Mary Ferris and the Campaign Against the Corn Laws
March is Women’s History Month. It is a time to think about and celebrate the role of women in the past. In the Bremhill Parish History Project, we highlighted the stories of many women who stood up against injustice or did not conform to the social or economic expectations of their time. Unfortunately, not all of these narratives were featured in our book. The story of Mary Ferris of Charlcutt, Bremhill is one.
In 1844, low wages and high food prices had created a situation in Bremhill where basic foodstuffs were increasingly out of reach of many working families. The Lord of the manor, the Marquis of Lansdowne had made land available in allotments, which eased some pressure as families could grow their own vegetables and other crops. But the harvest that year was bad, and by September, it was reported some local families had had no meat or dairy in their diet for two months. Children were suffering from a lack of food. With the prospect of increased deprivation through the winter, a meeting took place in the Wesleyan chapel in Bremhill at Spirthill.
The small chapel was full, fit to burst. The choice of venue was unsurprising. Much of the congregation and even its minister were agricultural labourers and directly impacted by the challenging economic conditions. The proceedings became political, words were said against the aristocracy, and the discussion touched on the role played by the state and Church of England. However, most of the blame for the distress was laid at the door of the ‘Corn Laws’- government tariffs on imported food, designed to protect British farmers but which also stopped the importation of cheap foodstuffs into the country. Towards the end of the meeting, the chairman asked if there was anyone on the floor who wished to speak, one woman responded, a Charlcutt labourer’s wife, Mary Ferris. Mary observed many of the men in the meeting were afraid to speak for themselves. She went on to give a poignant account of her family’s struggles under the Corn Laws. Mary described how she lay awake at night, unable to sleep for the ache from want of food; how her husband trembled for the lack of nourishment and found it difficult to work; and how their children cried. Her speech was well received, likely it resonated with many in the crowd.
The Spirthill meeting was reported by many newspapers across the country and picked up by journals like The Economist. Most did not publish the more radical ideas expressed, but all reported Mary’s speech.
The proceedings evidently convinced Mary to become politically active in the cause of free trade, and she gave speeches at other meetings called to discuss local distress and the abolition of the Corn Laws. These included those at Goatacre, Lyneham and Bremhill. Generally, the only woman to speak, Mary’s speeches were often well-reported and primarily focused on her struggles to provide for her family on her husband’s meagre wages. After one, comment in the Pictorial Times of London observed it was the duty of journalists to bring the misery of the poor to the attention of the rich. ‘Mary Ferris has told her story, and hers is the story of thousands. Mary Ferris is only one of a class- she proclaims their condition- she avows their sentiments- she speaks their language.’ The Anti Corn Law League cited Mary’s example and around the country people were moved to send money to Bremhill to alleviate local distress. These funds were distributed throughout the neighbourhood and were something that Mary believed saved her own family (and one assumes others) from near starvation.
Mary also called on women to join her in speaking out, and at one assembly in support of free trade, proposed that an all-female meeting be planned to allow women the opportunity to make known their experiences under the Corn Laws. To the bemusement of the press, the resolution in support of her proposal carried. Locally, Mary likely inspired another woman, Lucy Simpkins, to come forward and give a speech at a Bremhill meeting in 1846, which became immortalised in a poem, Hymn of the Wiltshire Labourers, by Charles Dickens.
Mary’s testimony helped bring the issue of the Corn Laws into the national consciousness and to the forefront of national politics. In 1846, the matter was to split the Tory Party and bring down the government of Prime Minister Robert Peel, but the Corn Laws that Mary blamed for causing her distress were finally abolished.
Mary was a poor woman who dared to speak out against injustice when women’s voices, especially poor women, were rarely heard. Although Mary’s story is largely forgotten, this Women’s History Month it is one I think that deserves to be told.
~Louise Ryland-Epton