WHO IS A LADY?
We are grateful to Messrs. William Hodge & Co., Ltd., for permission to republish this article which appeared in 1939 in the Scottish Law Review. The author was Sheriff W. Jardine Dobie, a former member of the Council of the Society. Seaburgh is Campbeltown and the "lady" is that early upholder of women's rights, Agnes Morrison, known as Sailor Jeck.
It was with the best intentions in the world that the public-spirited inhabitants of Seaburgh decided that the interests of their maritime community would be well served by the institution of a local regatta. The season was early autumn, and the period mid-Victorian. So it was a token of the progressive ideas of the committee that they scorned to restrict their events to the sterner sex, and - greatly daring in an age of side whiskers and antimacassars - billed one of their chief attractions, "For 12 feet boats, 2 oars - race for young ladies - first prize, handsome gold brooch - second prize, silver brooch - entrance free." It was a graceful gesture to the ladies, and it is a pity to record that the innovation led to difficulties and litigation, the course of which we shall follow, as far as may be, from the extract decree in the books of the local Sheriff Court.
The local maidens, as it turned out, were disappointingly coy. Only one entrant appeared who "called on the secretary of the club and asked him to enter her for the young ladies' race," but he - heroic soul - "refused to do so, mainly on the ground that he did not consider her as belonging to the class for which the said race was intended." What the mermaid said in response to this rebuff is not recorded. She might well have retired to sulk, but, being a young woman of spirit,we find that "not satisfied with a first refusal she made repeated after applications to be entered for the race," and stated that a local sailmaker had agreed to lend her a boat.Her efforts,alas,were fruitless, and our records say that "her name had not been taken down for the said race before the time for taking in entries had expired, and the secretary reported accordingly to a meeting of the regatta committee held that evening". One suspects he also reported with some freedom his communings with this importunate young woman.
The maiden, however, was still undaunted, though what immediately followed is a matter of dispute. She professed to have gone again to the committee - met in conclave at the Masonic Lodge - and, with the co-operation of the friendly sailmaker, to have obtained entry to the race. But this was denied, and it was held proved that no entry was in fact made. The sailmaker, however, was in action in support of his protegee, and it is found that he paid "his entry money as a member of the club that same night and afterwards attended the meeting of the committee;.. that, after being allowed, by special permission of the committee, to enter some boats for some other races, he asked about the young ladies' race and was told by the chairman of the meeting that that race had fallen, as there had been no entries for it;....that it was then agreed by the meeting to have a girls' race, and that" the sailmaker "should be allowed to enter the two boats for it, which he had already entered for the boys' sculling race, but on the express understanding that the prize was to be the same value as for the boys' race - ten shilling or a brooch to that value." The obliging sailmaker "specially agreed to that condition, and his two boats, the 'Mary' and 'John', were accordingly entered for a girls' race as appears from the secretary's book applicable to the races."
Regatta day arrived, and expectant crowds thronged the quay-side. And as our record baldly puts it, "when the girls' race was called the said boats ('Mary' and 'John' ) appeared under the guidance of the sailmaker, our heroine being "one of the crew employed by him to row in the 'Mary.' What other boats competed we are not informed but our readers we feel sure will note with satisfaction, if without surprise, that "the 'Mary' was the winner.. .Ten shillings as the prize on was then offered to " the sailmaker, "but he" - with a chivalry which contrasted oddly with the churlishness of his colleagues on committee - "said to give it to the girls, and when it was offered to them, it was intimated they preferred a brooch... Brooches were then sent for and three got on board, invoiced at fourteen shillings each, one of which "our maiden "selected, and, when the girl who had rowed with her" - with quite pardonable insistence -asked her share of the prize another brooch of the same value was given to her, rather than that "our young woman "should be obliged to part with hers, or have to pay half the value to her fellow,"
So ended the Seaburgh regatta. A good tine, we feel sure, was had by all, and no doubt the committee and their troubled secretary congratulated themselves on a neat deliverance from an awkward situation. But they reckoned without their hostess. A woman of such resource and persistence was unlikely to be fobbed off with a fourteen shilling brooch, despite the concession which relieved her of having "to pay half its value to her fellow." The scene of the conflict was now transferred to the local Sheriff Court, where the fourteen members of committee were convened as defenders in an action by an indefatigable competitor for delivery of the prize as advertised for the young ladies' race. One had rather anticipated an action for slander, but seemingly the maiden thought more of the material reward of a "handsome gold brooch" than of any academic question about her classification as a lady. She was less successful with her pleas than with her oars, for an unsympathetic Sheriff Substitute, after a proof, found, inter alia, in fact that she belonged to "a very humble sphere in life, and not to the class falling under the ordinary appellation of a young lady," and in law "that the secretary had good reason to refuse to enter her as a competitor for the young ladies' race." Still resolute, and naturally dissatisfied with this undemocratic finding, the pursuer thereupon appealed to the Sheriff, but her appeal was dismissed and the judgment appealed against affirmed.
So ended this curious litigation. with its indirect bearing on the status of a young woman of resource and perseverence. And if she did not succeed in establishing her right to qualify for the young ladies' prize, she at least gave the committee a run for their money, since the humbleness of her sphere would doubtless preclude her meeting the expenses of £22 2s 2d. decerned for against her in the extract.
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