Frances Power Cobbe

From Wikipedia: Frances Power Cobbe

Frances Power Cobbe (Wednesday, 4 December 1822 – Tuesday, 5 April 1904) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy groups, including the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in 1875 and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1898, and was a member of the executive council of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage.

She was the author of a large number of books and essays, including An Essay on Intuitive Morals (1855), The Pursuits of Women (1863), Cities of the Past (1864), Essays New and Old on Ethical and Social Subjects (1865), Darwinism in Morals, and other Essays (1872), The Hopes of the Human Race (1874), The Duties of Women (1881), The Peak in Darien, with some other Inquiries touching concerns of the Soul and the Body (1882), The Scientific Spirit of the Age (1888) and The Modern Rack: Papers on Vivisection (1889). She also published dozens of essays in most of the leading heavy-weight periodicals of the time, as well as an autobiography and a substantial amount of more popular journalism.

Life

Frances Power Cobbe was a member of the prominent Cobbe family, descended from Archbishop Charles Cobbe, Primate of Ireland. She was born in Newbridge House in the family estate in what is now Donabate, Co. Dublin.

Cobbe worked at the Red Lodge Reformatory and lived with the owner, Mary Carpenter, from 1858 to 1859, but a turbulent relationship between the two meant that Cobbe left the school and moved out.

Cobbe formed a lesbian relationship with the Welsh sculptor Mary Lloyd (1819-1896), whom she met in Rome in 1861 and lived with from 1864 until Lloyd's death. That death, in 1896, affected Cobbe badly. Her friend, the writer Blanche Atkinson, writing, “The sorrow of Miss Lloyd’s death changed the whole aspect of existence for Miss Cobbe. The joy of life had gone. It had been such a friendship as is rarely seen – perfect in love, sympathy, and mutual understand.” Around 1891 and in danger of losing their home at Hengwrt, in which Lloyd had inherited a share on the death of her parents, the couple were relieved by a legacy of over £25,000 from the widow of Richard Vaughan Yates. They are buried together at Saint Illtud Church Cemetery, Llanelltyd, Gwynedd, Wales. In letters and published writing, Cobbe referred to Lloyd alternately as "husband," "wife," and "dear friend."

Cobbe founded the Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection (SPALV) in 1875, the world's first organisation campaigning against animal experiments, and in 1898 the BUAV, two groups that remain active. She was a member of the executive council of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and writer of editorial columns for London newspapers on suffrage, property rights for women and opposition to vivisection. Around 1880, with Louise Twining, she founded Homes for Workhouse Girls.

Cobbe met the Darwin family during 1868. Emma Darwin liked her, "Miss Cobbe was very agreeable." Cobbe persuaded Charles Darwin to read Immanuel Kant's Metaphysics of Ethics. She met him again during 1869 in Wales, and apparently interrupted him when he was quite ill, and tried to persuade him to read John Stuart Mill—and indeed Darwin had read Cobbe's review of Mill's book, The Subjection of Women. She then lost his trust when without permission she edited and published a letter he had written to her. Her critique of Darwin's Descent of Man, Darwinism in Morals was published in The Theological Review in April 1871.

In philosophy, Cobbe was a proponent of intuitionism in ethics. She thought that morality and religion were inseparably connected: moral obligations depend on a moral law, which requires a divine legislator. She was an opponent of utilitarianism. Her philosophical views were wide-ranging and she addressed a huge range of philosophical topics including the nature of action and moral knowledge, aesthetics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, history, pessimism, the possibility of life after death, and many more. Her philosophical contribution is now beginning to be rediscovered as part of the recovery of women in the history of philosophy.

Cobbe's activism for women's rights included advocating for women to be allowed not only to attend university but also to take university examinations, following the same curricula as men and held to the same academic standards, and to graduate with degrees. She presented an influential paper at the Social Science Congress in 1862 to argue the case

Posthumous recognition

A portrait of her is included in a mural by Walter P. Starmer unveiled in 1921 in the church of St Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London.

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

Her name is listed on the south face of the Reformers Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

The Animal Theology professorship at the Graduate Theological Foundation is named after Cobbe.

Author of Cambridge University Library: Religious duty by Frances Power Cobbe Published 1864

Author of Cambridge University Library: Re-echoes by Frances Power Cobbe Published 1876

Author of Cambridge University Library: A faithless world by Frances Power Cobbe Published 1891

Author of Cambridge University Library: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by herself; with illustrations; in two volumes Published 1894

[MORE TO ADD FROM Cambridge University Library]

From FreeBMD: Registration of death of Frances Power Cobbe in 1904

April to June 1904: Registration of death of Frances Power Cobbe; aged 81 [born about 1823]; in Dolgelly, Gwynedd (Volume 11b, Page 275)

From Y Dydd Friday, 15 April 1904 Funeral of Miss Cobbe

[translation by Google] Funeral of Miss Cobbe.

The remains of Miss Frances Power Cobbe were buried in Llanelltyd cemetery last Friday, 8 April 1904, next to her companion Miss Lloyd. A short service was held in Hengwrt, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales LL40 2SS 52.751980, -3.900140 by Proffessor Carpenter, Manchester College, Oxford. We started from the Hengwrt at half past one, and the coffin, which was carried in an open carriage, was covered with splendid wreaths. The burial service was read at the grave by Professor Carpenter, who also delivered a very influential speech on Miss Cobbe's life and work.

Among those who sent wreaths were the British Union for the abolition of Life Protection, the Northampton branch of the Union, the Wrexham branch, the Barmer branch, Lady Battersea, Misses Helen Louisa Cobbe and Frances Conway Cobbe, Miss Backhouse, Mrs Adlam, Mrs Arthur Bryans, and the Misses Bryans, Miss Samuel Woolcott Brown, Miss Leigh Brown, Miss Blanche Atkinson and Alex. Macdonald, Mrs Edwards, Dolserau Hall, Miss Adela Jocelyn Foulkes, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, Raggat, Mr. and Mrs. Jelf Reveley, and Leisa K. Skhartan, New York.

Miss Cobbe's will contained a definite order that her J doctor should cut the veins of the neck and the windpipe clear, so that revival in the grave would be completely impossible. If this had not been done, in the presence of one of her executors, she was announcing that her gifts in her will were worthless. Dr. Hadwen, Gloucester, did this. The coffin was to be made of wood that would have rotted from before. In his editorial comments on Miss Cobbe's wish to have her head separated from her body, the editor of the Liverpool Echo (Tuesday night) notes that she has special reasons for fearing being buried alive. Her great grandmother was very close to being buried in the dirt, when she was apparently dead. All the preparations for her burial had been completed, but at the request of one of her friends, the funeral was postponed, and the result was that Miss Power was revived from the trance she was in, and she was able to live to be old.

From findagrave: Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904)

• Name: Frances Power Cobbe
• Born: Wednesday, 4 December 1822, Donabate, County Dublin, Ireland
• Died: Tuesday, 5 April 1904 (aged 81), Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales
• Buried: [Saint Illtud Churchyard, Llanelltyd, Gwynedd, Wales LL40 2SU 52.75825, -3.90227]

Frances Power Cobbe (Wednesday, 4 December 1822 – Tuesday, 5 April 1904) was an Irish writer, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist, and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy groups, including the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in 1875, and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1898, and was a member of the executive council of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage.

She was the author of a number of books and essays, including The Intuitive Theory of Morals (1855), On the Pursuits of Women (1863), Cities of the Past (1864), Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors (1869), Darwinism in Morals (1871), and Scientific Spirit of the Age (1888).

Cobbe was a member of the prominent Cobbe family, descended from Archbishop Charles Cobbe, Primate of Ireland. She was born in Newbridge House in the family estate in what is now Donabate, Co. Dublin.

She formed a marriage with sculptor Mary Lloyd (b. 1819), whom she met in Rome in 1861 and lived with from 1864 until Lloyd's death. In letters and published writing, Cobbe referred to Lloyd alternately as "husband," wife," and "dear friend." Cobbe founded the Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection (SPALV) in 1875, the world's first organisation campaigning against animal experiments, and in 1898 the BUAV, two groups that remain active. Cobbe was a member of the executive council of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and writer of editorial columns for London newspapers on suffrage, property rights for women, and opposition to vivisection.

Cobbe met the Darwin family during 1868. Emma Darwin liked her, "Miss Cobbe was very agreeable." Cobbe persuaded Charles Darwin to read Immanuel Kant's Metaphysics of Ethics. She met him again during 1869 in Wales, and apparently interrupted him when he was quite ill, and tried to persuade him to read John Stuart Mill—and indeed Darwin had read Cobbe's review of Mill's book, The Subjection of Women. She then lost his trust when without permission she edited and published a letter he'd written to her. Her critique of Darwin's Descent of Man, Darwinism in Morals was published in The Theological Review in April 1871.

Her name is listed on the south face of the Reformers Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

From British Newspaper Archive: Illustrated London News Saturday, 27 August 1904 Page 33

The will (dated Saturday, 20 September 1902), with a codicil (of Tuesday, 2 June 1903), of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, of Hengwet, Dolgelly, who died on Tuesday, 5 April 1904, has been proved by Richard John Lloyd Price, the executor, the value of the property amounting to £18,711. The testatrix gives the copyright of her works, and £300 to Miss Blanche Isabella Atkinson; her printed books to form a public library at Barmouth; £2000 each to Helen Louise Cobbe, Frances Conway Cobbe, Mabel Cobbe, and Winifred Cobbe; £1000 to her executor; £115 per annum to Sarah and Eliza Cobbe; and other legacies. She directs that a fee of £21 is to be paid to a doctor for severing the arteries of her neck and windpipe (nearly severing the head), so as to render her revival in the grave absolutely impossible. The residue of her property she leaves to the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.