Frances Elizabeth Lupton (née Greenhow; 20 July 1821 – 9 March 1892) was an Englishwoman of the Victorian era who worked to open up educational opportunities for women.

[1] Her father, Thomas Michael Greenhow, co-founded the city's Eye Infirmary, with Sir John Fife,[2][3] and then Newcastle University Medical School.

[4] In 1847 Frances married Francis Lupton (1813–1884), a member of a prosperous and politically active cloth manufacturing family in Leeds.

The Luptons were Unitarians who worshipped at Mill Hill Chapel on Leeds City Square, where a stained glass window commemorates them.

Francis and Frances lived just outside the rapidly industrialising city at Potternewton Hall,[20] later moving to Beechwood, a Georgian country house in Roundhay.

[21] Francis had farms at Beechwood and worked as a director of the family wool manufacturing firm until he died suddenly at the age of 70 in 1884.

Lupton's aunt Harriet Martineau paid a visit to the United States in 1834, one of her areas of interest was the emerging girls' schools.

"[28]Lupton's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes her pioneering work in expanding the opportunities for female education.

Established interests prevented the use of existing charitable funds, despite the passage of the Endowed Schools Act 1869, so Lupton led a meeting between the Leeds Association and the Ladies Council to create a new way forward – a joint-stock company.

As a council member, she also belonged to the Education for Girls Committee of the Royal Society of Arts which, from 1871, had aligned itself with the aims of NECPHEW.

Kitson established the Leeds branch of the Association for the Care and Protection of Friendless Girls in 1885 which was also supported by members of her family.