On October 25, 1895, 24-year-old Edith Lanchester was abducted by her father and three of her brothers and forcibly locked up in an asylum, all because she refused to get married.
Edith Lanchester was born on July 28, 1871, into a middle-class family. She studied at the Birkbeck Institute and worked as a city clerk.
She was also a socialist campaigner and an early feminist. She was part of the first generation of middle-class women to fight for their independence.
Edith met and fell in love with a man named James Sullivan through the Social Democratic Federation, the early British Marxist organization.
They were both against the institution of marriage. Eventually, they decided to start living together in protest against Britain’s patriarchal marriage laws.
When Edith’s family learned that she was living with a man out of wedlock, they tried to convince her to stop. They argued that she was living in sin and bringing shame upon herself and the family.
It didn’t help that James was an Irish laborer, meaning that he was far below Edith’s social class.
She offered to change her surname and live abroad as a compromise, but she refused to get married. Finally, the Lanchester family resorted to asserting male property rights over her.
On October 25, 1895, Edith’s father burst into her home to confront her while she was eating breakfast. He was accompanied by three of her brothers and a mental health expert, Dr. George Fielding-Blandford.
Dr. Fielding-Blandford asked Edith if she was willing to marry James, but she said no. They discussed the matter for half an hour before the doctor finally gave up.
Edith’s brothers suddenly grabbed her, tied her up, and dragged her out of the house. They took her to the Priory Hospital in Roehampton and then to a private mental asylum.
Dr. Fielding-Blandford had signed emergency commitment papers under the Lunacy Act of 1890. He claimed that Edith was of unsound mind and needed to be locked up for her own protection because she was too mentally disturbed to see that living with a man out of wedlock would completely destroy a woman’s reputation.
The abduction became a national scandal. People were outraged by Edith’s treatment, and even those who didn’t agree with living unmarried thought the situation had been taken too far.
Newspapers reported on the story for days, and some even declared that women have the right to do what they want with their own bodies.
The Marquess of Queensbury wrote to Edith to offer advice and financial support. Protests against Edith’s treatment began almost immediately. She was released on October 28 and never spoke to her father again.
A socialist named Eleanor Marx hired Edith as her personal secretary and sheltered her at her home when she gave birth in 1897. Edith and James had two children together. Edith died in 1966.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
