as well as help in her cherished project of enabling Richard to give up his legal
practice and concentrate on public work.^6 When Robert Goulden informed his
eldest daughter that a property settlement was not imminent, Emmeline was
bitterly disappointed.
The baby, a girl named Christabel Harriette, was born at home on 22
September 1880. The young mother herself nursed the contented Christabel
who slept much and cried little.^7 Over the next few years, Emmeline did not
escape the fate of the majority of women in the nineteenth century, whatever
their material and social circumstances, namely frequent childbirth.^8 She
selected the name Estelle for a second girl, born in the same house on 5 May
1882, with Richard adding Sylvia, the latter being the only name to which the
new addition to the family would later respond.^9 With a growing young family
and not too healthy bank balance, a decision was now made to leave urban
Manchester and return to the big Goulden family home in the leafy outskirts of
Salford. A servant, Susannah, was employed to nurse Sylvia and to help gener-
ally, thus enabling Emmeline to continue with her political work. Being a
mother was never Emmeline’s primary identity. As she later explained, ‘I was
never so absorbed with home and children ... that I lost interest in community
affairs. Dr. Pankhurst did not desire that I should turn myself into a household
machine. It was his firm belief that society as well as the family stands in need
of women’s services.’^10 Creating such a space for herself was important to
Emmeline, a fact which Richard wisely encouraged and understood; he wanted
a wife who would share his enthusiasm for struggling causes, including his
battles within the Liberal Party over the war controversy. When the Rev.
Paxton Hood was hounded from the pulpit for preaching in his Manchester
constituency three sermons against imperialist expansion and the war, Richard
and his father-in-law, Robert Goulden, supported the beleaguered man. The
wealthy pro-war faction in the Manchester Liberal Association, however, then
succeeded in ousting the well-known local citizen, Abel Heywood, a pacifist in
the present crisis, as the Liberal candidate to stand in the next general election
in favour of their own man; the manoeuvre caused further dissension since
Heywood was well respected and had previously stood twice as the representa-
tive of Liberal interests in parliamentary elections. Richard, tired of all the
in-fighting, bided his time and then, in July 1883, resigned from the Liberal
Party and announced his intention of standing as an Independent at the next
general election. Within two months, a by-election was called in Manchester
and since the Liberals refused to contest the seat the fight was between Richard
and the Tory candidate.^11
Emmeline, who adored her husband, was ardent for his success, as were both
her parents, her father acting as Richard’s agent. Pregnant with their third child,
she helped as best she could, supporting Richard’s radical election address which
advocated, amongst other things, the abolition of the House of Lords, the dises-
tablishment of the Church of England, nationalisation of the land, adult
suffrage for men and women, free compulsory secular education, and Home Rule
MARRIAGE AND ENTRY INTO POLITICAL LIFE