Frances Martin 1829 – 1922
Educationalist.
4 November 1829 – 13 March 1922
Education
Studied at Queen’s College in her early 20s.
1850 Studied moral philosophy and English literature at Ladies’ College/Bedford College.
Some Key Achievements and Interests
1853-1868 Superintendent at Bedford College School, Bedford Square. The school was opened to give girls over the age of nine the education they needed to go on to higher education, taking advantage of opportunities at Bedford College. Subjects included writing, arithmetic, French and Latin.
1854 Supported the establishment of a vocational training programme for the blind ‘The Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind’.
1860s Worked at Women’s Working College, Queen Street, founded by Elizabeth Malleson.
1866 Appeared as a witness before the Schools Inquiry Commission advocating that women be educated to the same level as men. However, she did not argue that women should be taught the same subjects or in the same way as men.
1867 Given editorial charge of a series of religious biographies published by Alexander Macmillan.
1874 Co-founded College for Working Women in Fitzroy Street, becoming Honorary Secretary and later Principal. This was founded when the Working Women’s College became co-educational and Martin believed strongly that women should receive a separate education. The College for Working Women offered evening classes in literacy and numeracy and skills training, eg bookkeeping, to young single women. It was renamed Frances Martin College after her death.
‘It is not only the fallen, the degraded, the destitute, who have claims upon us; that quite as urgent and imperative are the demands of the great army of virtuous workers.’
She believed skills training would open up employment opportunities for many women.
Issues
Her Anglicanism brought her into conflict with some including the trustees of the College as did her related beliefs regarding the appropriate education of girls. She believed that women should have a separate syllabus to men and one with a strong religious and moral training. She did not support the campaign led by Emily Davies for women to be admitted to external examinations and university degrees.
Bedford College Council took issue with her running of the school which she did not consider under their remit. They accused her, for example, of keeping girls too long in the school and preventing them from moving on to the College. She also came into conflict with the three trustees of the College (after Reid’s death) when they wanted to separate the School and the College. The School closed in 1868.
Bloomsbury Connection
Bedford College School in Bedford Square.
College for Working Women originally in Queen Square.
Female networks
Elisabeth Jesser Reid, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jane Benson close friend and ‘Second Mistress’ at Bedford School.
Other connections in the field of education.
Publications include:
1864 Blind Workers and Blind Helpers published in Cornhill Magazine 9, Issue. 5 (May 1864): 603-17.
1873 Angélique Arnaud, Abbess of Port Royal.
1879 A College for Working Women article published in Macmillan’s Magazine 1879.
1891 Elizabeth Gilbert and her work for the blind.
Further reading:
‘A college for working women’ by Frances Martin (warwick.ac.uk)