Duo tell Jane’s ‘amazing’ story

A NEW book puts the spotlight on a little known woman from Dumfries and Galloway who was very active in the suffragette movement.

‘Stranraer Suffragette Storms Scotland’ tells the story of Jane Elizabeth Taylor, who has been unacknowledged locally for a long time.

It is jointly written by Pamela Macmillan and Margie Ferguson, above, from Wigtownshire, who describe their subject as an ‘amazing woman’.

They first became interested in her after spotting a reference in a book by Leah Leneman.

It then took two years of researching and writing before the book was launched this year, with the support of Stranraer History Trust.

Explaining more about her, Pamela said: “In the 1860s when the railway was in its infancy she travelled to Orkney and Shetland from Stranraer and stopped off en route to deliver lectures as she went.

“She was a suffragist so used only parliamentary and constitutional means to further the cause of women’ s suffrage. She was no rabble rouser but by cogent logical and well reasoned arguments presented eloquently, to often hostile audiences, she persuaded those presents to sign petitions which could then be presented to Parliament by sympathetic MPs to evidence the extent of support in the country for giving women the vote.

“She was indomitable, indefatigable and totally committed to the cause.”

And she described how during her gruelling schedule of lectures Jane stayed in miners’ cottages and fisher rows, sleeping often by the dying embers of a fire, only getting a bed when someone else vacated it to go to work.

Pamela added: “Jane Taylor was an independent woman who funded her own lecture tours.

“She died in 1905, largely unknown and definitely unlauded.”

But thanks to the duo’s efforts, that is now changing and more people are hearing about Jane.

Last week the two authors were presented with a framed copy of a parliamentary motion presented to the Scottish Parliament by Emma Harper MSP.

It asks for Jane Elizabeth Taylor’s contribution to the suffrage movement to be recognised and honoured: it also asks for the Parliament to applaud the work of Stranraer History Trust for promoting through its publications, the local history of Wigtownshire; and it acknowledges the work of Margie and Pamela for highlighting the life of Jane Taylor and her contribution to the suffrage campaign.”

Pamela added: “The parliamentary motion is a very fitting tribute to Jane as she only used parliamentary means to further the campaign for woman’s suffrage.

“My hope is that Jane Taylor’s contribution to the suffrage movement will now be more widely recognised and lauded, not only in her native Wigtownshire, but throughout Scotland.”

n “Stranraer Suffragist Storms Scotland” by Margie Ferguson and Pam Macmillan is available from Stranraer History Trust