Earp, Miss Sophie

Earp, Miss Sophie, East Undercliff, The Maer, Exmouth

Mary Sophia Earp (1859-1928) was born in the summer of 1859 in Melbourne Derbyshire. Her father, Henry Webster Earp, was a wool merchant and Mary (known as Sophie) grew up in Church House in the centre of the town. She studied moral philosophy at Newnham College Cambridge and was awarded the titular degree of BA. She then went on to teach and lecture in political science. It was when she was working at Cheltenham Ladies’ College in October 1887 that she met the Canadian author and feminist Lily Dougall. They moved in together in January 1888 and were lifelong partners; the relationship was a close one. Lily Dougall’s work is now known for its exploration of religious and philosophical themes but she also wrote novels in which many of the protagonists are strong independent women.[1] Apart from giving emotional support, Sophie acted as her critic, proof-reader, business manager, secretary and adviser.[2] In 1903 Lily Dougall was advised to move to Exmouth because she suffered from asthma and for the next ten years the two women lived at East Undercliff, Exmouth. In a news item on Lily Dougall, the Canadian Magazine in 1906 reported ‘the house [in Exmouth] is built on a sand dune, close to the water’s edge, and was formerly the residence of Francis Danby, whose sunsets painted at this spot made a sensation in the world of art about the middle of the last century. The genial climate allows the enjoyment all the year round of open doors and windows…’.

Sophie took an active interest in education in Exmouth; she was a manager at the Exeter Road Schools and on the committee of the Exeter Road Evening Classes – at a prize-giving event in 1908 she made a speech emphasising the importance of education and training after leaving day schools.[3] She took the initiative in starting the Exmouth Book Club in March 1907 and was responsible for its development. It soon developed into a lending library for the town and flourished for many years.

The earliest report (in the local press) of Sophie’s involvement in the women’s suffrage movement was at a meeting of the Women’s Local Government Society in the spring of 1905, when she was elected on to the committee to promote the co-operation of women in local government.[4] By this time Sophie had evidently joined the Exmouth branch of the Women’s Liberal Association. in May 1906 she hosted a meeting at East Undercliff where the speaker was William Balkwill Lake JP. He had recently stood as a Liberal parliamentary candidate and told the group ‘it was very gratifying to meet some of those who had taken such an active interest and part in the recent election’. His view was that ‘the [women’s franchise] movement had now taken a firm hold, not only among the cultured women of the country, who had formerly monopolised the movement, but upon the wives and daughters of the working classes’.[5] On 8 October 1908 Lake was again adopted as a candidate at the annual meeting of Honiton Division Liberal party; Sophie, along with Miss Phear attended as members of the Ladies’ Liberal Committee.[6] In spring 1910 a debate on women’s suffrage was organised by EWLA; the main speaker for the extension of suffrage to women was Sophie, whilst Mr W R Redway was ‘in favour of continuance of the present system’.[7] Later that year Sophie attempted to put extra pressure on the Liberal party, as president of Exmouth Women’s Liberal Association, by putting forward a statement to the Honiton Division ‘We members of the Exmouth Women’s Liberal Association pledge ourselves not to work for any parliamentary candidate who will not pledge himself, if elected, to vote for any Women’s Suffrage Bill or amendment at any stage unless the Liberal Party Whips tell officially against it’.[8]

Sophie joined the Exmouth NUWSS; she and Lily Dougall attended a lunch (on 1 December 1909) to Lady Frances Balfour and Sir John Cockburn who had been the principal speakers the previous evening at a meeting of the Exeter NUWSS in Barnfield Hall, Exeter. When the Suffrage Pilgrims arrived in Exmouth on 4 July 1913 Sophie made a speech to them, alongside Miss Fielden, Miss Wilcocks and Rev A Poulton.[9]

Before the start of WW1 Sophie and Lily moved from Exmouth to Cutts End, Cumnor, Oxfordshire where they lived for the rest of their lives. Sophie died on 16 November 1928; the year in which women finally achieved equal voting rights with men.

 

 

Entry created by April Marjoram, June 2018


[1] Virginia Blain. Patricia Clements. Isobel Grundy. Feminist Companion to Literature, BT Batsford, 1990.

[2] Joanna Dean, The Life of Lily Dougall, Indiana University Press, 2007.

[3] ExJ, 14 March 1908.

[4] ExJ, 18 Feb 1905.

[5] WT, 29 May 1906.

[6] WT, 8 Oct 1908.

[7] ExJ, 23 Apr 1910.

[8] WT, 25 Nov 1910

[9] DEG, 5 Jul 1913.

 

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