Queer Places:
126 George St, Edinburgh EH2 4LH, UK
128 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 4AD, UK
35 Drummond Pl, Edinburgh EH3 6PW, UK
Saint Cuthbert's Churchyard
Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, Scotland
Jane Hume Clapperton (22 September 1832 – 30 September 1914) was a British philosopher, birth control pioneer, socialist,[1] social reformer and suffragist.[2]
Her father was Alexander Clapperton (died 1849) and mother Anne Hume (died 1872). She had eleven siblings. Her father ran a company, Clapperton & Co., in Edinburgh and moved from 43 Lauriston Place close to George Heriot's School to 126 George Street in the year Jane was born.[3] Her father was a Liberal-minded business man who had his children home educated, although Jane was sent to an English boarding school when she was 12 years old, due to her frail health.[4] Prior to her father's death, her brother, John Clapperton, took over the family firm (based at 371 High Street on the Royal Mile) and the family had moved to 128 Princes Street in a house facing Edinburgh Castle.[5] On returning home, she did charitable work whilst remaining a spinster at home with her mother after her father died and siblings married, and became an active suffragist when she joined the Edinburgh Women's Suffrage Society in 1871, subscribed to the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907, and became a member of the Women's Freedom League in 1908.[6] She lived at 35 Drummond Place in the New Town of Edinburgh in 1911. She is buried with her family in St Cuthberts Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street. The grave lies in the raised area to the south-west of the church. Her niece was the leading suffragette Lettice Floyd, known for her openly queer relationship with fellow suffragette Annie Williams. Clapperton's writing was on a philosophy of evolution of humanity and its happiness being related to ethical behaviour which she associated with full sexual freedom, and equality for women - in the home, the workplace and wider society, and she advocated social inclusion and poverty eradication.[4] More specifically, Clapperton wrote that through controlling and differentiating the thoughts, feelings and senses, people gain self knowledge and self discipline to meet the community's needs.[7]
My published books:
