Rye, Maria Susan (1829–1903)

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Rye, Maria Susan (1829–1903)

English social reformer and feminist. Born in London, England, in 1829; died in 1903 in Hempstead, England; educated at home.

Born in London in 1829, Maria Susan Rye was the first of nine children of a liberal, bookish lawyer. She received her education at home, and as a teenager began working with the poor of her community through her local church; this impulse to fight on behalf of the disadvantaged would shape her life. Her first and primary interest lay in securing basic rights for women. In the mid-19th century, married women in England could not own property, and under the law any property inherited by a married woman from her relatives immediately passed into the hands of her husband. In 1856, Rye became secretary of a committee supporting the Married Women's Property Bill, designed to rectify this injustice. Beyond the property issue, she was also concerned about the lack of employment opportunities for middle-class women, and was a member of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. In 1859, she opened a law stationers' business with the express intent of hiring middle-class women to work for her.

So many women applied for positions in this business and other projects that Rye was affiliated with, such as the Telegraph School, founded by Isa Craig (Isa Knox ), and the Victoria Press, founded by Emily Faithfull , that she began promoting the idea of emigration to countries with greater opportunities. For middle-class women who could not find work, the idea of emigrating offered a certain degree of hope. In 1861, Rye helped establish the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, which for nearly a decade helped educated women pursue opportunities in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

During the course of her journeys to some of these countries, Rye became aware of the plight of poor children there, many of whom were orphaned on the journey from England because of the terrible conditions on board ship. In 1868, Rye established homes for impoverished children in both London and Canada. Numerous youngsters from the London home were sent to the one in Canada, which cared for them after their long journey and helped them make the transition to their new land by assisting in the procurement of jobs and more permanent housing. (This sending out of the country of "gutter" children, not all of whom were orphans, while praised by some, caused others to denounce her as a destroyer of poor families and a manipulative entrepreneur.) Rye was also influential in the creation of the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society in 1891, with which she remained closely involved during the remainder of her life. Before her death in 1903, she claimed responsibility for sending some 4,000 destitute English children on to new lives in Canada.