from his long involvement in the women’s movement that middle-class women
who lived in non-legal unions were the subject of vicious gossip and hampered
in their public work. One of his co-workers, Elizabeth Wolstenholme, had been
six months pregnant in a free union with Ben Elmy, a situation that caused
‘much fluttering in the suffrage dovecotes’ before she was persuaded that it was
in the interests of the cause she served to formalise her marriage, which she had
done in October 1874.^44 One year later, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a key figure
in the nineteenth-century women’s suffrage campaigns, had insisted that
Elizabeth resign as secretary of the Married Women’s Property Committee on
the grounds ‘that what happened before you were married has been and is a
great injury to the cause of women’.^45 Richard had no wish for the woman who
had captured his heart to face a similar fate. Emmeline’s shocked parents consid-
ered any form of marriage other than a legal union in a church ceremony out of
the question for their headstrong eldest daughter or any daughter.
Unexpectedly, Richard’s mother fell ill and died. The recent death of his
father, and now his mother, was a heavy blow at such a time, especially since
Richard had lived for most of his adult life with his parents. A dutiful son, he
was bowed with grief, living alone in what was now an empty, silent house. His
sadness was so heavy that Emmeline feared he would break under the strain of
coping with the emotional distress while also trying to fulfil his demanding
work activities. The wedding was hastened since ‘the lonely one could not be
kept waiting’.^46 On the eve of their wedding, as they parted in happy anticipa-
tion of the next day, Richard told Emmeline yet again how unendingly he loved
her when she asked ‘Are you sure you will always love me and want me for
ever?’^47 Later that night, an anxious Sophie Goulden came to Emmeline’s room.
Conscious that she had not explained to her daughter about the sexual aspects
of marriage, she announced, ‘I want to talk to you.’ The bride to be, not
wanting anything to cast a shadow over the beauty of her courtship, hastily
replied, ‘I do not want to listen.’^48 Since Richard was in mourning for his dead
parents, a white wedding, with full orange blossom for the bride, and
Emmeline’s four younger sisters as bridesmaids, had not been considered appro-
priate. Instead, a brown velvet bridal dress had been made at a local department
store, Kendal and Milne. When the dress was delivered at the last moment the
following day, Emmeline wept to find an unwanted row of brass buttons stitched
down the front, protesting it made her look ‘like a little page-boy’.^49 Only a few
people were invited to the Church of England service, which took place, by
licence, on 18 December 1879, at St. Luke’s, Weaste, in the parish of Eccles in
the county of Lancaster. Six persons were signatories to the marriage, including
Emmeline’s father and her sister, Mary.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUNG WOMANHOOD