The Death And Obituaries Of Mary Taylor

When we look at the Brontë story we concentrate, inevitably, on Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë; we look further at Branwell Brontë, at the Brontë siblings Maria and Elizabeth Brontë, and at the Brontë parents Patrick and Maria. There are others who play a vital role in the story however, and today we look at the anniversary of the passing of one of them: Mary Taylor.

Mary Taylor was a true 19th century one of a kind, and she became one of Charlotte Brontë’s greatest friends. Mary first met Charlotte in 1831, when she arrived as a new pupil at Margaret Wooler’s Roe Head school near Mirfield. Also there was Ellen Nussey, who already knew Mary. These three young women became lifelong friends, but all had very different characters. Ellen was very religious, very attuned to what society thought proper and correct for a young woman – although she herself was having to cope with a tragic homelife. Charlotte, as we know, was a unique genius, a very shy woman but one who could also hold very strong opinions – and wasn’t afraid to let people know about them. Mary was born into a wealthy family and lived in Gomersal’s grand Red House – but her life too, like her friends, had tragedy streaked throughout it. Mary’s father died suddenly, and it was found that his great wealth existed on paper only – the Taylors were nearly bankrupt. Mary was sent to school in Europe alongside her younger sister Martha Taylor, but Martha died in Brussels, an event which had a huge impact not just on Mary but on Charlotte Brontë too – and which found its way into Charlotte’s writing many years later.

Mary was a very independent woman who didn’t suffer fools gladly, and she was determined to make a life for herself on her own terms. She emigrated to New Zealand to set up a business there, which prompted Charlotte to write that: “To me it is something as if a great planet fell out of the sky. Yet unless she marries in New Zealand she will not stay there long.”

Mary did indeed eventually return to Yorkshire, but by that time, alas, Charlotte and all her siblings had passed away. Mary, like Ellen Nussey, never married, but she did carve out her own path in life. She became an ardent early feminist and wrote for journals and newspapers, and travelled extensively across Europe. When in Yorkshire she was waited upon by Swiss maids who lived alongside her. Mary was also a pioneering mountaineer, and in her fifties she led the first all female ascent of Mont Blanc – that’s a picture from it, with Mary on the left, at the head of this post.

Mary Taylor certainly packed a lot into her long, for the time, life – but her obituaries focused on one particular area as these two snapshots, from The Northern Guardian and the London Illustrated News, show:

The Illustrated LondonNews further includes a remembrance of Mary from “one of her old school-fellows” (which surely means Ellen): “When Mary Taylor first came to Roe Hill she was a pretty, delicate-looking girl, and I have heard Miss Wooler say that she thought her too pretty to live. She was clever and studious, and among all the girls in the school she was second only to Charlotte Brontë in ability. Even then, however, she possessed some of the eccentricity which was not unnoticeable in later years. For the last month at school she utterly refused to do any lessons, and went her own way in determined silence, because Miss Wooler had insisted upon studies which she did not like. Charlotte’s frank and generous estimate of her friend in the ‘LIfe’ [Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Brontë] is, however, entirely accurate. In later life her combined capriciousness and kindness became more emphasised, but then, as ever, she was a good and true woman – worthy of the honourable place she is long destined to hold in a wonderful literary history.

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Spring weather seems to have arrived here in Yorkshire – long may it stay, and I hope to see you next Sunday for another new Brontë blog post. In the meantime, raise a glass to the memory of the eccentric, unique Mary Taylor – a woman who was much loved by Charlotte Brontë.