Women’s Property Rights Reform Sir Thomas Erskine Perry Autograph Letters 1856 Advocating Legal Equality for Married Women

Sir Thomas Erskine Perry

Manuscripts & Autographs

Perry, Thomas Erskine. Pair of autograph letters signed circa 1856 documents early legislative advocacy for married women’s property rights in mid-nineteenth-century Britain, when existing law transferred a woman’s property, wages, and legal identity to her husband upon marriage. Written in the same year that Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon submitted a foundational petition to Parliament, the letters record coordinated efforts to mobilize public support and influence parliamentary debate. Perry, a liberal politician, articulates the need for organized petitioning and evidentiary argument to challenge existing legal structures, situating the correspondence within the broader development of the women’s rights movement that would lead to reforms such as the Married Women's Property Act 1870. The archive supports research into Victorian legal reform, gender and property law, and collaboration between male legislators and female activists.

Perry, Thomas Erskine. Autograph letters signed, March 14, 1856, and undated second letter. Eight handwritten pages total. Both letters signed “E. Perry.” The first, four-page letter states that the recipient’s “petition in the House was I think well received…get up as many petitions as possible from different places to be presented on or before that day in favor of a change of the law…[and] have it signed by men as well as women,” emphasizing broad-based support. The second, also four pages though lacking its opening leaves, outlines structured arguments for reform, including “Rights and Responsibilities of Husbands and Wives,” “Obligations to Support Children,” and “Liability to be sued on her own contracts.” Perry requests “examples of the evils sustained under the present law” to assemble a “cloud of witnesses” against existing legal conditions, indicating an evidentiary approach to legislative advocacy.

Created at a formative moment in the campaign for women’s legal and economic independence, the letters illustrate how reform efforts combined grassroots petitioning with parliamentary strategy. The issues addressed—property ownership, contractual liability, and familial responsibility—became central to subsequent legislative debates, including the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 and later property reforms. The correspondence demonstrates the collaborative nature of early feminist activism, in which women’s organizing and male political sponsorship intersected to challenge entrenched legal doctrines. Light age toning; paper clean and legible; overall in very good condition.

Item #15346

Price: $550.00