Died 1893 | ||
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Books The first duty of women. A series of articles repr. from the Victoria magazine, 1865 to 1870 | ||
Mary Taylor (1817–1893), an early advocate for women's rights, was born in Gomersal, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Contents
Early life
Mary Taylor's father Joshua, a cloth manufacturer, and his wife Anne had six children of which she was the fourth. Her father, a radical and member of the Methodist New Connexion, was bankrupted in 1826, but determined to repay his creditors.
Mary was an impulsive, clever child who shared her father's independent traits. She met Charlotte Brontë in 1831 at Roe Head School in Mirfield where they became firm lifelong friends despite having opposing views. At school Taylor, while quiet, was defiant, standing by her opinions and practising what she preached. Brontë was a visitor to the Taylor's home, Red House and described the Taylor family's company as 'one of the most rousing pleasures I have ever known'.
Overseas
Taylor's father died in December 1840 and Mary embarked on a European tour before joining her sister at the Château de Koekelberg, a finishing school in Brussels. She corresponded with Charlotte Bronte describing what she had seen on her travels inspiring her to go to Brussels in 1842. After her sister's death in October 1842, Taylor went to Germany where, challenging established convention, she found employment teaching young men.
In March 1845 Taylor followed her youngest brother, Waring who had arrived in Wellington in 1842, to New Zealand. After her cousin Ellen arrived in 1849, the women built a house and opened a drapery and clothing shop. When Ellen died in 1851, Mary Taylor bought her share and the shop continued its success selling goods sent from England. She never intended to remain in New Zealand and sold the shop having provided herself with a good income in a way a middle-class woman would have found impossible in England. She returned to Yorkshire by 1860.
Return to Yorkshire
When she was financially secure Taylor returned to Gomersal. High Royd, the house built for her, was her home for the rest of her life. She worked on her only novel, Miss Miles, or, A Tale of Yorkshire Life Sixty Years Ago, for forty years before it was published in 1890. It strongly advocates a working life for women.