Elizabeth Heyrick

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Though, as a woman, she worked behind the scenes (not in parliament but through print and private direct action) EH of Leicester was a major, under-recognised figure in the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade. Her pamphlet publications address war, cruelty to animals, workers' wages, prison reform, and other social and political topics as well as abolition. Her political thinking on many points startlingly anticipates later socialist positions. She also published lessons for children and a conduct book. The first of these is the genre in which, in the early nineteenth century, her writing career began. Though her sister knew of only sixteen of her pamphlets, the count has since risen steeply. But their unavailability in major reference libraries has hampered recognition of her.
Corfield, Kenneth. “Elizabeth Heyrick: Radical Quaker”. Religion in the Lives of English Women, 1760-1930, edited by Gail Malmgreen, Indiana University Press, pp. 41-67.
53

Milestones

4 December 1769

Elizabeth Coltman (later EH ) was born in Leicester.
Beale, Catherine Hutton, editor. Catherine Hutton and Her Friends. Cornish Brothers.
65

1800

EH published with her birth initials (as E*** C****) Instructive Hints, in Easy Lessons for Children, with Darton, Harvey and Darton .
She had been married for more than a decade and a widow for several years, so the choice of appellation is puzzling.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

Before December 1824

EH published anonymously at Leicester the first edition of her most famous pamphlet, Immediate, Not Gradual, Abolition.
Aucott, Shirley. Women of Courage, Vision and Talent: lives in Leicester 1780 to 1925. Shirley Aucott.
26 and n79
Heyrick, Elizabeth. Immediate, Not Gradual, Abolition.
title-page
Corfield, Kenneth. “Elizabeth Heyrick: Radical Quaker”. Religion in the Lives of English Women, 1760-1930, edited by Gail Malmgreen, Indiana University Press, pp. 41-67.
64n49

18 October 1831

EH died. The cause was said to be a ruptured blood vessel, though it may have been a stroke or a bleeding ulcer.
Beale, Catherine Hutton, editor. Catherine Hutton and Her Friends. Cornish Brothers.
185, 213
Aucott, Shirley. Women of Courage, Vision and Talent: lives in Leicester 1780 to 1925. Shirley Aucott.
124

Biography

Birth and Family

4 December 1769

Elizabeth Coltman (later EH ) was born in Leicester.
Beale, Catherine Hutton, editor. Catherine Hutton and Her Friends. Cornish Brothers.
65