Charlotte Wilson

Charlotte Mary Wilson (6 May 1854, Kemerton, Worcestershire – 28 April 1944, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York) was an English Fabian and anarchist who co-founded Freedom newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade. She remained editor of Freedom until 1895.

Early life and education Charlotte Wilson was born Charlotte Mary Martin into a middle-class family in Kemerton, in Worcestershire, a village near the town of Tewkesbury in the adjoining county of Gloucestershire. Her father, Robert Spencer Martin, was a wealthy surgeon, whose grandfather was a silk manufacturer, while her mother, Clementina Susannah Davies, came from a prosperous commercial and clerical family.

Wilson initially attended Cheltenham College, where "she was very unhappy". Afterwards, in the early 1870s, possibly 1873 or 1874, she attended Merton Hall stated that Wilson did not attend Girton College "as has often been said". E. Nesbit, the Fabian writer and poet, seems to have been the first to have made the mistake, see . She was followed by , who described Wilson as "a Girton graduate", and more recently by , who described her as "Girton-educated". About W - their article was the second one in the initial part of the centenary issue of Freedom and was accompanied by ten other articles which were authored by HB, NW and VR, and in the case of HB and NW were co-authored by them. The remainder of the issue included an article by Nicholas Walter., a small manor house that was attached to the School of Pythagoras in the Cambridge UniversityMerton Hall later evolved into Newnham College., where she was one of fourteen girls. In college Wilson took the Higher Local Examination. She did not take a degree because at the time women were not allowed to take a degree in the university, a proscription which wasn't lifted until 1923. Wilson left Cambridge "with a fluency in the language of positivist social science, an ability to engage in masculine discourse about economics and evolution that made hers one of the handful of female voices audible in the radical debates."

The Fabians

In 1876, Wilson married Arthur Wilson, son of the vicar of Islington in London, a distant cousin, a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford and a stockbroker. The couple initially lived in Hampstead in London, where she became "active in charitable and educational work.". In 1885, E. Nesbit, the Fabian writer and poet described Wilson in a letter to Ada Breakwell, a friend of hers, as follows: Anarchist author George Woodcock (1990) documented: "on her conversion to socialism documented that the revival of socialism occurred in the 1880s. [Wilson] assumed a simpler way of life in a cottage at the edge of the Heath". observed: "... the Simple Life has always appealed more to the educated classes than the working population who, understandably, have often failed to see the point of it. The country cottage cult was particularly strong amongst intellectual women of the 1890s. For instance, Charlotte Wilson, Girton-educated [sic] anarchist and feminist, an aficionado of the style - so much so that many people believed she had invented it - held famous Fabian gatherings in her farmhouse kitchen, a room in which no cooking ever seems to have been done." (See also the description of Mrs Wilson's faux farm kitchen where the club met by E. Nesbit.)

Hinely (2012) observed that, in the three to four decades before World War I, "Individual radicals and their fluid organizations met and diverged under many different labels: anarchists, anti-imperialists, New Women, eugenicists, vegetarians, and, most broadly of all, socialists." Furthermore, as anarchist author David Goodway documented: "In the early years of the revival of socialism, boundaries between the various societies were blurred and there was much overlapping." Wilson was a case in point. Goodway again: "An example is Charlotte Wilson, the first editor of Freedom, also being a member of the Fabian Society."

Woodcock documented that Wilson "was a founder member of the Fabian Society, and in December 1884 was elected, with Bernard Shaw and three others, to its first executive committee."See also Also, as Hinely (2012) observed, starting in the late 1870s, she formed or joined numerous organizations. For example, she founded an informal political study group for advanced thinkers, known as the Hampstead Historic Club (also known as the Karl Marx Society or the Proudhon SocietyBritish Library Archive ADD MS 50511 f143, Emma Brooke to G.B. Shaw, 26 November 1885), which met in Wyldes. No records of the club have survived. However, there are references to it in the memoirs of several of those who attended. For example, in her history of Wyldes, Wilson recorded the names of some of those who visited her house, most of whom are known to have been present at club meetings. The names included: Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw, Sydney Olivier, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Belfort Bax, Edward Pease, E. Nesbit, Hubert Bland, Karl Pearson, Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, Frank Podmore, Ford Madox Brown, and Olive Schreiner among others. The secretary was Emma Brooke.

The Hamstead Historic Club initially turned its attention to studying Das Kapital by Karl Marx which was read out by a Russian woman in French but later turned to Proudhon. In 1889 George Bernard Shaw described the Club discussions and how heated they became. Although the Fabian Society and Hampstead Historic Club contained many of the same people, they remained separate. The ideas debated by the club resulted in the publication of Fabian Essays in Socialism in 1889. This led Shaw to describe Hampstead, and the meetings, as 'the birthplace of middle-class socialism.'Hampstead and Highgate Express. 1 June 1907.

Another society was The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, which was established by Wilson with Sergei Stepniak, Karl Pearson and Wilfrid Voynich. In this context, Wilson is believed to be the model for Gemma in the best-selling novel The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich.

In September 1886, the Fabian Society had two powerful female members, Wilson and Annie Besant. However, Wilson "had been gradually edged out by Annie Besant's determination that the Society should adopt an active political role". Consequently, the Society held a meeting in Anderton's Hotel in Fleet Street of the various socialist organisations in the city to debate the possibility of forming a political party based upon the party model of politics that was being adopted in Continental Europe.. Besant made such a proposal and Hubert Bland seconded it, while William Morris proposed and Wilson seconded an amendment to it. Their amendment was: The amendment was defeated. Consequently Wilson "resigned from the Fabian executive in April 1887, and took no active part in the society for twenty years, though she maintained her membership."

The Freedom years Initially, while Wilson was in the Hamstead Historic Club, she particularly admired William Morris. However, she then changed her allegiance to Peter Kropotkin. Correspondingly, from 1884 to 1896, she wrote extensively to Karl Pearson about anarchism, the Fabians, the Karl Marx Society and about her hoped-forRussian Society.See the Pearson Papers (ref. 900) at UCL In particular, she asked his advice about reading Marx and tried to justify to him her view of human nature that "made anarchism the only moral system of politics." In mid-January 1886, anarchist Peter Kropotkin, who was sick with malaria and scurvy, was finally released with his anarchist colleagues from Clairvaux Prison. During his imprisonment, Wilson had been in touch with his wife. On the 20th January, Kropotkin wrote to George Herzig, a friend of his in Geneva: "I am called to London to found an anarchist (English) paper; the means are existant and I will get to work busily" . Woodock and Avakumoović (1971) commented: "It is not certain from whom the 'call' came, but it was very probably from Charlotte Wilson".

In early March, Kropotkin and his wife emigrated to England, where they settled in Harrow, London. In the same month, or in early April, they met Wilson, Dr J. Burns-Gibson, and one or two others.Woodcock wrongly called Dr J. Burns-Gibson Dr Burns Gibson. Burns-Gibson (who appears to be under-documented) was a medical doctor, a public speaker, a book reviewer and a much-published author who wrote on, among other subjects, philosophy and psychology. He was a member of the Aristotelian Society and the Philosophical Society (location currently unknown). And he was closely associated with the Fabian Society and the Socialist League. His article ‘Anarchism kills individualism’ was published anonymously on page 3 of the first issue of Freedom. Nassim (date currently unknown) describes his involvement in the early history of the Aristotelian Society. In October, the first issue of Freedom was published as a four-page sheet. Wilson became its editor and remained in the post until 1895. The newspaper's mission statement is stated in every issue, on page 2, and summarises the writers' view of anarchism:

Her publication Work (1888) was mistakenly attributed to Kropotkin for many years."Book Review: Charlotte M. Wilson's Anarchist Essays", NEFAC, 2 December 2002.

Return to the Fabians Wilson did not involve herself in left-wing politics for the remainder of the century, during which her father died in 1896, with the death of her mother following in 1903. Wilson resumed political activity in 1906. She did not disavow anarchist ideology. However, she aligned herself with the Fabian Society, and from 1908 to 1913,. she served as its General Secretary, during which she joined the campaign for female suffrage.London School of Economics Archive FABIAN SOCIETY/H30London School of Economics Archive FABIAN SOCIETY/H20

Wilson was also the main founder of the Fabian Women's Group, which:

Wilson hosted the meetings of the Group at her home in St John%27s Wood. She was also the Secretary of the Studies Subcommittee (1908–1913) of the Society in which she heavily influenced the direction of its studies into working conditions for women. In 1912 she co-wrote with Helen Blagg a tract for the Society entitled Women and prisons. In 1911, according to Walter (2007, p. 227) she described the activities of the Fabian Women's Group. originally 1911. And, until 1916, when she resigned because of illness; she was its most active member.

Publications 1880s "Women's labour in factories". Justice. 8 March 1884. "The condition of the Russian peasantry". Today. July and August. 1885. April 1886. June 1886. July 1886This contribution was also published in , see .

November 1886. July 1887. "The condemned anarchists". Commonweal. 12 November 1887. "The tragedy of Chicago. Freedom. December 1887. April 1888. July 1888. October 1888. April-September 1889. August 1889. 1890s February 1890. December 1893.This article was reprinted in 1893 as "Freedom Pamphlets. No. 8." by C.M. Wilson, London, see Anarchism and outrage. 1893. observed in a footnote to this article: "This article (signed 'The Freedom Group') though it is certain that Charlotte Wilson was the author) was published in 1893 in response to a declaration from the Spanish government." However, with the sole exception of the concluding paragraph, the article appears to be identifical with "Anarchism and outrage" above, which was reprinted from the Decemeber [sic] 1893 issue of Freedom. Also, as will be seen from the above pdf, the date of the reprint is stated on its cover as "1893" and not "1909" as Rooum stated. 1900s 1900. 1902-1903. "The economic disintegration of the family". Fabian News. July 1909. (With Helen Blagg) 1912.

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References

Charlotte Wilson

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