Legitimation League
The Legitimation League was an English advocacy organisation in the 1890s, which campaigned for the legitimation of illegitimate children and free love.
History
[edit | edit source]Founding and early years
[edit | edit source]The association was founded in Leeds, in 1893, by a group of individualist anarchists, who were close to Benjamin Tucker and his magazine Liberty. Founding members included John Badcock, Joseph Hiam Levy, Greevz Fisher,[1] Wordsworth Donisthorpe, as well as Gladys and Oswald Dawson.[2] Prominent advocates for the organisation included the poet and socialist Edward Carpenter and the sexologist and social reformer Havelock Ellis.[3]
In 1897, the League moved its headquarters to London, where its meetings commanded larger audiences.[4] In the same year, the anarchist and women's rights activist Lillian Harman became President of the League.[5] Originally, the League's main focus was the legitimacy and equality of children from non-church or state-sanctioned connections, now sexual liberation became the main goal. At this time Donisthorpe (President since 1893) and Fisher (Vice President) left the association.[2]
The Adult
[edit | edit source]The League's journal, The Adult was published from 1897 to 1899, with the subtitles "A Journal for the Advancement of Freedom in Sexual Relationships" and "A Crusade Against Sex-Enslavement".[3] Lillian Harman wrote multiple articles for the journal.[5] It was originally edited by League's secretary George Bedborough, whose wife Louie was treasurer,[6] before his arrest in 1898 for selling a copy of Havelock Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2.[7] The League as a suspected anarchist organisation, had been under surveillance by Scotland Yard who used Bedborough's arrest as an opportunity to successfully destroy the League.[4] After pleading guilty to the charge of obscenity, Bedborough agreed to no longer be associated with the League.[8] Henry Seymour replaced Bedborough as editor until its last issue in March 1899.[8]
Publications
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References
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