Caroline Biggs

Caroline Ashurst Biggs (1840-1889) was an advocate for women’s rights and a third generation member of the Ashurst family of radical activists. Born in Leicester on 23 August 1840, she was the second child of Matilda Ashurst Biggs and Joseph Biggs. She died at 19 Notting Hill Square in London on 4 September 1889. At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, her photograph was included in an exhibition of Portraits of Eminent British Women, in a section devoted to Pioneers in Philanthropy and General Advancement of Women.

On her father’s side Caroline Ashurst Biggs was niece to two radical Members of Parliament from Leicester: John Biggs and William Biggs. On her mother’s side her grandfather was the prominent British lawyer William Henry Ashurst, influential in radical causes from abolishing the church rate taxes to Italian unification. Her aunt Eliza Ashurst Bardonneau-Narcy was among the first to translate George Sand’s novels into English. Her other aunt Emilie Ashurst Venturi was the main translator and propagandist for the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, the editor of The Shield (the magazine for repealing the Contagious Diseases Acts), and the author of numerous essays. Her three sisters also left their mark in print: Elizabeth Ashurst Biggs (1838-1905) published two novels anonymously; Maude Ashurst Biggs (1857-1933) was an advocate for Polish nationalism and contributed 23 articles to The Englishwoman's Review; Kate Ada Ashurst Biggs (1859-1901) published two articles in The Gentleman's Magazine.

Caroline Ashurst Biggs was a strong advocate for women’s suffrage. Along with her sister Elizabeth and her aunts Emilie Venturi and Caroline Stansfeld, she signed the 1866 petition for Women’s Suffrage. Biggs, along with her father Joseph Biggs and her uncle William Henry Ashurst junior, was active in the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS). Biggs and Clementia (Mrs. Peter A.) Taylor were elected together as joint secretary in 1867. She served until 1871 when John Stuart Mill agitated to get her removed because of her support for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. He wrote to a friend about Biggs, “This only makes her the more dangerous, and she will infallibly spring a mine on you some day which will be successful... So long as she remains in the Committee, you have a quiet, steady opponent, who will betray you to the enemy, and take advantage from within of all your weak points: one infinitely more dangerous than Mrs. Taylor ever could have been, because she knows her own mind and can keep her own counsel.” In 1872 Biggs broke away from the NSWS to join the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. This splinter group included her sisters Caroline Stansfeld and Emilie Venturi, and important activists of the era such as Ursula Bright, Lydia Becker, Frances Power Cobbe, and Helen Blackburn. Biggs gave dozens of speeches encouraging women’s suffrage across Britain, including in Suffolk and Wales. In 1870 when women gained the right to vote in School board elections, Biggs actively supported women candidates and gave speeches publicly supporting them at rallies.

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