Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair: Difference between revisions

'''Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GBE}} (''[[née]]'' '''Isabel Maria Marjoribanks'''; 15 March 1857 – 18 April 1939){{efn|later she used Ishbel, the Gaelic for Isabel<ref name=MBJournal4>Marjoribanks, Roger. "Ishbel Marjoribanks", [http://marjorib.awardspace.co.uk/JIssue4.html The Marjoribanks Journal Number 4], August 1996; accessed 22 May 2010.</ref>}} was a British authorwriter, philanthropist, and an advocate of women's interests. As the wife of [[John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair]], she was [[viceregal consort of Canada]] from 1893 to 1898 and of [[Ireland]] from 1906 to 1915.

Born in London, Isabel Maria Marjoribanks was the third daughter of the [[Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth|1st Baron Tweedmouth]] and Isabella Weir-Hogg (daughter of Sir [[James Weir Hogg]]).<ref name=MBJournal4/> A sometimes "anxious" child, she had enjoyed escaping to the mansion her father had built admistamidst the "rugged splendour of [[Glen Affric]]" in the [[Scottish Highlands]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Welfare |first1=Simon |title=Fortune's Many Houses |date=2021 |publisher=Atria Books |isbn=9781982128647 |page=12 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com.au/books/edition/Fortune_s_Many_Houses/iQcWEAAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=1iQcWEAAAQBAJ&dq=ishbel+marjoribanks+marchioness+glen+affric&pg=PA325&printsec=frontcover |access-date=28 September 2022}}</ref> She received a well-rounded education in English, French, mathematics, history, and geography, and was such a good student that her teacher recommended she attend college. However, Lady Aberdeen's father shared the widely held opinion that university was no place for a woman.<ref>Doris French Shackleton, ''Ishbel and the Empire: A Biography of Lady Aberdeen'' (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1988), 19, 27. {{ISBN|9781550020380}}</ref> Instead, her education continued at home at her parents’ social events, where she met the famous politicians of the day.<ref>Merna Forster, "Lady Aberdeen: A Lady of the Empire," ''100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces'', 23–25 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2004), 23. {{ISBN|9781550025149}}</ref> This experience helped prepare her for a lifetime of political involvement. Isabel became an evangelical at an early age, believing like many Victorians in a life dedicated to good works, as well as social and moral reform.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Saywell |editor1-first=John T. |title=The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893–1898 |date=1960 |publisher=The Publications of the Champlain Society |page=14 |doi=10.3138/9781442618015 |isbn=978-1-4426-1801-5 }}</ref>

Lady Aberdeen's influence also extended beyond her country estate. She established the Onwards and Upward Association, which provided servant girls with postal courses on topics ranging from geography to literature to domestic science. This program spread from Aberdeenshire to include thousands of servants.<ref>Slater, "The Noble Patroness Lady Aberdeen," 167.</ref> Lady Aberdeen founded the Aberdeen Ladies' Union, an institution to help young women in Scotland.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://ottawa1.one/uk/eternal/rivni-prava-ta-mozhlyvosti-yak-naczionalna-rada-zhinok-v-ottavi-zminyla-stavlennya-do-slabkoyi-stati-2177 | title=«Рівні права та можливості». Як Національна рада жінок в Оттаві змінила ставлення до слабкої статі? - ottawa1.one | date=7 November 2022 }}</ref> In 1883 she became the first president of the Ladies’ Union of Aberdeen, an organization that focused on the well-being of young women living in cities. An Emigration Committee chose suitable women and sponsored them to move to the colonies, especially [[Canada]].<ref>Shackleton, ''Ishbel and the Empire'', 99.</ref> Lady Aberdeen was also the head of the Women's Liberal Federation, which advocated for women's suffrage.<ref>Val McLeish, "Sunshine and sorrows: Canada, Ireland and Lady Aberdeen," in ''Colonial Lives Across the British Empire: Imperial careering in the long nineteenth century'', David Lambert and [[Alan Lester]] (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 261. {{ISBN|9780521612371}}</ref>

Her commitment to housing improvement and fascination with the work of [[Octavia Hill]] is recorded by her daughter Baroness Pentland who wrote in a 1952 biography of her mother: 'In February 1939 she presided at the showing (for the first time outside London) of a centenary exhibition illustrating the life of Hill's work which had been brought north and explained by [[Lupton family|Miss Anne Lupton]]'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pentland |first1=Baroness |title= A Bonnie Fechter: The Illustrated Life of Ishbel Marjoribanks, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair |date=1952 |publisher=Batsford |page=231 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Bonnie_Fechter/fHYKAQAAMAAJ?hlid=enfHYKAQAAMAAJ&gbpv=1&bsqq=London+Housing+Centre++Anne+Lupton&dq=London+Housing+Centre++Anne+Lupton&printsec=frontcover |access-date=29 September 2022|quote=[Ishbel] presided at the showing (for the first time outside London) of a centenary exhibition illustrating the life of Hill's work which had been brought north and explained by Miss Anne Lupton. Ishbel presided at its opening on March 2nd...}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Octavia Hill Exhibition To Visit Aberdeen |url=https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/searchbna/results?memberlastsubclass=none&searchhistorykey=0&keywords=octavia%20hill%20%20%20lady%20aberdeen%20lupton&from=1935&to=1939 |access-date=29 September 2022 |publisher=Aberdeen Press and Journal |date=9 February 1939 |quote=OCTAVIA HILL EXHIBITION TO VISIT ABERDEEN ...yesterday... Lady Aberdeen opened the proceedings. which were carried on... [Also – The Scotsman Midlothian, Scotland 8 Mar 1939 OCTAVIA HILL – Edinburgh Exhibition HOUSING PIONEER ...In many ways Miss Octavia Hill was far ahead of us, even to-day, said Miss A. M. Lupton, vice-chairman of the Housing Centre, London, when yesterday morning she outlined the career of Octavia...]}}</ref>

Lord and Lady Aberdeen retired to their home in [[Scotland]], but continued to be involved in social causes. Together they wrote a memoir, ''We Twa'', that was published in 1925 to a positive reception and was followed by several expanded editions.<ref>Marjorie Pentland, ''A Bonnie Fechter: The life of Ishbel Marjoribanks'' (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1952), 201, 202.</ref> ''The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893–1898'', was edited by [[John Saywell]] and published by the Champlain Society in 1960, after her death.<ref>''The Man From Halifax: Sir John Thompson, Prime Minister'', by [[Peter Busby Waite]], Toronto 1985, [[University of Toronto]] Press, p. 527.<!-- ISBN needed --></ref>

In 1931, Lady Aberdeen presented to the [[General Assembly of the Church of Scotland]] a petition of 336 women calling for women to be ordained to the ministry, diaconate and eldership of the Kirk.<ref>Pentland, ''A Bonnie Fechter'', 207.</ref> This resulted in a special commission, which recommended only that women should be ordained to the diaconate. It was not until 1968 that the Church of Scotland passed acts allowing women to become elders or enter the ministry.<ref>{{cite web|title=Acts of the General Assembly – Legislative acts: 1931 to 2015|date=21 March 2011|url=http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/church_law/acts|publisher=Church of Scotland|access-date=19 August 2015}}</ref> She continued to serve as the president of the International Council of Women until 1936. She died of a heart attack on 18 April 1939 at Gordon House in [[Rubislaw, Aberdeen]].<ref>Pentland, ''A Bonnie Fechter'', 235.</ref><ref name="obit">{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Lady Aberdeen and Temair |date=19 April 1939 |page=16 |issue=48283 }}</ref>

Lady Aberdeen is credited with introducing the [[Golden Retriever]] to Canada; her father, Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, a Scottish aristocrat, is best known as the originator of the breed.<ref>Baldwin, Lorna (7 August 2013) [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/golden-retriever-gathering/ Golden Retrievers Go ‘Home’ for Gathering in Scottish Highlands] Public Broadcasting System, Newshour; retrieved 4 July 2014.</ref>

[[Aberdeen Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario)|Aberdeen Avenue]] in [[Hamilton, Ontario]], Canada, was named after Lord and Lady Aberdeen who lived on [[Bay Street (Hamilton)|Bay Street South]] between 1890 and 1898. They presided over the opening of the ''Hamilton Public Library'' on 16 September 1890.<ref name=HAMNAMES>{{cite book|title=Hamilton Street Names: An Illustrated Guide|first=Margaret|last=Houghton|publisher=James Lorimer & Co. Ltd.|year=2002|isbn=1-55028-773-7}}</ref> Aberdeen Avenue in Toronto is also named after them. Aberdeen Street in [[Kingston, Ontario]], is named for the couple; it is located near the [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]] campus. Her popularity in Canada led to her being given 18 elaborate tea sets by the Canadian government. This gift was nothing to do with her title or marriage and was purely because of her own work and impact.

[[Category:WomenBritish women philanthropists]]