Dates

• Existence: 22 November 1801 - 11 August 1887

Biography

Mary Anne Rawson (née Read), philanthropist and slavery abolitionist, was born in Sheffield on 22 November 1801. She was the oldest of the six children of Joseph Read (1765–1837), owner of a smelting works in Attercliffe, and his wife Elizabeth (née Smith), whose family owned an iron foundry in Chesterfield. Mary Anne Rawson’s parents supported the building of Zion Congregational Chapel in Attercliffe, where Elizabeth Read, Mary Anne and her four sisters taught Sunday School classes. Poet James Montgomery was a longstanding friend of Joseph Read and his family; Read and his brother had contributed towards Montgomery’s legal expenses during his 1795 trial. Mary Anne recalls her earliest memories of Montgomery in her ‘Reminiscences’ are of him visiting their house to see her father.

The Read family moved to Wincobank Hall in 1816 and were involved with many philanthropic activities during the 1810s. These included the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, the Society for Superseding the Necessity for Climbing-Boys, the Aged Female Society, Girls and Boys Lancasterian Schools, the Hibernian Society, the Bible Society, the Sunday School Union, and the Missionary Society. Mary Anne Read and her mother Elizabeth were founding members of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society (whose scrapbook is in the collection) in 1825. They took part in numerous fundraising and campaigning activities, and after her disappointment in the terms of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which adopted a gradualist policy rather than an immediate end to slavery, she became a founding member of the Sheffield Ladies Association for the Universal Abolition of Slavery in 1837. She attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840, and hosted Frederick Douglas at Wincobank Hall in 1846 during his lecture tour of the UK.

Mary Anne married William Bacon Rawson, an iron manufacturer in Nottingham, in February 1828. Their daughter Elizabeth (1828 - 1862) was born later that year, and they spent the early part of their married life in apartments of Nottingham Castle. William Rawson died in July 1829, and Mary Anne moved back to live with her family at Wincobank Hall.

Mary Anne Rawson continued her philanthropic work for the rest of her life, which included supporting education by funding local day schools, hosting a boarding school at Wincobank for the daughters of non-conformist families, and with her daughter, she also raised funds for a Free Bible school for girls in Turin. Mary Anne continued a friendship with Montgomery after her father’s death and also supported his charitable interests. After Montgomery’s death in 1854, her daughter Elizabeth encouraged her to record her memories of him, and this scrapbook is in the collection. Elizabeth died in 1862 of tuberculosis, during their visit to Italy.

Mary Anne Rawson died at Wincobank Hall on 11 August 1887 and was buried at the Zion Congregational Chapel, Attercliffe.

Source: ODNB Entry for Mary Anne Rawson.

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