Bessie Rayner Parkes
Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829-1925) was a significant early feminist and writer in 19th-century England, known for her advocacy for women's education and rights. Born in Birmingham to a prominent family, she was educated at a Unitarian school and later engaged in social reform alongside her lifelong friend, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. In 1854, Parkes published *Remarks Upon the Education of Girls*, and she co-founded the *English Woman's Journal* in 1858, which aimed to address the educational and professional needs of women. She played a vital role in the first Women's Suffrage Committee and contributed to initiatives that empowered women writers, such as establishing the Victoria Press.
Despite her literary success, including volumes of poetry and essays, her health declined in the 1860s, leading her to step back from activism. After marrying Louis Belloc in 1867 and experiencing personal loss, she returned to England and lived a more private life in Sussex, where she continued to write essays. Parkes's legacy is marked by her contributions to early feminist thought and literature, as well as the literary achievements of her children, notably her son Hilaire Belloc and daughter Marie Lowndes-Belloc.
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Bessie Rayner Parkes
Activist
- Born: 1829
- Birthplace: Birmingham, England
- Died: 1925
Biography
Bessie Rayner Parkes was the daughter of Joseph Parkes, a solicitor, and Elizabeth Priestly, the eldest granddaughter of Joseph Priestly, the scientist. Although the family moved to London three years after her birth, Parkes was educated at a Unitarian school for girls in Warwickshire. Since she and her brother Priestly were not in good health (he died in 1850), the family spent the summers at Hastings, where the children could benefit from the curative sea air. While at Hastings in 1846, she met Barbara Leigh Smith (later Barbara Bodichon), who became a lifelong friend.
An early feminist, Parkes published Remarks Upon the Education of Girls in 1854, and just four years later, she and Bodichon founded the English Woman’s Journal, which called for reforming women’s education, granting legal rights to women, and securing employment for them. The friends also formed the first Women’s Suffrage Committee, and they established a reading room, a clerical school, and the Victoria Press, providing an outlet for women writers. During the 1850’s, she published two volumes of verse, and her circle of friends included Elizabeth Gaskell, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope, all established literary figures.
Her Essays on Women’s Work appeared in 1865, but by then she was already suffering from the health problems that caused her to lessen her involvement with women’s causes. Adelaide Proctor, another friend, died, and she also turned away from her Unitarian heritage and became a Roman Catholic in 1864. Following an unhappy love affair, she traveled to France, where she met and married Louis Belloc in 1867. Parkes and Belloc spent the next five years near Paris, where they lived at La Celle St. Cloud. When he died of a sunstroke in 1872, she and her two children returned to England. Her children later became noted writers: Hilaire Belloc, however, did not share his mother’s feminist views; and Marie Lowndes-Belloc went on to write I Too Have Lived in Arcadia, an account of her mother’s life from 1867.
When she returned to England, she was in financial straits and moved to Slindon, near Arundel in Sussex, where she lived the rest of her life. She did not resume her work or interest in women’s causes but did continue to write essays. In a Walled Garden and A Passing World appeared during the 1890’s. She owes her place in English literature to her early feminist writings, her poetry, and her children.