Jane Fryer
Jane Fryer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jane Trump 14 October 1832 |
| Died | 16 June 1917 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Known for | political and religious radical |
| Spouse | John Robbins Fryer |
| Children | ten plus |
Jane Fryer born Jane Trump (1832 – 1917) was an Australian political and religious radical. She was one of the first women who married in register offices in Bristol before she emigrated to the Australian State of Victoria. There she supported Methodists, Quakers and the Australasian Secular Association.
Life
Fryer was born in south-west England in 1832 in the Somerset town of Taunton. Her mother was Ruth (born Dwelly) and her controlling father was Leonard Trump. Mr Trump came from a Dutch family and he worked as a baker.[1] When she was fifteen she left her family and in particular her father and started a new life in Bristol.[2]
She stayed with a Chartist family and she attended Sunday School where there were intense debates about the morality of the Opium wars between Britain and China. That debate led to her not becoming a member of that church.[2]
In 1853 she was one of the first bride's at Bristol's registery office after it opened. This was a brave decision as although the marriages were legal they were frowned upon by church miisters and it was the tradition to be married, in-church.[2] She married a Welsh carpenter named John Robbins Fryer and after the wedding she did not wear the wedding ring. She believed that the wedding ring indicated that she was her husband's servant, and this was not the case. The couple emigrated to Australia and they were in Victoria in the following year.[1]
Over the years they moved from supporting the Methodist church[2] to joining the Quakers and then joined the Sunday Free Discussion Society after it was formed in 1870. In 1882 they were on the committee when the Australasian Secular Association was formed[1] and it was most active in Melbourne. The poet Bernard O'Dowd put together the Australasian Secular Association Lyceum Tutor which was a collection of non-religious writing. O'Dowd edited the contents strongly to ensure that that no "microbes of superstition" were included.[3] He did include Fryer's poetry.[1] These poems were read at the funerals of members and at associations meetings.[3] She and her husband were strongly involved and she was a leader of the Melbourne Progressive Lyceum's Sunday school.[1]
The Australasian Secular Organisation (ALO) was led by Joseph Symes who had been sent, at the request and expense of the ALO, from England.[4] He led the organisation's campaigns for art galleries to open on Sundays and took on the resulting prosecutions. Symes was wilful and demanding.[5] She and her husband resisted and they were unfairly accused of misusing funds and of wanting anarchy.[1] Symes had an only a few followers after the ALO broke up in 1888.[5]
In 1889 Bernard O'Dowd married her daughter, Evangeline Mina Fryer. The O'Dowds and Jane and John Fry lived in the same house for three years in North Melbourne. O'Dowd thought Jane Fryer was "a fine woman" "free of society's shackles" but the two-family household was unhappy and Jane was the prime cause.[1][6]
Fryer died in 1917 in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds.[1]
Private life
Fryer did want to be a mother and in addition to the ten she had with John they also fostered another six. Four of her children died before they became adults.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bongiorno, Frank, "Jane Fryer (1832–1917)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-18
- ^ a b c d "The Story of a Great Woman". Socialist. 1917-07-27. Retrieved 2023-11-18.
- ^ a b Chavura, Stephen A.; Gascoigne, John; Tregenza, Ian (2019-02-04). Reason, Religion and the Australian Polity: A Secular State?. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-88347-7.
- ^ Smith, F. B. (1963). "Joseph Symes and the Australasian Secular Association". Labour History (5): 26–47. doi:10.2307/27507731. ISSN 0023-6942.
- ^ a b Smith, F. B., "Joseph Symes (1841–1906)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-18
- ^ Wallace-Crabbe, Chris, "Bernard Patrick O'Dowd (1866–1953)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2023-11-18
