Louisa Carbutt

Louisa Carbutt later Louisa Herford (25 September 1832 – 4 May 1907) was a British schoolmistress and educational pioneer. She ran her own school. After it closed she married another headteacher who ran Lady Barn House School. His first wife had died four years before.

Louisa Carbutt
Born25 September 1832
Hamburg
Died4 May 1907
Paignton
NationalityBritish
Occupationheadteacher
Spouse(s)William Henry Herford

Life

Carbutt was born at Altona near Hamburg in 1832. Her parents were Louise Petronella and Francis Carbutt. Her father, a merchant and mayor of Leeds, had been a Quaker but he became a Unitarian. Her younger brother was Sir Edward Carbutt M.P. became an engineer.[1] Her parents had progressive views on their children's education and in particular the daughters. She was sent to good boarding school until 1847 where she became proficient in four languages. She was not expected to marry but to decide her own career and she chose to teach German.[1]

Carbutt was asked if she woulds teach two children and she decided that she could use this as the basis of founding a school. The Brook House School opened in August 1860 with a small number of pupils. The school's approach was unusual in that the students were offered neither punishments or rewards for good behaviour. Nevertheless, the students were allowed more freedom than was usually permitted in comparable schools.[1] One of the people she employed was William Henry Herford. He was a Unitarian minister, but he was also a writer and educator. They had similar views on education and she would in time become his second wife.

In 1866 she was one of the people, mostly women, who signed the petition to parliament to request that women be allowed to vote.[2]

Brook House school closed in 1870 as Carbutt had health issues[3] and she went to live in Leeds again where she was elected a Poor Law Guardian.[1] This was an unusual position for a woman at that time.

In 1884 she married William Herford. Herford had started Lady Barn House School in 1873 which unusually was co-educational.[3] The original announcement in the Manchester Guardian stated that Mr and Mrs Herford planned to start a school for boys and girls for children up to the age of thirteen.[4] Herford's first wife had died in 1880.

Carbutt died in Paignton in 1907. Her husband died in the following year.[5]

References
  1. "Carbutt [married name Herford], Louisa (1832–1907), schoolmistress and educational pioneer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58222. Retrieved 16 September 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Louisa Carbutt / Database - Women's Suffrage Resources". www.suffrageresources.org.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  3. Crawford, Elizabeth (15 April 2013). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-136-01062-0.
  4. "How Lady Barn started - Lady Barn House School". www.ladybarnhouse.org. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  5. "Carbutt [married name Herford], Louisa (1832–1907), schoolmistress and educational pioneer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58222. Retrieved 16 September 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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