Lily Maxwell: How a working-class woman from Scotland changed political history forever

Lily Maxwell is often missed from the history books, despite being one of the most important figures in the women’s suffrage movement.

When women all across Scotland go to vote in next year’s Holyrood election, they have the women of the 19th and 20th centuries to thank for being able to participate in democracy.

Several of the most prominent suffragists and suffragettes have sealed their legacy in history books. One of the most famous, Emmeline Pankhurst, even has her own statue outside the Palace of Westminster in London.

But the name of an unassuming working-class woman from Scotland is often overlooked, despite changing history forever by being the first female to ever vote in the UK - all thanks to the error of men.

As is still too often the case in the 21st century, those involved in 19th-century politics were born into that life, well-connected with a name and a big bank account to back them up.

Lily Maxwell had none of these things. Yet she defied society by officially casting her vote in the Manchester by-election of November 1867 thanks to a loophole in the law, something that should have secured her place in history.

Lily Maxwell | Supplied

Edward James, one of the MPs for Manchester, died from typhoid fever after holidaying in Switzerland, triggering a by-election.

This by-election was to be won convincingly by Liberal MP Jacob Bright, who, along with his wife Ursula Mellor Bright, was an early supporter of the National Society of Women’s Suffrage, also known as the suffragists.

His campaign team had been leafing through the electoral register when they spotted something out of place - a woman’s name.

Maxwell had spent decades working as a servant in Manchester. In fact, the one surviving photograph of her had written on the back: “Lily - an old servant of the family.”

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She eventually managed to save up enough money to open her own crockery shop in Chorlton-Upon-Medlock.

The 66-year-old was widowed, and after her husband’s death the property was transferred to her. As a shop owner, she was liable to pay rates to the local council. All male ratepayers were allowed to vote.

At this time, women were not allowed to vote. Five months earlier, MPs in the House of Commons had rejected a proposal to extend voting rights to women by 196 votes to 75. Those who supported the move had tried to do this by replacing the word “man” in the Reform Act 1867 with the word “person”.

Yet the men who had compiled the list of eligible voters had not noticed that voter 12326 was not in fact male.

Lydia Becker, secretary of the Manchester suffragists, quickly learned of this mistake and immediately travelled to Maxwell’s house to inform her of this loophole and encourage her to vote.

Maxwell needed no encouragement. In fact, she already knew who she was giving her precious vote to - the pro-women’s suffrage Jacob Bright.

Lydia Becker and a host of her fellow campaigners marched Maxwell to Chorlton Town Hall on polling day to watch the historical moment unfold in person.

It was said the room erupted in cheers for Britain’s first ever female voter.

Bright won the seat with a 1,700 majority and made special mention of Maxwell in his victory speech. He said: “[She is] a hard-working, honest person, who pays her rates as you do.

“If any woman should possess a vote, it is precisely such a one as she.”

Two months later, the Englishwoman’s Review said: “It is sometimes said that women, especially those of the working class, have no political opinion at all. Yet this woman, who by chance was furnished with a vote, professed strong opinions and was delighted to have a chance of expressing them.”

Not everyone was quite so happy at the occasion. The Yorkshire Post, for example, said the polling staff at Chorlton Town Hall should have ignored Maxwell’s right to vote “as he would have ignored that of a child ten years old”.

Word of this loophole soon spread, and thousands of other female property owners tried to register to vote as well.

Their suffrage claim was presented to the courts by Richard Pankhurst, the future husband of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

However, the judges rejected this bid and in November 1868 closed this loophole and declared women’s suffrage illegal. A small handful of women were still able to vote in the 1868 general election as they had not been removed from the electoral register in time, but for the vast majority it was a bitter blow to their cause.

Bright took up his seat on the green benches as a MP and spent his time in Westminster pushing for women’s right to vote. He took over the parliamentary leadership of women’s suffrage, and in 1869 secured the right for some women to vote in local council elections.

The same good fortunes cannot be said for Maxwell. In the 1870s, her shop began to fail and she fell into poverty. Destitute, she died penniless in 1876 in the Withington Workhouse.

Maxwell has largely been forgotten in the history of the women’s suffrage movement in Britain. Yet she did something extraordinary more than half a century before women were given the right to vote in the 20th century.

Fast forward to 2025 and the Scottish Parliament has the most female MSPs since devolution. There has been a female first minister, three female prime ministers and we now have our first female chancellor.

Great steps in gender equality within politics have happened in recent decades - but it all comes back to the tale of Maxwell and the very first female vote.