Louisa Lawson
| Louisa Lawson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Louisa Lawson 17 February 1848 Guntawang Homestead Gulgong, New South Wales |
| Died | 12 August 1920 (aged 72) Gladesville, New South Wales |
| Resting place | Rookwood Cemetery |
| Education | Mudgee National School |
| Spouse(s) | Peter Lawson né Niels Larsen |
| Children | Henry Lawson and 4 others |
Louisa Lawson (née Albury) (17 February 1848 – 12 August 1920) was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.
Louisa Lawson was born on 17 February 1848 at Guntawang Station near Gulgong, New South Wales, the daughter of Henry Albury and Harriet Winn. She was the second of 12 children in a struggling family, and like many girls at that time left school at 13. On 7 July 1866 aged 18 she married Niels Larsen (Peter Lawson), a Norwegian sailor, at the Methodist parsonage at Mudgee, New South Wales. He was often away gold mining or working with his father-in-law, leaving her on her own to raise four children – Henry 1867, Charles 1869, Peter 1873 and Gertrude 1877, the twin of Tegan who died at eight months. Louisa grieved over the loss of Tegan for many years and left the care of her other children to the oldest child, Henry. This led to ill feelings on Henry's part towards his mother and the two often fought. In 1882 she and her children moved to Sydney where she managed boarding houses.
Lawson used the money saved while running her boarding houses to purchase shares in the radical pro-federation newspaper The Republican in 1887. She and son Henry edited the Republican in 1887–88, which was printed on an old press in Louisa's cottage. The Republican called for an Australian republic uniting under 'the flag of a Federated Australia, the Great Republic of the Southern Seas'. The Republican was replaced by the Nationalist, but it lasted two issues.
With her earnings and her experience from working on The Republican, Lawson was able in May 1888, to edit and publish The Dawn, Australia's first journal produced solely by women which was distributed throughout Australia and overseas. The Dawn had a strong feminist perspective and frequently addressed issues such as women's right to vote and assume public office, women's education, women's economic and legal rights, domestic violence, and temperance. The Dawn was published monthly for 17 years (1888–1905) and at its height employed 10 female staff. Lawson's son Henry also contributed poems and stories for the paper, and in 1894 The Dawn press printed Henry's first book, Short Stories in Prose and Verse.
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