker in this cause. I am going to say that Miss Amé-DrazAmé-Draz, Rosine

A Swiss national, Rosine Amé-Draz (c. 1816–?) first arrived in England on 11 July 1838, listing her profession as teacher. In 1841 she was teaching and living in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devonshire. After spending an undetermined length of time back in Switzerland, she returned to England in July 1848, this time listing her profession as governess. According to the 1861 English Census (where she was recorded as “Rosine Ann Davy,” a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland), she was staying in the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Read of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. By 1871 she was serving as governess to the children of George S. Kemp, a wealthy Lancashire manufacturer. 1841 England Census, Devonshire, Egg Buckland, 11; 1861 England Census, Yorkshire, Ecclesfield, 56; 1871 England Census, Lancashire, Castleton, 1; “England, Alien Arrivals, 1810–1811, 1826–1869,” Ancestry.com. has been suffering from neuralgia & a violent cold all the week—she is getting better & will I hope soon be pretty well—she leaves us next Monday.

Mr. Carpenter joins me in kindest remembrances. I remain dear M^r Douglass sincerely

Your friend Mary CarpenterCarpenter, Mary Browne

Mary Browne Carpenter (c. 1824–98) was the wife of the prominent Unitarian minister Russell Lant Carpenter (1819–92). They were married in Bridgwater, Somersetshire, in 1853. She was one of four daughters born to William Browne, a wealthy Unitarian merchant, and his wife, Mary. William Browne served as mayor of Bridgwater in 1854. In addition to her support of the antislavery effort, Mary Browne Carpenter was also deeply involved in the woman suffrage movement, belonging to one of the more radical suffrage societies in Bridport. She also supported the animal rights and temperance movements. 1841 England Census, Gloucestershire, Bristol, 22; “England and Wales, Christening Records, 1530–1906,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Death Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch.org; “England and Wales, Marriage Index, 1837–1915,” FamilySearch. org; “England and Wales, Non-Conformist Records Indexes, 1588–1977,” FamilySearch.org; Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey (New York, 2006), 161, 169.She has not been identified by name.

P.S. Miss Amé-Draz says that she saw a very nice photograph of you at Miss Carpenter's last summer—I have not seen it—but should very much like a good photograph of you for my album. & hope that if you have one to spare you can bestow it upon me.

Miss A. D. begs me to ask for one for her also—but I tell her that I shall say if you can only spare one send it to me!