William and Jane Frampton

Continuing the story of Swindon Suffragette Edith New and her family.

Round the other side of Christ Church churchyard we met Edith’s four great aunts, the Frampton sisters. Here we meet her grandparents, William and Jane Frampton.

Jane was born in Cricklade in 1816, the daughter of John and Ann Akers and William was born in Swindon in 1813, the son of James and Ann Frampton. However, when the couple married it was at St. Mary’s Church, Whitechapel in the East End of London on May 24, 1837. The entry in the parish registers states they were married by banns, which had to be called over a three-week period, and that they were both said to be ‘of this parish.’

By the time of the 1841 census they were back in Swindon living in a house in Prospect Place and their eight children were all born and baptised in Swindon, the older ones in Holy Rood and the three younger ones at Christ Church.

William owned several properties in Old Town and you might have expected the family led a settled, prosperous life, but they were not without their problems.

In 1851 William declared himself bankrupt. The bankruptcy notice declared that he owned two houses and shops in Wood Street, two houses in Prospect Place, the Victoria Inn and an adjoining house in Victoria Street and four dwellings in Union Row.

Five years later he was back in business working as a carpenter, builder, appraiser and undertaker and by 1861 he was working as a builder and living in Wood Street.

Quite how he dealt with this set back in the 1850s remains unknown but it must have been a huge worry to Jane. Again, we know so little of her life. And again, I’m left wondering if all this made an impact on the way Jane raised her daughters, especially Isabella, Edith’s mother who was widowed young with small children. Was there always a sense of insecurity in the family with the women picking up the pieces? It would be so interesting to read first hand accounts of these women’s lives.

Perhaps we should all commit to writing down our own histories, not as a great work of literature but just to inform those that come after.

Jane died in May 1873 aged 57 and William died in December 1875 aged 62.

The Frampton Sisters

Another story from Christ Church churchyard…

Swindon Suffragette Edith New came from a large family with a lot of maiden aunts. Her mother Isabella had four sisters and her grandfather William Frampton also had four sisters.

In 1861 the Frampton family occupied three properties in Wood Street. Edith’s grandfather lived at what is now Balula’s Delicatessen. To his right lived his married sister Catherine Sharpe and to his left his widowed mother Ann and those three unmarried sisters.

By 1871 the sisters were at 4 Victoria street where they lived and worked for more than 30 years. One was a milliner, another a dressmaker and one a mantle maker, which was a type of cloak.

Catherine was widowed in 1865 and returned to Swindon from Malmesbury with her daughter to live with her sisters.

Jane died first in 1880 and Emma, Catherine and Ellen all died in 1902.

Edith was born in 1877 and would have been just three years old when Jane died, so probably had no memory of her. However, she would have grown up knowing the other three sisters. According to the 1901 census the women worked up until the year before they died.

I wonder what impression their situation made upon Edith and whether it contributed to her long fight for equality in the teaching profession and her involvement in the Votes for Women campaign.

This weathered headstone, which no longer marks the actual grave, records the burial of William Frampton’s four sister, Jane, Emma and Ellen, who never married, and Catherine who married William Sharpe.

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The New family memorial at Christ Church

In June 2018 the small team at Swindon Suffragette organised a festival to celebrate the centenary of the enfranchisement of (some) women and the contribution to the cause made by Swindon born suffragette Edith New. Women who were over the age of 30 and met a property qualification were granted the vote, however it would be another 10 years before women received electoral equality with men.

Edith moved to Polperro in Cornwall after her retirement from teaching. Her sister Ellen also bought a property in the village. Edith moved in with her sister after she rented out her cottage to a family who had been bombed out of London during WWII. Ellen died in December 1949 and Edith in January 1951. They are buried together in the cemetery just outside Polperro village.

The grave of Edith New and her sister Ellen

This impressive obelisk monument is the New family memorial in Christ Church churchyard. Remembered on this memorial are Edith’s parents and three of her siblings.

The New family memorial

Frederic James New was a clerk in the railway village. He married first Sarah Sophia Ball in 1870 and they had one child Frances Jane born the following year. Sarah died either in childbirth or shortly after and was buried in this family plot.

Frederic and several other members of the New family were Freemasons and it is likely the bereaved family received some help from that organisation. Frances won a place at the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls in Battersea. She died on October 27, 1889 and was buried with her mother.

Meanwhile, in 1872 Frederic married Isabella Frampton. They had five children, including Ellen, Frederick and Edith. Sadly, a daughter Annie Isabella died in 1876 aged 5 months and a son, Henry James Earnshaw died on February 6, 1879. These two babies are also buried here.

On February 19, 1878 Frederick was walking along the railway track to meet with his friend who lived at Toothill when he was struck by a train and killed. The inscription on this memorial indicates it was paid for by his colleagues in the GWR.

We know that Isabella never remarried and raised her three surviving children alone. She taught music to private pupils at her home and she had a property that she rented out. We know that she was supportive of Edith’s work in the campaign for women’s suffrage and that Edith came back to Swindon to recuperate at the family home in Lethbridge Road after one of her prison sentences.

The last person remembered on this memorial is Isabella. The inscription reads:

Her ways are ways of

Pleasantness and all

Her paths are peace.

Women’s Work

It is probably fair to say that Edmund and Elizabeth Bramwell were an aspirational couple. Edmund was a fitter and turner in the Great Western Railway Works, a skilled occupation in which he had served a lengthy apprenticeship. Elizabeth had worked as a school mistress, a career she could no longer pursue after her marriage, a situation that didn’t alter within the teaching profession until 1944.

Edmund Bramwell and Elizabeth Burroughs married at Christ Church, Swindon on December 23, 1854. They both came from a railway family. Edmund’s father Joseph was a mechanic as was Elizabeth’s father Richard.

The couple made their home in Reading Street where their four daughters were born; Frances in 1856, Mary in 1859, Clara in 1866 and Maud in 1870.

Frances and Mary trained as draper’s assistants. By 1881 Mary had left Swindon and in subsequent years worked in large stores in Bath and Birmingham. Clara and Maud became teachers. Clara began her teaching career working as a 14 year old pupil teacher. By 1891 she was headmistress at one of Swindon’s local board schools. Her sister Maud also worked as an Assistant School Mistress.

Swindon Suffragette Edith New was some ten years younger than the two teaching Bramwell sisters. In 1891 she was also beginning her teaching career as a 14 year old pupil teacher in Swindon. By 1908 she had left Swindon and teaching and had joined the women’s suffrage movement as a paid organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union. Edith fought in the Votes for Women campaign, serving several terms of imprisonment and going on hunger strike. She eventually returned to teaching and devoted her life to fighting for women’s rights within that profession.

Edith New

Perhaps the sisters followed the news of Edith’s involvement in the suffrage campaign, which featured in the Swindon Advertiser on several occasion. Perhaps they had known her when they were all setting out on their teaching careers.

Draper’s Assistant Frances married in 1885, ending any career progression she might have had. She briefly moved away to Portsmouth where her husband was a fitter in the dockyard and where her son Edmund was born, before returning to Swindon by 1890.

Maud married in 1896 and Clara married in 1901 and in so doing sacrificed their teaching careers. Clara’s status as Headmistress was not even mentioned on her marriage certificate.

Elizabeth Bramwell died in 1907 and was buried in grave plot D87 with her brother Samuel Burroughs, a boilermaker, who had died five years previously. Her husband Edmund died in 1910 and was buried with her. Mary, the daughter who spent a lifetime working in the drapery business, eventually returned to Swindon. She was buried in the family grave on January 18, 1911.

Frances died in 1915 and is buried with her husband in grave plot B3327.

Clara died in 1909 and is buried alone in grave plot E8626B

Maud died in Swansea in 1957.

After a life time teaching in London, Edith New retired to Polperro in Cornwall where she died in 1951.