Another local link to the Women's Suffrage movement, was that Jane (Jenny) Kenney, of the influential Kenney clan, and close allies of the Pankhursts, taught in Accrington.
'Caroline Kenney (1880-1952) and Jane (Jenny) Kenney (1884-1961) were the sixth and eighth children of Horatio Nelson Kenney and Ann Wood, and younger sisters of Annie Kenney. They too were suffragettes, and appear to have played a supporting role, providing a refuge for women 'on the run' or temporarily released from prison under the 'Cat and Mouse' Act at their Tower Cressy premises.
Caroline, like her older sisters, began her working life as a child operative in the cotton mills. Subsequently she followed the example of her younger sister Jane and became a Montessori teacher. Jane began her teaching career in Accrington, then studied in Rome with Maria Montessori in 1914, and subsequently became Madame Montessori's appointed 'demonstrator' in England. She and Caroline established their own Montessori school at Tower Cressy, Campden Hill, circa 1915. In 1916 they left England for the United States and were appointed joint teachers in charge of the newly established Lenox School, New York. They retired as joint principals in 1929, and after a period teaching in Philadelphia they settled in California.'
http://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.7...y%20papers.pdf