1867- a widowed Manchester shop owner, Lilly Maxwell, mistakenly appeared on the electoral register because she met the property value requirements. She went to vote and was allowed to do so by the returning officer. Leading women’s rights campaigner Lydia Becker encouraged other women householders to petition for their names to appear on the rolls. Their claims were represented in the Court of Common Pleas by Sir John Coleridge and Richard Pankhurst (later husband of Emmeline) but the case was dismissed. The Manchester Women’s Suffrage Committee was founded.