Caroline Ashurst Stansfeld (/ˈstænsfiːld/ STANSS-feeld; 28 January 1816 – 29 March 1885) was a member of an important family of radical activists in mid-nineteenth-century England who supported causes ranging from women's suffrage to Italian unification.

In 1844, she married[1] Sir James Stansfeld (1820–1898), the future MP for Halifax and preeminent political advocate for the movement to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts.

[4] The daughters were brought up in Muswell Hill, London, in a community of 19th-century reformers and free thinkers who advocated for more equality in society including anti-slavery.

[4] Mazzini "referred to Caroline as ‘his ministering angel’: she assisted him in a variety of capacities, helping not only with his personal and domestic affairs but aiding him with his literary work, as well as becoming involved in more dangerous activities, such as securing money and documents for Italian revolutionaries and providing secret places of refuge for them."

[7] At the Isle of Wight and in London she and her husband ran a salon frequented by Giuseppe Mazzini, Richard Cobden, Eugene Oswald, Malvida Mesenbug, Mathilde Blind, Moncure Conway, and "so many bright personalities.