Mary Dormer Harris (1867–3 March 1936)[1] was a British local historian whose focus was the medieval history of Coventry. She was also a translator, writer and suffragist.
Mary Dormer Harris | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1867 Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 3 March 1936 Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Resting place | Milverton Cemetery, Royal Leamington Spa |
| Occupation | Local History Lecturer at University of Birmingham |
| Education | Richmond and Twickenham High School |
| Alma mater | Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford |
| Years active | 1898-1936 |
| Notable works | Translation of the Coventry Leet Book entries from 1420 to 1555 |
Early life
editHarris was born at Dale Farm, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire in 1867.[2] She was educated as a weekly boarder at Richmond and Twickenham High School, then studied English literature at Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford. She achieved first class grades,[3] but was not awarded a degree as women were not allowed to formally graduate until 1920. Harris spoke French, German and Latin.[1] She was called Molly by close friends and had poor eyesight, damaged by her work.[4]
Politics
editHarris was a suffragist and joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1898.[1] She was active in the Leamington and Warwick branch and wrote letters to the Leamington Spa Courier newspaper campaigning for votes for women.[3] She helped organise local conferences, including a talk given by Millicent Fawcett.[5] She exchanged letters with suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst[1] and wrote to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw seeking his support for women's enfranchisement in 1906.[6]
Career
editHarris was a local historian particularly interested in the medieval history of Coventry. From 1904 to 1913, she translated entries from 1420 to 1555 in Latin, Norman French and Early English from the Coventry Leet Book.[1][7] She also published numerous books and papers about the history of Warwickshire.
She was the first woman to address the Leamington Literary Society,[8] giving a paper titled Warwickshire Life in Shakespeare’s Day.[4] She was also the first woman to address the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society. Women were not permitted to address the Society of Antiquaries, so her paper about Coventry's craft guilds was read on her behalf.[2]
In 1914, Harris was a founding member of the Coventry Guild.[2] In 1916, during World War I, Harris was responsible for moving the Coventry Archives collection to the vault of Lloyds Bank, to prevent the damage or destruction of the documents if there were air raids.[9] She regularly wrote for newspapers such as the Coventry Herald, such as when she published an article about the history and legend Lady Godiva in 1915.[10]
Harris was a founding member of the Warwick and Leamington Dramatic Study Club in 1922, the forerunner of the Loft Theatre.[1] She wrote plays for the club, such as The Christmas Mummers at Stoneleigh, based on the local traditional mummers plays. This was published in 1925.[1]
Legacy
editHarris was working on a volume of Coventry Guild records when she died in 1936, and the work was completed by Phillip Styles and Geoffrey Templeman, her colleagues at the University of Birmingham in the History department.[11] She died due to a traffic accident and was buried at Milverton Cemetery.[1]
In 1938, The Mary Dormer Harris Memorial Bursary was inaugurated at a public meeting at Leamington Town Hall to commemorate her and to provide funds for young students, in the study of local history, local drama or musical activities.[12]
In the Tile Hill suburb of Coventry, Dormer Harris Avenue is named after her. The Leamington Literary Society erected a Blue Plaque in Harris' memory at her former home in Gaveston Road, Royal Leamington Spa,[4] where she lived with her mother.[13]
Works
edit- "Laurence Saunders, Citizen of Coventry." The English Historical Review, Vol. 9., No. 36. Oxford University Press. pp. 633–651. ISSN 0013–8266. (1894)[14]
- Life in an Old English Town: A History of Coventry from the Earliest Times. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. (1898)[15]
- Medieval Towns: The Story of Coventry. J.M. Dent (1911)
- The Coventry Leet Leet Book or Mayor's Register. Containing the records of the city Court Leet or View of frankpledge, A.D. 1420-1555 with divers other matters. London: The Early English Text Society. (1907–1913)[7]
- "Memoirs of the Right Hon. Edward Hopkins, M. P. for Coventry." The English Historical Review, Vol. 34., No. 136. Oxford University Press. pp. 491–504. ISSN 0013–8266. (1919)[16]
- Dr. Troughton's Sketches of Old Coventry, with descriptive notes by Mary Dormer Harris. B. T. Batsford. (1920)
- A Social and Industrial History of England: Before the Industrial Revolution. Collins. (1920)[17]
- The Ancient Records of Coventry. The Dugdale Society Occasional Papers (1924)
- Unknown Warwickshire, illustrated by James Edward Duggins, London: The Bodley Head (1924)
- The Christmas Mummers at Stoneleigh (play, 1925)
- Some Manors Churches and Villages in Warwickshire with an Account of Certain Older Buildings of Coventry. Coventry City Guild (1927)
- The Register of the Guild of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John the Baptist and St. Katherine of Coventry. The Dugdale Society (1935)[18]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h James, Peter (26 July 2024). "Mary Dormer Harris 1867 - 1936 | The Coventry Society". Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ a b c McGrory, David (17 January 2008). The Wharncliffe Companion to Coventry: An A to Z of Local History. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78340-842-9.
- ^ a b “Mary Dormer Harris.” Mapping Women's Suffrage 1911. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ a b c Watkins, Margaret (April 2015). "Mary Dormer Harris, 1867 – 1936". Leamington History Group. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ "How Warwickshire women helped win the vote a century ago". Leamington Observer. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ "Warwickshire Women's Suffrage and George Bernard Shaw". Our Warwickshire. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
- ^ a b Dormer Harris, Mary (1907). The Coventry leet book; or mayor's register, containing the records of the city Court leet or view of frankpledge, A.D. 1420-1555, with divers other matters. London: Published for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
- ^ "Leamington Literary Society". SearchOut: Warwickshire County Council. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
- ^ Markham, Leonard (30 November 2014). Coventry in the Great War. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-4505-3.
- ^ Lancaster, Joan Cadogan (1967). Godiva of Coventry: With a Chapter on the Folk Tradition of the Story by H. R. Ellis Davidson. Coventry Corporation. p. 98.
- ^ Dyer, Christopher (2022). Changing Approaches to Local History: Warwickshire History and Its Historians. Boydell & Brewer. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-78327-744-5.
- ^ "Mary Dormer Harris Memorial Bursary". SearchOut: Warwickshire County Council. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
- ^ "Leamington Spa. Miss Mary Dormer Harris and her Mother". Our Warwickshire. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
- ^ Dormer Harris, Mary (1894). "Laurence Saunders, Citizen of Coventry". The English Historical Review. 9 (36): 633–651. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 547563.
- ^ Dormer Harris, Mary (1898). Life in an Old English Town: A History of Coventry from the Earliest Times. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
- ^ Harris, Mary Dormer (1919). "Memoirs of the Right Hon. Edward Hopkins, M. P. for Coventry". The English Historical Review. 34 (136): 491–504. doi:10.1093/ehr/XXXIV.CXXXVI.491. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 551388.
- ^ Dormer Harris, Mary (1920). A Social and Industrial History of England: Before the Industrial Revolution. Collins.
- ^ Dormer Harris, Mary (1935). The Register of the Guild of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John the Baptist and St. Katherine of Coventry. Dugdale Society.