Early Life.

Arrival
in
S.A.

First Quota
Vote.

Catherine Helen Spence was born in Melrose, Scotland, close to the three picturesque peaks of the Eildon Hills, on the 31st October 1825. She was the fifth child in a family of eight born to David Spence and Helen Brodie. Both her father and her grand-father were reformers who provided a role model for Catherine and her brother John. Catherine, however, was most influenced in her early years by her mother, her auntys and some other remarkable women.

Sarah Phin - Catherine's First Teacher
Miss Phin, a retired governess, had begun, with her old mother and a housekeeper, the St. Mary's Convent girls boarding school and day school. She had contracted an incurable form of dropsy which compelled her to lie down for some time every day. Almost all of her teaching was done from her sofa. As well as learning needlework and the classics, students took turns to read out loud some book selected by Miss Phin on history, biography, adventures, descriptions and story books.

Catherine and her sister Mary, attended this school for nine years, where Catherine very early on proved herself to be the star pupil.

Melrose, June 20, 1839.
My dearest Catherine-- ...I have been thinking if my poor testimonial to your worth and abilities could be of any service to you I ought to give it--but how can I trust myself?--for could any one read what I feel my heart dictates it would be thought absurd. You were always one of the greatest ornaments of my school, best girl and the best scholar, and from the time you could put three letters together you have evinced a turn for teaching--so clear-headed and so patient, and so thoroughly upright in word and deed, and your knowledge of the Scriptures equal to that of many students of Divinity, so should you ever become a teacher you have nothing to fear. You will be able to undertake both the useful and the ornamental branches of education--French, Italian, and music you thoroughly understand. I feel conscious that you will succeed.
...believe me, my beloved Catherine, your affectionate friend and teacher, Sarah Phin.

This letter was a reference for Catherine to start a school of her own when the family started a new life in the new colony of South Australia. She was then only 13 years of age.

Sailing to South Australia on the Palmyra
After the death of her older sister Agnes and her youngest sister from illness, and with one brother remaining in Edinburgh to carry on his education, the remaining five family members set sail for South Australia in July 1839.

It was the maiden voyage of the Palmyra, a barque of 400 tons and carrying 150 passengers including some of the first German immigrants. Catherine's fare was only £3 as she was under adult age.

Arrival at Holdfast Bay November 1839
The Palmyra landed at Holdfast Bay, Glenelg on the 31st October 1839, Catherine's fourteenth birthday. What a change from the greenery of Melrose Scotland to the shores of a hot and desolate Glenelg beach!

When we sat down on a log in Light square, waiting till my father brought the key of the wooden house in Gilles street, in spite of the dignity of my 14 years just attained, I had a good cry.

The first Quota Representation in the world
A year later, after several failed attempts at farming at Mitcham and West Terrace, the family settled in a house in Halifax Street. Her father had secured a job as Town Clerk in August 1840, of the Municipal Corporation of Adelaide--the first such council in Australia.

This local Council had been drawn up under the English Municipal Corporations Reform Act of 1835, with a unique clause, suggested by the founders of South Australia, providing for proportional representation at the option of the ratepayers.

The twentieth part of the Adelaide ratepayers by uniting their votes upon one man, instead of voting for 18, could on the day before the ordinary election appear and declare this their intention, and he would be a Councillor on their votes. In the first election, two such quorums elected two Councillors. The workmen in Borrow and Goodiar's building elected their foreman, and another quorum of citizens elected Mr. William Senden; and this was the first quota representation in the world. My father explained this unique provision to me at the time, and showed its bearings for minority representation.

Starts teaching in 1843 aged 17 years
The family struggled on through the near financial collapse of the colony to its revival in 1843. Catherine began her teaching career by being governess to several families with young girls. She also commenced her career as a journalist by writing an occasional letter to the local paper.

Opens her first school in 1846
With the help of her sister Mary and her mother, Catherine opened her first school in 1846. Her father died a month later. She continued this occupation until 1850, then, at the age of 25, she made one of the most momentous decisions of her life.

I had been induced to go to the Sacrament at 17, with much heart searching, but when I was 25 I said I could not continue a communicant, as I was not a converted Christian.

...I became a convinced Unitarian, and the cloud was lifted from the universe. I think I have been a most cheerful person ever since.

Works as a journalist during the gold rush in Victoria
Catherine and brother John were put in charge of the local paper where she wrote articles on the issues of the day such as -- State Aid To Religion and Ridley's Stripper, however, these articles appeared under her brother's name.

First Book Published 1853
Her first book Clara Morison - A Tale Of South Australia During The Gold Fever, was followed by a second published in 1856, Tender & True, both published anonymously.

Inspired by John Stuart Mill's advocacy of
the Thomas Hare System
In 1859, she was correspondent to Adelaide for the Melbourne Argus, and wrote a series of articles supporting Mill's advocacy of Hare's system of proportional representation. The editor refused to publish them. Undaunted, 2 years later she tried again under her initials in the Adelaide Register.

Commencement of her political career 1861
Her brother John, who had by this time a well paid job, said he would pay for the printing of 1,000 copies of a pamphlet advocating the Hare System if she would write it.

I called my pamphlet "A Plea for Pure Democracy," and when writing it I felt the democratic strength of the position as I had not felt it in reading Hare's own book. It cost my brother £15, but he never grudged it.

Catherine's career now blossomed into that of a full time writer, social and political reformer. From here on she would spend the next 51 years as the leader of Effective Voting.

Home journey
She returned home to Scotland in 1864 and stayed in Britain and Europe until 1866. During this time she visited John Stuart Mill, whose wife, Harriet Taylor, had written the article Enfranchisement of Women in a collection of his essays. Taylor had been inspired by the work for women's rights pioneered by Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mill had read Thomas Hare's book on democracy and had become a strong supporter of proportional representation. In 1866 he presented the petition organised by Barbara Bodichon, Emily Davies, Elizabeth Garrett and Dorothea Beale in favour of women's suffrage. He asked for the vote for single women only; widows with property and wives with separate estates.

Work on the home front
Catherine became involved in various womens' and childrens causes including the State Children's Council, the Destitute Board, the Boarding Out Society - children in foster care, kindergartens, a womens clothing co-operative - and the initiation of Childrens Courts in South Australia, (a world first).

Trip to U.S.A. & Canada 1893-4
On this trip she delivered over 100 lectures, mainly on Effective Voting - met famous abolitionists, reformers and suffragists. (See her publications list for more details)

Return to South Australia
She then became involved with Mrs. Jeanne Young in promoting Effective Voting in the lead up to the vote for Federation. Both women, Catherine now aged 72, addressed 26 meetings around the state on Effective Voting during 1897. (see Federation Convention Candidacy on Home Page).

Her legacy
Catherine Helen Spence died in 1910 at the age of 85 years. It is impossible in these few short pages to give an adequate appreciation of her life. She is remembered today in the naming of the Spence Electorate, by an annual social sciences scholarship at the University of Adelaide; by her statue in Light Square, and most recently, by her portrait on the new five dollar note.
The Spence Room in the Adelaide Town Hall is named after her father.

Born in "the wonderful century," I have watched the growth of the movement for the uplifting of the masses, from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the demands for adult suffrage.

All through my life I have tried to live up to the best that was in me, and I should like to be remembered as one who never swerved in her efforts to do her duty alike to herself and her fellow-citizens.