Sophia Goulden
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1833
Sophia Goulden | |
|---|---|
 Goulden c. 1890 | |
| Born | Sophia Jane Craine 1833 |
| Died | 22 April 1910 (aged 76–77) |
| Spouse |
Robert Goulden
(m. 1853; died 1892) |
| Children | 11, including Emmeline Pankhurst and Mary Jane Clarke |
Sophia Jane Goulden (née Craine; 1833 – 22 April 1910) was a Manx woman known for being the mother of suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Mary Jane Clarke and she is credited with having an important forming influence on both her daughters’ political beliefs.
Sophia Jane Craine was born in Lonan, Isle of Man, in 1833, to William Craine and Jane (née Quine).[1] She was baptised 3 November 1833.[2] Although William was a shoemaker by trade, he and his wife came to manage boarding houses in Douglas, initially Tynwald House at 3 North Quay,[3] and then at Christian Road.[1] In her youth Sophia was described as being ‘an unusually good-looking young lady’[4] and it is likely that she met Robert Goulden through the boarding house, whether he visited it on business or on holiday. Six years her elder, Robert Goulden was at that time an errand boy at a Manchester manufacturers.[1] Sophia and Robert were married on 8 September 1853 at Kirk Braddan, when Sophia was 18 and Robert 24.[5][1]
The newly married couple moved to Manchester, where Robert Goulden rose to become managing director of his own manufacturing business.[1] Although the family would visit the Isle of Man regularly through her life, it was in Manchester that Sophia had her eleven children, ten of whom survived into adulthood: Walter, Emmeline, Edmund, Mary, Herbert, Effie, Robert, Ada Sophia, Alfred Harold and Eva Gertrude.[4]
Political engagement
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Later in her life, Emmeline was to write of her parents:[2]
‘Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress. It is an added good fortune to have parents who take a personal part in the great movements of their time. I am glad and thankful that this was my case.’
Described as having ‘a bright and attractive personality,’[4] Sophia and her husband established themselves as members of Manchester's ‘radical elite,’ exposing their family to radical politics and bringing them into contact with ‘the foremost intellectuals of the time.’[1] It was amidst this ‘atmosphere of reformist zeal’[2] in the Goulden household that Sophia took her eldest daughter, Emmeline, to her first suffrage meeting in around 1872. Then aged 14, Emmeline left the meeting ‘a confirmed suffragist.’[2] The speaker they saw that day was Lydia Becker,[2] who was to play an important role in the Isle of Man's becoming the first country in the world to grant votes to women in 1881. When her children were to go on their important roles in the suffragette movement, it was reported that Sophia ‘naturally approved and was entirely in sympathy with them in the matter, and was greatly enthusiastic to secure the [UK] vote for women.’[4]
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