Elizabeth Ashurst Biggs

She gave the child a penny for her to donate "to help 'knock down the Corn Laws, and give poor people cheap bread' — which she learned and repeated with great pathos.

"[6] When a toddler is encouraged to participate in politics, especially a girl in a country that did not foresee a time when women would be allowed to vote, it is not surprising that she would grow up to become civic-minded and engaged in national and international affairs.

Her other aunt Emilie Ashurst Venturi published translations of Giuseppe Mazzini's writings and wrote essays on his Italian nationalism in addition to producing two novels.

[9] Her younger sisters also made their livings with their pens: Caroline Ashurst Biggs edited the prominent feminist newspaper The Englishwoman's Review and wrote frequently on women's rights.

[11] Substantiating this claim are two books about American politics from Elizabeth Ashurst Biggs' personal collection held by the National Library of Scotland.

Several obituaries for Caroline mention her authorship of the anonymously published novel Master of Wingbourne; none attribute White and Black or Waiting for Tidings to her.