Written by Lauren Hood
Mary Burton dedicated her life to advancing the position of women in Scotland, campaigning for women’s increased involvement in politics and for easier access to education. Mary’s life has recently been commemorated throughout Edinburgh, mainly through initiatives started by Heriot-Watt University and Historic Environment Scotland. This article will explore the causes which Mary Burton dedicated her life to and how Scotland remembers her today.
Elizabeth Paton and William Kininmund Burton welcomed their daughter Mary on August 7, 1819. Born and raised in Aberdeen until her teenage years, Mary, like many other girls her age, did not attend school and was educated through homeschooling. After the death of her father, Mary moved to Edinburgh with her mother and brother John Hill Burton, who would go on to become a prominent historian and economist, with the family residing in Liberton Bank House. Alongside Mary and her family, a young student by the name of Arthur Conan Doyle also stayed at Liberton Bank House, and would go on to credit Mary as a positive influence in his life.
As an adult, Mary went on to own multiple properties across Edinburgh, renting them out to working-class families, with the conditions of these properties known for their cleanliness and affordability compared to other accommodation catering to Edinburgh’s poor.
Mary was extremely involved in political campaigns in the 1860s, advocating for the abolition of slavery and the advancement of women’s position in society. As an abolitionist, Burton was involved in movements to end specifically Scotland’s involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Her campaign for abolition demonstrated that she was not scared of being involved in controversial political issues, which she took a step further in her advocation for the removal of the Contagious Diseases Act. Karen Mailley-Watt and Rachael Purse argue that this was Mary’s “boldest battle”. Mary petitioned Parliament to remove the Contagious Diseases Act in 1871. The Contagious Diseases Act, introduced to reduce sexually transmitted infections, put many women in vulnerable positions as police could arrest them based on suspicions of them being a sex worker and conduct intimate examinations of women in an attempt to gain evidence which proved this suspicion. If ‘evidence’ was found during these examinations, women could be imprisoned or sent to workhouses. The Contagious Diseases Act was repealed in 1886 thanks to the tireless campaigning of women like Mary Burton, and other prominent figures such as Elizabeth Garrett and Florence Nightengale who also voiced their anger with the Act.
Alongside her efforts for abolition and advocation for sex workers, Mary became involved in organizations looking to advance the position of women in Scotland. Mary served on the committee of the Edinburgh Ladies’ Emancipation Society and participated in the Edinburgh Ladies Educational Association. Despite this, Mary decided that stronger action was needed to advance the position of women in Scotland and took this advocation to court in 1868. Mary argued that she should have the right to vote as an occupant of Liberton House. Despite being unsuccessful in this court case, she remained undeterred in her quest for female suffrage, continuing her fight for suffrage throughout the 1880s by joining the Scottish National Demonstrations of Women.
A letter from Mary Burton to Elizabeth Pease Nichol dated the 1st of August 1877, which is now housed in the Boston Public Library anti-slavery collections, shows her passion for the cause of women’s suffrage. Mary pondered over the role that William Lloyd Garrison could play in advocating for women’s suffrage: “I have been thinking over what Wm (William) Lloyd Garrison said the other evening on the ‘Woman’ question and the more I think of it… it would put new life into our Movement”. Mary stressed the importance of their cause: “it is one of the largest and most important questions of the day affecting as it does the whole human race”. Her efforts for women’s suffrage varied from rallies and demonstrations to organising publicity and spokespeople for the movement.
Figure 1: Mary Burton’s letter to Elizabeth Pease Nichol, 1 August 1877
Mary signed The Declaration in Favour of Women’s Suffrage in the late 1880s, with the petition going on to be presented to Parliament. The petition declared that “the undersigned desire to express their approval of the proposed extension of the Parliamentary Franchise to Women, which they believe would be beneficial both to them and to the State”. This petition garnered over two thousand signatures from women across the United Kingdom.
Burton was strongly involved in efforts to make education more accessible to women across Scotland. She worked towards women having access to higher education, focusing mainly on the Watt Institution and School of Arts (which is now Heriot-Watt University). Her efforts were successful, leading to the Institution omitting female students in 1889 – twenty years before government legislation required them to. Due to the cost of study, this success and the new opportunities which it provided were limited to wealthier women – a limitation of success which Mary acknowledged in her will by donating money dedicated to scholarships for evening class attendees, classes which catered to the schedules of the working-class across Edinburgh. In a full circle moment for the Burton family, Mary’s niece, Ella Burton, was one of the first women to access education at the Watt Institution and School of Arts. This was only the beginning of Mary’s connection to the Watt Institution and School of Arts as she would become the Institution’s first female director in 1874.
Mary was hospitalised in 1897 in Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum. Mary’s life ended in 1909 in her birthplace of Aberdeen, after moving back there while dealing with ill health. Despite moving back to Aberdeen, her body was buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.
Figure 2: Mary Burton in her later years
Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University created the Mary Burton Project in remembrance of their first female director. Burton’s passion for increasing women’s access to education is carried on through this project, which provides financial assistance to women studying science, technology, engineering or maths at the university. Professor Gillian Thomson who leads the Project stated that this financial support will “empower female students to realise their ambitions and deepen the STEM talent pool”. This is an initiative which I am sure Mary would support.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh, Historical Environment Scotland unveiled a plaque at Liberton Bank House, where Mary lived for many years, to commemorate her life. Karen Mailley-Watt and Rachael Purse celebrated the unveiling of this plaque, arguing that Mary was “a woman who achieved so much but still has little recognition in today’s society”. The increased recent efforts to commemorate the work done by Mary Burton are encouraging, highlighting that effort and commitment are required to ensure that the people who worked so hard to improve our society are remembered.
Figure 3: The plaque commemorating Mary Burton’s life at Liberton Bank House
Bibliography
Mailley-Watt, K. and Purse, R. (2022) ‘The Marvellous Mary Burton’, Historic Environment Scotland, 8 March. Available at: https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/03/the-marvellous-mary-burton/ (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
Mary Burton Project (2022). Heriot-Watt University. Available at: https://www.hw.ac.uk/alumni/giving/1821-appeal/mary-burton-project.htm (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
National Society for Women’s Suffrage (Great Britain) (1889) Declaration in Favour of Women’s Suffrage. London: National Society for Women’s Suffrage.
Opportunities for Women. Heriot-Watt University. Available at: https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/about/history/opportunities-for-women.htm (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
‘Campaigners for Equality’ Historic Environment Scotland. Available at: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/online-exhibitions/the-women-of-scotland/campaigners-for-equality/ (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
Burton, Mary, and Elizabeth Pease Nichol. Letter from Mary Burton, [Edinburgh, Scotland], to Elizabeth Pease Nichol, 1st August 1877. Edinburgh, Scotland, 01 Aug 1877. Avaliable at: https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/m900q4052 (Accessed 04 February 2025).
Images Credit
Figure 1:
Burton, Mary, and Elizabeth Pease Nichol. Letter from Mary Burton, [Edinburgh, Scotland], to Elizabeth Pease Nichol, 1st August 1877. Edinburgh, Scotland, 01 Aug 1877. Avaliable at: https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/m900q4052 (Accessed 04 February 2025).
Figure 2:
Opportunities for Women. Heriot-Watt University. Available at:https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/about/history/opportunities-for-women.htm (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
Figure 3:
Mailley-Watt, K. and Purse, R. (2022) ‘The Marvellous Mary Burton’, Historic Environment Scotland, 8 March. Available at: https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/03/the-marvellous-mary-burton/ (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
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