Elizabeth Sharples Carlile

Eliza Sharples (1803–1852) was one of the first women in England to lecture on freethought, radical politics and women's rights. Using the names the Lady of the Rotunda and Isis, she delivered her lectures at the Blackfriars Rotunda in 1832, while it was under the management of her partner, Richard Carlile. Her speeches, together with writings by Carlile, herself and others, appeared in her weekly journal, The Isis.

She attended boarding school until she was twenty years old, after which she remained at home, sewing and reading. The sudden deaths of her father, brother and sister, and the failure of prayer to save their lives, caused Sharples to question her faith, resulting in a radical change in her life.

In 1829, while visiting a friend in Liverpool, Sharples had eavesdropped on a discussion between her friend's father and Richard Carlile. About a year later she discovered a copy of Carlile's newspaper The Republican in a cousin's library and became interested enough to track down more of his works in a local radical bookshop. In December 1831 she began to correspond with Carlile, who by now had been imprisoned for seditious libel, and in January 1832 she travelled to London to visit him in Giltspur Street Compter. She agreed to take the places of Taylor and Ward, and deliver a series of philosophical and religious free thought lectures at the Rotunda.

In order to protect her family, Sharples did not want her name to be made public, so Carlile promoted her as the mysterious "Lady of the Rotunda" or "Isis" (named after the Egyptian Goddess of Reason), the first Englishwoman to speak in public about religion and politics. In addition, she spoke in favour of women's rights to speak in public and challenged the Christian doctrine of original sin, proclaiming Eve to be "the personification of wisdom, of liberty, of resistance to tyranny; the mother of human knowledge; the proper help meet for man".

Initially, Sharples achieved cult status, but her lack of training in public speaking soon led to a decline in income from audiences, and by the end of March Carlile had closed the Rotunda and given up its lease. Sharples continued her lectures for a further three months, firstly at Robert Owen's theatre in Burton Street, then at Carlile's house in Bouverie Street. She then worked closely with the Friends of the Oppressed, who were the female arm of the National Union of the Working Classes, giving speeches in celebration of the 1830 French Revolution and to raise funds for the families of those imprisoned for selling unstamped newspapers. Although she was not a follower of Robert Owen, she also gave a speech on the importance of co-operation, where she described herself as "a radical reformer, a republican, an advocate for free discussion on all subjects, and a co-operator, in the best sense in which I have known that word to be used".

The Isis ceased publication in December 1832, after which Sharples lowered her public profile.

During her pregnancy Sharples asked Carlile to publicly acknowledge their relationship. Initially he prevaricated for fear of damaging his reputation, but in September 1833 he published a statement that his "moral marriage" was "one of the best, if not the very best in the country". In her Preface to the folio edition of The Isis, published in 1834, Sharples gave her full name as Eliza Sharples Carlile and defended the morality of their relationship. However, fellow radicals, such as Henry Hetherington, publicly condemned Carlile for leaving his wife, while Sharples' family disowned both her and her children. In 1849, some supporters of Carlile invited her to manage their Temperance Hall in Warner Place, near Hackney Road. There she met the teenage Charles Bradlaugh, future founder of the National Secular Society and took him in when his family ejected him from their home.

Sharples died at her home in 12 George Street, Hackney, London, on 11 January 1852.