Norrington, Misses Marjorie and Muriel, 1 St Leonard’s Terrace, Mount Radford, Exeter
Marjorie Stephens, née Norrington (1889 – 1981)[1], and Muriel Norrington (1889 – 1981) were twin sisters, born on 26 Jan 1889, in Exeter, the daughters of Henry and Harriet Norrington. Henry was an implement and manure merchant with premises on Bonhay Road and in Okehampton Street. In 1891 the family were living at 17 New North Road. Muriel and Marjorie had seven older brothers and sisters. The two sisters attended Miss White’s boarding school in Budleigh Salterton, where they were living in 1901. Marjorie trained to be a teacher at the Royal Albert Memorial University College, Exeter receiving her certificate in October 1909.[2]
In 1911 Muriel and Marjorie were living with their older sister Ethel in St Leonard’s Terrace. All three are listed as elementary school teachers; Ethel and Muriel worked for the City Council and Marjorie for the County Council. Mrs Mardon, a domestic servant, a widow and her two schoolboy sons were also resident. Enid had been appointed as a trained certificated teacher at the Holloway Street Infants’ School in 1908.[3] It was Muriel Norrington who successfully proposed to the Exeter City Association of Teachers in 1913 a motion to the National Conference of the National Union of Teachers that the conference should express their sympathy with women members who were currently disenfranchised.[4] A similar motion had been lost in 1912.
Marjorie and Muriel Norrington were members of the Exeter branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. They are referred to as stewards at the conference of the Provincial Council of the NUWSS in 1913 at which Maud Royden and Margaret Robertson spoke.[5] They assisted at the Fete and Forest of Christmas trees fundraising event in November 1913.[6] Marjorie Norrington was one of the women who carried the Land’s End to London banner through Exeter during the suffrage pilgrimage in July 1913.[7] One of the sisters also heled with arrangements at the NUWSS fete at Spreytonway in July 1914.[8]
Marjorie married Herbert Stephens at St George’s Chapel Exeter on 2 June 1915.[9] In 1939 Marjorie Stephens and her sister Muriel were living at 10 Baring Crescent, with Muriel listed as schoolmistress and Marjorie listed as a married woman employed on unpaid domestic duties. (One individual record is closed, presumably that for Marjorie’s husband.)
Marjorie died on 2 Jun 1981, and Muriel died on 3 Jun 1981. They were living at 25 Matford Avenue, at the time of their deaths. Marjorie left over £177,000 and Muriel about £42,000.
Entry created by Julia Neville, October 2018
[1] Family and census information from www.ancestry.co.uk
[2] DEG, 21 Oct 1909.
[3] WT, 16 Oct 1908.
[4] DEG, 4 Dec 1913
[5] WT, 26 May 1913.
[6] WT, 29 Nov 1913.
[7] WT, 7 Jul 1913.
[8] DEG, 10 Jul 1914.
[9] DEG, 4 Jun 1915.