She wouldn’t marry… so they sent her WHERE? 😨 || #history #historycomesalive #victorianera

What would actually happen if a Victorian woman refused to get married? Well, that's exactly what Edith Lanchester did in 1895, and it didn't go well. She was 24 years old, a mathematics graduate living alone in London working as a secretary in the city. Independent, educated, and politically active, she was a supporter of both the suffrage and socialist

movements. And it was at a socialist meeting in Battersea that she met an Irish factory worker called James Sullivan. They fell madly in love, but Edith had no plans to get married. She hated the idea of surrendering her legal autonomy, and also took particular offense to the marriage vow that required she obey her husband. So,

instead, they simply decided to live together as boyfriend and girlfriend. She wrote to her family to tell them, and they were horrified. The day before she was due to move into her new home, her father and brothers came to pay her a visit at her lodging house. With them was a doctor called George Fielding

Blandford, a so-called expert in psychology, who after a brief interview declared her insane. His diagnosis was that she was suffering from a case of overeducation. As they tried to bundle a handcuffed Edith into a waiting carriage, her landlady attempted to intervene, and received a punch from one of Edith's brothers for her trouble. And just like

that, she was carted off to a private asylum on the outskirts of London. The doctor later explained his reasoning. He said that if she had threatened suicide, a certificate of insanity would have been signed without question. He felt equally justified signing one when she expressed her intention to commit, in his words, social suicide.