Anna Doyle Wheeler
Encyclopedia
Anna Doyle Wheeler was a writer and advocate of political rights for women
and the benefits of contraception. She married Francis Massey Wheeler when she was aged 15 and they separated 12 years later. After his death she supplemented her income by translating the works of French philosophers.
She was an acquaintance of Robert Owen
, Jeremy Bentham
, and Frances Wright
. The philosopher William Thompson
described his book Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and Hence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery as the "joint property" of himself and her.
A staunch advocate of political rights for women and equal opportunities in education, she was friendly with French feminists and socialists.
from Fennor Parish in Tipperary. She had no formal education, but learned French, geography, reading and writing. She was 15 when she married Francis Massey Wheeler, (possibly a scion of Baron Massy of Duntrileague in the County of Limerick
), whence they started living in Limerick
. She had five daughters and a son, her fifth daughter (born 1802) became the novelist Rosina Bulwer Lytton
(née Rosina Doyle Wheeler). She read widely, taking in both French political thinkers
and Mary Wollstonecraft
. Her husband Francis was an abusive alcoholic so she separated from him after 12 years by moving to Guernsey
to stay with her uncle, General Sir John Doyle the Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
. In 1815 she moved to London to benefit the education of her daughters. By 1816 she started journeying through France
.
and other French Owenite
philosophers. She managed to spend her life travelling, staying with friends and promoting the news and ideas of the feminist movement. She lived principally in London
, Dublin, Caen
, and Paris
.
In London, she met Robert Owen
, Jeremy Bentham
and Frances Wright
, and became close friends with William Thompson
. In 1825, provoked by James Mill
's dismissal of political representation for women, Thompson wrote Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and Hence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery. Thompson described the book as the "joint property" of himself and Anna Wheeler. They were both advocates of the benefits of contraception.
Wheeler was one of the first women to campaign for feminism at public meetings in England. In 1829 at a chapel near Finsbury Square
, London, she spoke on "Rights of Women", refuting forensically arguments for male superiority. She encouraged women to work together and create an organization to 'to improve the status of women and remove the disabilities women endure'. :
A staunch advocate of political rights for women and equal opportunities in education, she was friends with French feminists and socialists Flora Tristan
and Desirée Veret. In the early 1830s she helped found the journal Tribune des femmes :fr:La Tribune des femmes. Her other friends and associates included Henri Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier
, Suzanne Voilquin :fr:Suzanne Voilquin, Marie-Reine Guindorff :fr:Marie-Reine Guindorf and Jeanne Deroin
.
In 1833 William Thompson left her an annuity
of £100 in his will.
.
Wheeler's daughter Rosina Bulwer Lytton
was a noted writer and outspoken public speaker. Her grandson Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
served as Viceroy of British India from 1876-1880. Her great grandsons became the second
and third
Earls of Lytton.
Her great granddaughter became the sister in law of the Prime Minister Gerald Balfour
, whilst another great granddaughter, Lady Constance Lytton
, followed Anna's role model and became a leading Suffragette
protester, hunger striker and writer.
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and the benefits of contraception. She married Francis Massey Wheeler when she was aged 15 and they separated 12 years later. After his death she supplemented her income by translating the works of French philosophers.
She was an acquaintance of Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
, Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
, and Frances Wright
Frances Wright
Frances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
. The philosopher William Thompson
William Thompson (philosopher)
William Thompson was an Irish political and philosophical writer and social reformer, developing from utilitarianism into an early critic of capitalist exploitation whose ideas influenced the Cooperative, Trade Union and Chartist movements as well as Karl Marx...
described his book Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and Hence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery as the "joint property" of himself and her.
A staunch advocate of political rights for women and equal opportunities in education, she was friendly with French feminists and socialists.
Early life
Anna Doyle was the daughter of a prebendaryPrebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
from Fennor Parish in Tipperary. She had no formal education, but learned French, geography, reading and writing. She was 15 when she married Francis Massey Wheeler, (possibly a scion of Baron Massy of Duntrileague in the County of Limerick
Baron Massy
Baron Massy, of Duntrileague in the County of Limerick, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1776 for Hugh Massy, who had previously represented County Limerick in the Irish House of Commons. His son, the second Baron, also represented this constituency in the Irish Parliament...
), whence they started living in Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
. She had five daughters and a son, her fifth daughter (born 1802) became the novelist Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton wrote and published fourteen novels, a volume of essays and a volume of letters. Her husband was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a novelist and politician...
(née Rosina Doyle Wheeler). She read widely, taking in both French political thinkers
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
. Her husband Francis was an abusive alcoholic so she separated from him after 12 years by moving to Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
to stay with her uncle, General Sir John Doyle the Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
The Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a Crown dependency of the British Crown. The role of the Lieutenant Governor is to act as the de facto head of state in Guernsey and as liaison between the governments of Guernsey and the...
. In 1815 she moved to London to benefit the education of her daughters. By 1816 she started journeying through France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Later life
Wheeler's husband died in 1820 and left her penniless, so she supplemented her income by translating into English the works of Charles FourierCharles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
and other French Owenite
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
philosophers. She managed to spend her life travelling, staying with friends and promoting the news and ideas of the feminist movement. She lived principally in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Dublin, Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
In London, she met Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
, Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and Frances Wright
Frances Wright
Frances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
, and became close friends with William Thompson
William Thompson (philosopher)
William Thompson was an Irish political and philosophical writer and social reformer, developing from utilitarianism into an early critic of capitalist exploitation whose ideas influenced the Cooperative, Trade Union and Chartist movements as well as Karl Marx...
. In 1825, provoked by James Mill
James Mill
James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He was a founder of classical economics, together with David Ricardo, and the father of influential philosopher of classical liberalism, John Stuart Mill.-Life:Mill was born at Northwater Bridge, in the parish of...
's dismissal of political representation for women, Thompson wrote Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and Hence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery. Thompson described the book as the "joint property" of himself and Anna Wheeler. They were both advocates of the benefits of contraception.
Wheeler was one of the first women to campaign for feminism at public meetings in England. In 1829 at a chapel near Finsbury Square
Finsbury Square
Finsbury Square is a square in central London. It was developed in 1777 on the site of a previous area of green space to the east of London known as Finsbury Fields, in the parish of St Luke's and near Moorfields. It is sited on the east side of City Road, opposite the east side of Bunhill Fields....
, London, she spoke on "Rights of Women", refuting forensically arguments for male superiority. She encouraged women to work together and create an organization to 'to improve the status of women and remove the disabilities women endure'. :
A staunch advocate of political rights for women and equal opportunities in education, she was friends with French feminists and socialists Flora Tristan
Flora Tristan
Flora Tristan was a socialist writer and activist. She was also one of the founders of modern feminism...
and Desirée Veret. In the early 1830s she helped found the journal Tribune des femmes :fr:La Tribune des femmes. Her other friends and associates included Henri Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
, Suzanne Voilquin :fr:Suzanne Voilquin, Marie-Reine Guindorff :fr:Marie-Reine Guindorf and Jeanne Deroin
Jeanne Deroin
Jeanne Deroin was a French socialist feminist.Born in Paris, Deroin became a seamstress. In 1831, she joined the followers of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon...
.
In 1833 William Thompson left her an annuity
Annuity (European financial arrangements)
An annuity can be defined as a financial contract which provides an income stream in return for an initial payment with specific parameters. It is the opposite of a settlement funding...
of £100 in his will.
Publications
- Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other, Men. (1825) William Thompson credited her with many of the ideas.
- The Rights of Women (1830) published in The British Co-operatorHistory of the cooperative movementThe history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business...
. - Letter from Vlasta (1833)
Death and commemoration
Anna Doyle Wheeler was forced to withdraw from public life in the 1840s due to ill health, and she died in 1848 having refused invitations to take part in the French Revolution of 1848French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...
.
Wheeler's daughter Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Rosina Bulwer Lytton wrote and published fourteen novels, a volume of essays and a volume of letters. Her husband was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a novelist and politician...
was a noted writer and outspoken public speaker. Her grandson Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...
served as Viceroy of British India from 1876-1880. Her great grandsons became the second
Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton
Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, DL , styled Viscount Knebworth until 1891, was a British politician and colonial administrator...
and third
Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton
Neville Stephen Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, OBE was a British military officer and artist.He was a son of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton and grandson of the famous novelists, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Rosina Doyle Wheeler. Neville Lytton was born in India while his father served...
Earls of Lytton.
Her great granddaughter became the sister in law of the Prime Minister Gerald Balfour
Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour
Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour PC , known as Gerald Balfour until 1930, was a British nobleman and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...
, whilst another great granddaughter, Lady Constance Lytton
Constance Lytton
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control.Although she was raised as member of the privileged, ruling class elite within British Society, she rejected this...
, followed Anna's role model and became a leading Suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
protester, hunger striker and writer.
Sources
- Cited sources for biography of Anna Doyle Wheeler at Sunshine for Women.
- Bonnie S. Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First International Women's Movement 1830–1860 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000]
- Margaret MaFadden, Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism [Lexington, Ky: University of Kentucky Press, 1999]
- Karen Offen, European Feminisms 1700–1795: A Political History [Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press, 2000]
- William Thompson, Dolores Dooley (ed.), Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women,Against the Pretensions of the Other, Men [(1825), reprinted Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1997]
- Anna Wheeler, 'To the Editor of The Crisis (1833)', The Crisis, August 1833 [reprinted in Marie Mulvey Roberts and Tamae Mizuta (ed.), The Rebels, Irish Feminists [London: Routledge / Thoemmes Press, 1995]