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_ Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood, barrister-at-law, was born in Royalton,
Niagara County, N. Y., on October 24, 1830. When 18 year's old she
married a young farmer, Uriah UW, McNall, who died in April, 1853,
leaving one daughter, Mrs. Lura M. Ormes, who was an assistant in Mrs.
Lockwood’s law offices. As Belva A. McNall, she entered Genesee
College, Lima, N. Y., in 1853, and was graduated therefrom with honor,
taking her degree of A. B. on June 27, 1857. She was immediately
elected preceptress of Lockport Union School, incorporated as an academy
and containing 600 male and female students. She assisted in the pre-
paration of a three years’ course of study and introduced declamation
and gymnastics for the young ladies, conducting the classes herself. She |
- was also professor of the higher mathematics, logic, rhetoric and botany.-
After four years there, she resigned to become preceptress of the Gaines- -
ville Female Seminary, and later she became proprietor of the McNall
Seminary at Oswego, N. Y. | ,
At the close of the civil war, she removed~to Washington, Li. ©
and for seven years had charge of Union League Hall, teaching for a time
and meanwhile taking up the study of law. On March 11, 1868, she
was wedded to Rev. Ezekiel Lockwood, a Baptist minister who, during
He
_ the war, was chaplain of the Second D. C. Regiment. He died in Wash-
ington, D. C., on April 23, 1877, Jessie B. Lock wood, the only child of
their union, having died before him.
Mrs. Lockwood took her second degree of A. M. in Syracuse Uni-
versity, N. Y., with which Genesee College had previously been incor-
porated in 1870, at the request of the faculty of that institution.
In May, 1873, she was graduated from the National University Law
School, Washington, D. C., and took her degree of D.C. L. After a
spirited controversy over admission of women to the Bar, she was, on
September 23, 1873, admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court, the
highest court in the District of Columbia. She at once entered into the
active practice of her profession, and still continues her successful work
as a leading lawyer.
In 1875 she applied for admission to the Court of Claims, but was
refused on the grounds—first, that she was a woman; and second, that
she was a married woman. The contest was a bitter one, but short,
sharp and decisive. In 1876, Mrs. Lockwood’s admission to the Bar of
the U. S. Supreme Court was moved, but was refused on the eround
that “there were no English precedents for the admission of women to
the Bar.” It was in vain that she logically pleaded that Queens Eleanor
and Elizabeth had both been Supreme Chancellors of the Realm, and that
at the Assizes of Appleby, Ann, Countess of Pembroke sat with the
Judges on the Bench. Nothing daunted, she drafted a bill admitting
women to the Bar of the U. S. Supreme Court, secured its introduction
into both houses of Congress, and, after three years of effort, aroused in-
fluence and public sentiment enough to secure its passage in January, 1879.
On the 3d of March of that year Mrs. Lockwood was admitted to the Bar
of that august tribunal, the first woman in the world on whom the honor
was conferred. After the passage of this act she was formally notified
that she could then be admitted to the Court of Claims; she was so ad-
‘mitted on March 6, 1879, and has had since then a very large and suc-
cessful practice there. |
In 1870 she secured the passage of a bill, by the aid of the Hon. s, M.
Arnell, of Tennessee, giving to the women employees of the govern-
ment, of whom there are many thousands, equal pay for equal work with
men. In 1884 and 1888 she was the presidential candidate of the Equal
Rights Party. She has during her somewhat picturesque career been all
along deeply interested not only in equal rights for men and women, but
in temperance and labor reforms, the control of railroads and telegraphs
by the government, and in the settlement of all difficulties, national and
international, by arbitration instead of war. In 1889 she represented the
Universal Peace Union in the Paris Exposition and was its delegate to the
International Congress of Peace, which held its sessions in the Salle of
the Trocadero, where she made one of the opening speeches, and also
presented an able paper in French on international arbitration. In 1890
she again represented the Universal Peace Union in the International
Congress in London, when she presented a paper on Disarmament.
Before returning to this country, Mrs. Lockwood took a course of uni-
versity extension lectures in the famous University of Oxford. She was
elected for the third time to represent the Universal Peace Union, of which
she has been the corresponding secretary, in the International Congress
of Peace, held in Rome, November, 1891. Mrs. Lockwood is also con-
nected with the Woman’s National Press Association and with other
progressive public-spirited bodies of men and women, notably the White
House Chapter of the American Woman's League, of vee she was
recently unanimously elected the president.
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College graduates all over the land will
gladly join in this tribute of profound esteem
to Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood on whom her Alma
Mater, the University of Syracuse, June 10, 190g;
conferred the degree of le L. D., the highest
ever given to any woman in this or any other |
country.
Syracuse University tribute to Belva Lockwood
Tribute to alumnus Belva Lockwood by Syracuse University, detailing her educational and professional achievements. On June 10, 1906, the University awarded her an L.L.D. (doctorate of law degree), "the highest ever given to any woman in this or any other country." Brief handwritten note on the last page.
Syracuse University
1906-1920
4 pages
reformatted digital
Belva Ann Lockwood Papers, SCPC-DG-098
Belva Ann Lockwood Papers, SCPC-DG-098 --http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-098
Lockwood-0032