Mary Taylor (women's rights advocate)

Mary Taylor (1817 – 1 March 1893) an early advocate for women's rights, was born in Gomersal, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

She met Ellen Nussey[1] and Charlotte Brontë in 1831 at Roe Head School in Mirfield where they became firm lifelong friends despite having opposing views.

[2] 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.

[3] In a letter, Charlotte Brontë writes Mary was "in her element- because she is where he has a toilsome task to perform, an important improvement to effect- a weak vessel (Waring) to strengthen- she will remain in New Zealand as long as she can there find serious work to do - but no longer".

[6] Having observed much of the dealings of her brother's business in trading commodities such as wool, land, cattle and clothing, Mary caught on and had met many prospective clients.

The drapery had a gabled roof, a generous 28-foot (8.5 m) by 26-foot (7.9 m) building footprint and served as both a business and place of residence for Mary and Ellen in the upstairs rooms.

She made annual visits to Switzerland where, aged almost 60 in 1875, she led a party of five women on an expedition to climb Mont Blanc and they published Swiss Notes by Five Ladies, an account of their ten-week adventure.

[11] In her time back in Yorkshire, between 1865 and 1870, Taylor published many articles for Victoria Magazine illustrating her many feminist ideas which were compiled into the book, The First Duty of Women.

Taylor remarked that her time and efforts spent in Wellington would be the part of her life which she would consider most agreeable because of the attitudes of settlers and the equal opportunities available for all those establishing the new township regardless of their gender and age.