John Hampden’s 1627 Inspiration to Women’s Suffrage Movement

The Museum of London has in its collection this 95-year-old banner from the Women’s Tax Resistance League:

So what’s a man doing on the banner of a women’s suffrage group? And what’s the “Ship 1627 Money” legend all about?

The story of John Hampden’s tax refusal is told in the book We Won’t Pay!: A Tax Resistance Reader.

[John] Hampden was imprisoned for his opposition to the loan King Charles Ⅰ authorised without parliamentary sanction. He also refused to pay “Ship Money,” a tax for support of the Royal Navy. The attempts to imprison him and others for this offence led to the English Civil War. He provided a role model for the Women’s Tax Resistance League whose slogan was “No Vote, No Tax.” The suffragettes’ campaign to gain the vote for women saw many women imprisoned and force-fed. They finally won the vote in 1928.

More on John Hampden:

• John Hampden — The Patriot
• Britannia Biographies: John Hampden

I’ve made note of the tax resistance campaign of the women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain on a couple of previous occasions:

• 19 September 2004
• 14 December 2004

Thanks to Pro Se Institute News for plugging The Picket Line.