She resided at 25 Great King Street, Edinburgh throughout her life with her sisters Helen and Minnie and brother Henry, a seed merchant.
[4] In 1885 her mother hosted a "drawing room meeting" of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage, which Methven later went on to become secretary of.
[8] Methven was elected to the executive committee of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage in December 1895 and subsequently became its honorary secretary.
[12] According to Pedersen (2017), "campaigners such as Jessie Methven were clearly aware of the importance of [press] coverage in educating the wider populace".
[13] Methven corresponded regularly with local and national newspapers, often writing to thank editors for raising the profile of women's suffrage through their coverage of meetings.
As secretary of the Society, her name was attached to reports, articles and letters to the newspapers and she had a relatively high profile in the Scottish press.
"[14] In 1901, a circular letter signed by Methven and Mrs McClaren was reported on in a number of Scottish newspapers, expressing disappointment at the indifference shown by political associations to the question of women's suffrage.
[1] After a WSPU demonstration in the House of Commons in April 1906 which prompted outrage in the press, Methven wrote to the Glasgow Herald as an individual rather than as secretary of the Society, to express sympathy for the protestors' loss of patience in more peaceful approaches.
[18] On 21 November 1911 Methven was one of 223 protesters arrested at a WSPU demonstration at the House of Commons, to which she had travelled with five other women from Edinburgh (Elizabeth and Agnes Thomson, Edith Hudson, Alice Shipley and Mrs N Grieve.
[19] Reports of her arrest in the Scottish press contained variant spellings of her surname, including Methuen (The Scotsman) and Mothuel (Dundee Courier).
[1] In January 1913, Methven wrote an article for The Suffragette, the weekly newspaper of the WSPU, entitled Women's Suffrage in the Past, A Record of Betrayal.