| Description | Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's personal archive within the Cadbury Family Papers provides an insight into her long and active life beginning with material relating to her childhood, schooling and adolescence. These early papers include school records, family correspondence, scapbooks, watercolour sketches and documents relating to Elizabeth Taylor's schooling in Germany and at the North London Collegiate School, as well as her Senior Cambridge Examination Papers. Taylor Cadbury's personal papers also contain material relating to her attendance at events celebrating the centenary of the North London Collegiate School in 1950.
Taylor Cadbury's papers incorporate a wealth of personal correspondence with her mother, father, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins as well as social correspondence and letters relating to her public work. These include letters from Barbara More Nightingale, Percy Bigland, Sir George Newman, Dame Henrietta Barnett, Dr. Albert and Helene Schweitzer, Sir Raymond Priestley and Sir Oliver Lodge. Correspondence also features from delegates who attended the conferences of the National Union of Women Workers and the Parents' National Education Union held in Birmingham in 1905 and 1909. Taylor Cadbury's public philanthropic work is well represented in her personal archive which includes her 1876 class register from the Peckham Friends' First-Day School and material relating to her involvement with the Scandinavian Sailors' Temperance Home. Her personal papers also contain correspondence relating to her work as Chairman of the Birmingham City Council Education Committee's Hygiene Sub-Committee as well as a large collection of papers, newscuttings and correspondence relating to her campaign to be elected the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Kings Norton in 1923. In addition, Taylor Cadbury's archive features papers revealing her participation in international philanthropic work including her involvement with the International Council of Women. These include correspondence and photographs relating to Taylor Cadbury's visit to India in 1936 and her efforts to promote Anglo-Indian relations. A large collection of typescripts for public addresses and broadcasts which Taylor Cadbury delivered relating to various aspects of her public work, including housing, education, and health are also featured amongst her personal archive, as well as publications written by and about Taylor Cadbury.
A number of documents produced by Taylor Cadbury which remained either unpublished or were privately printed are contained within her archive including examples of poetry, notebooks and letters. Papers such as testimonials and lists of gifts relating to Taylor Cadbury's 21st, 80th, 90th and 92nd birthdays are also featured in her archive alongside papers relating to the death of her husband George Cadbury in 1922. These include a series of memorial tributes which Taylor Cadbury compiled and distributed amongst her family based on extracts from correspondence sent to her by friends and colleagues paying their respects to her late husband. In addition a number of documents relating to Taylor Cadbury's involvement with Bournville during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries are included amongst her personal papers, such as copies of the address which she delivered at the Cadbury jubilee celebrations in 1929 commemorating the Firm's move from Birmingham to Bournville.
Papers relating to Taylor Cadbury's lifelong involvement with the Religious Society of Friends reflect the fundamental importance of her Quaker faith throughout her life and provide an insight into Taylor Cadbury's public participation in debate concerning Quakerism during the first half of the twentieth century. Correspondence recording Taylor Cadbury as a Minister of Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting also feature in her archive alongside letters from prominent Quakers in both England and America including Rendel Harris, John Henry Lloyd, Herbert George Wood, Carl Heath and Rufus Jones.
In addition to material which Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury collected throughout her lifetime, her personal archive features papers that were preserved by her family, companions and secretaries relating to her illness and death in 1951. These include printed programmes of Taylor Cadbury's memorial service, letters of condolence and a copy of the memorial edition of the 'Bournville Works Magazine' produced to commemorate Taylor Cadbury's life and contribution to the development of Bournville.
Amongst the most valuable documents in Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's archive in terms of understanding her life and work are the large number of personal diaries and journal letters which she produced and distributed amongst her family during the early twentieth century. Personal diaries providing a daily account of Taylor Cadbury's activities often feature annotations where Taylor Cadbury has revisited entries as well as markers left between pages by Richenda Scott. Taylor Cadbury's archive also contains a copy of the weekly letters which she sent to her siblings and children recording family events and emphasising their participation in public philanthropic work.
The Cadbury Family Papers also contain a large number of photographs including a box of images relating directly to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury dating from 1874 to her death in 1951.
Please refer to the attached document 'Cadbury Family Tree' which provides details about the names, dates of birth and death and family relationships between people featured in Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's personal papers and photographs of the Cadbury family. |
| AdminHistory | This section contains papers relating to the life and work of Quaker philanthropist Dame Elizabeth Mary Cadbury (nee Taylor) (1858-1951). Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury is variously identified as Dame Elizabeth Cadbury, Elizabeth Mary Cadbury, Elsie M. Cadbury and Mrs. George Cadbury in documents contained within the Cadbury Family Papers. However, as there are three other Elizabeth Cadburys within the Cadbury Family Papers (Elizabeth Cadbury of Philadelphia, Elizabeth Adlington Cadbury and Elizabeth Head Cadbury), she has been identified consistently in this catalogue as Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury. In addition, given that these papers cover a long period of Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's life before she was created Dame Elizabeth Cadbury in 1934, she is referred to throughout without reference to this title.
The Taylor Family:
Elizabeth Mary Taylor, often referred to as Elsie, was born on 24th June 1858, the second daughter of John Taylor, a stockbroker (died 1894) and Mary Jane Taylor, a philanthropist (nee Cash, 1833-1887). The Taylor and Cash families had a long Quaker heritage and were connected through marriage to a number of prominent Quaker families including the Lucas, Hayhurst, Cadbury and Newman families. Both John and Mary Jane Taylor followed the example of their predecessors, many of whom were active public philanthropists. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's uncle Thomas Cash was responsible for founding the Temperance Hospital and the Friends' Provident Insurance Society. John and Mary Jane Taylor were enthusiastic campaigners for temperance and promoted the improvement of educational opportunities for working-class people. In her book 'Elizabeth Cadbury: 1858-1951' (see related material below), Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's biographer Richenda Scott suggests that John Taylor's public and political work encouraged the Taylor children's awareness of their social responsibilities. However, Taylor Cadbury's mother also had a significant influence over her children's development, supporting their education and promoting their participation in philanthropic work. Following her mother's death in 1887 Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury compiled a book commemorating her life entitled 'A Dear Memory: Pages from the Letters of Mary Jane Taylor' (see related material below) which was printed for private circulation in 1914. This book emphasises the close relationships between her 'large family circle'.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's family correspondence reveals that she was particularly close to her elder sister Margaret Taylor, later Graham (1856-1943), known amongst the family as Pearlie. Taylor Cadbury's other siblings were Janet (1859-1908), John Howard (born 1861), Wilfrid (1863-1913), Rosamund Isabel (1866-1874), Annie Frances (born 1868), Josephine (born 1869), Edwin Claude (born 1871) and John Augustine (born 1873). Documents amongst Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's personal papers reveal that she maintained a close relationship with her siblings throughout her life. Correspondence suggests that the family often referred to each other by their middle names, for example, Edwin Claude Taylor is referred to as 'Claude' in Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's family journal letters written during 1906. Elizabeth Taylor also shared a close relationship with her maternal grandmother Elizabeth Pettifer Lucas Cash and her mother's sisters Caroline (Carrie) and Ann (Annie) who lived at Rose Cottage, Dorking. Caroline Cash married Birmingham businessman George Barrow in 1872. During her childhood Elizabeth Taylor was particularly fond of her Pomeranian dog Oliver Twist, known as Twist, who was the son of her aunt Caroline Cash's dog Hero.
In 1937 Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury privately published a book entitled 'Historical Rhymes' (see related material below) which included many details about her early life and the lives of her brothers and sisters. In this book Taylor Cadbury revealed that her elder sister Margaret became involved in work connected with the South of London Infirmary and Workhouse, alongside her participation in poor relief work. She later married a businessman, Patrick Graham, and lived in Sweden. Taylor Cadbury's younger sister Janet trained as a nurse becoming a Sister at the Westminster Hospital before marrying Joseph Henry Clark, the brother of her close friend Hetty Clark. Taylor Cadbury's brother Howard moved to Australia shortly after her marriage to George Cadbury in 1888, later becoming a Member to the Upper House of Legislature in Perth. Her brother Wilfrid also moved overseas to South Africa following a period training in business methods in Birmingham. Wilfrid married Taylor Cadbury's close friend and personal secretary Elizabeth Knox and eventually took up farming in Rhodesia. Taylor Cadbury's sisters Annie Frances and Josephine also joined their brother Wilfrid overseas, Frances working to establish an orphanage and undertaking missionary work whilst Josephine trained as a nurse. Josephine Taylor later worked at Kingsmead, a college established alongside Woodbrooke in Selly Oak to train people to undertake Quaker missionary work overseas. Josephine Taylor married the warden of Kingsmead, John William Hoyland, in 1906. Taylor Cadbury's brother Claude became a physician and remained an enthusiastic supporter of the Adult School Movement throughout his life. Taylor Cadbury also refers briefly in 'Historical Rhymes' to the characters of her youngest brother John Howard and her sister Rosamund Isabel.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's early life:
Elizabeth Taylor was educated at a Quaker day school before being sent to a private girls' school in Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, in the early 1870s. Following her return to England she spent two years at the North London Collegiate School for Girls between 1874 and 1876 where she passed the Senior Cambridge Examination in ten subjects. During the 1870s she became actively involved supporting the work of Quaker philanthropic initiatives in and around Peckham, participating in her father's temperance work with her siblings and teaching at the Peckham Friends' First-Day School. Elizabeth Taylor was also involved in teaching an adult class for working women in Bunhill Fields, organizing a choir and orchestra among her students. In addition, Elizabeth Taylor began a Boy's Club at Ratcliffe Highway during this period and supported the work of the Scandinavian Sailors' Temperance Home established in London's docklands. In 1885 Elizabeth Taylor volunteered at a Protestant medical mission in Belleville, Paris, supporting victims of the Franco-Prussian War. Correspondence and memoirs reveal that Elizabeth Taylor's experiences working in the slums of London and Paris gave her knowledge of the social problems caused by insanitary urban overcrowding. This encouraged her to support philanthropic endeavours to improve working and living conditions in industrialised urban areas. Allowed greater freedom and access to education than was typical for a girl living during the late nineteenth century, Elizabeth Taylor travelled widely during her young adulthood, touring Switzerland with her Aunt and Uncle Barrow in 1883. She also became involved with Quaker reading circles and debating groups including the Portfolio Society, participating in contemporary social and political debate.
During the late nineteenth century the Taylor family experienced financial hardship owing to the collapse of John Taylor's business concern which is vividly described in correspondence between Taylor Cadbury and her mother during 1885. The family were also struck by personal tragedy when Elizabeth Taylor's sister Rosamund Isabel died aged eight in 1874. Taylor Cadbury remarked in 'A Dear Memory' that the loss of her sister remained more 'vividly in my mind than many events of later years'. Following the death of her parents in the late 1880s and early 1890s, Taylor Cadbury's younger sister Janet Clark died in 1908 before her younger brother Wilfrid contracted malaria, dying overseas in 1913.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury and Quakerism:
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's Quaker faith served as a motivating force shaping her life and work. Both the Taylor family and the Cadbury family which Elizabeth Taylor married into shared an active and practical Quaker faith, identifying their endeavours supporting the welfare of less fortunate people as a practical manifestation of their religious faith. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury publicly acknowledged that this religious outlook informed her approach to philanthropic work and social questions throughout her life. Indeed, Scott writes that Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's 'untiring service' to social reform 'sprang from her deep-rooted faith, her immediate knowledge, of the living power of God moving in the spirit of man.' This is evident in the public addresses and publications produced by Taylor Cadbury during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which she emphasised the importance of religious faith in endeavours towards social reform. In a speech to the National Union of Women Workers in 1906 Taylor Cadbury identified contemporary philanthropic work as directly motivated by religious faith. She stated 'we have not evolved our ideas of social reform & justice from our own consciousness, unaided by the Divine', adding that spiritual influence formed 'the impulse from which radiates all our best works.' Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's approach to work promoting social reform was also shaped by the 'discussions on social questions and the possibilities of effective service' which she shared with Quaker businessman and housing reformer George Cadbury (1839-1922).
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury and George Cadbury:
In 'A Dear Memory' Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury remarks that her family had been connected with the Cadburys through marriage since the 1790s. Taylor Cadbury's mother Mary Jane Taylor was closely associated with more recent generations of the Cadbury family having attended school with Hannah Cadbury. Mary Jane Taylor also visited her cousins in the Cadbury family when staying with her close friend Mary Anna Jenkyn-Brown in Birmingham. During the 1870s whilst visiting her aunt and uncle Caroline and George Barrow in Church Stretton, Elizabeth Taylor formed a friendship with George Cadbury following their joint participation in a local temperance meeting. After the death of his first wife Mary Tylor in 1887, George Cadbury visited the Taylor family and renewed his friendship with Elizabeth Taylor which developed into a romantic attachment. Following their marriage in June 1888 Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury moved to Birmingham and became step-mother to George Cadbury's five children Edward (1873-1948), George Junior (1878-1954), Henry (1882-1952), Isabel (1884-1975) and Eleanor (1885-1959). The Cadbury children were joined by six new siblings between 1889 and 1906 named Laurence John (1889-1982), George Norman (1890-1980), Elsie Dorothea (1892-1971), Egbert (1893-1967), Marion Janet (1894-1979) and Elizabeth Ursula (born 1906). The family lived at Woodbrooke in Selly Oak, moving to the Manor House in Northfield in 1894 where Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury lived until her death in 1951.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's public work in Bournville, Birmingham and beyond:
Immediately following her marriage, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury became active in philanthropic work in Birmingham, organising a class for the wives of the men who were members of her husband George Cadbury's group at the Severn Street Adult School in the city. During the 1890s Taylor Cadbury was practically involved in the development of Bournville village around the Cadbury chocolate factory which had relocated from urban Birmingham to the rural suburb of Bournville in 1879. Particularly interested in work supporting the welfare, health and education of women and children, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was closely involved in founding the Bournville Girls' Athletic Club in 1899 and led the establishment and development of Bournville's infant and junior schools during the early twentieth century. Following the death of her husband George Cadbury on 24th October 1922, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury became Chairman of the Bournville Village Trust. She continued to take an active interest in the village until her death in 1951, particularly in the development of St. George's Court which provided housing for business and professional women. This complex was opened in 1923 by Residential Flats Limited, one of the Public Utility Societies established in Bournville under her Chairmanship of the Village Trust.
Beyond Bournville, Taylor Cadbury was closely associated with the Birmingham branch of the Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) and a group called 'Mothers in Council' which later became the Birmingham branch of the Parents' National Education Union. Actively involved in the foundation of the Woodlands Hospital in 1909, Taylor Cadbury served as Chairman of its House Committee and later as President of its Education Committee. She remained closely associated with the work of the hospital which later became the Royal Orthapaedic Hospital, throughout her life. Taylor Cadbury co-founded the Birmingham Union of Girls Clubs in the city in 1898 and was involved in the work of the Birmingham Women's Settlement as well as being amongst the foundation members of the University of Birmingham's Board of Governors formed in 1900. During the early 1900s Taylor Cadbury collaborated with her husband in the development of Woodbrooke Quaker College. She remained closely associated with activities at Woodbrooke throughout her life. A recorded minister of Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was recognised within and beyond the Religious Society of Friends for her contibution to religious life, appointed the first Female President of the National Free Church Council (Federal Council of the Free Churches) in 1925. Taylor Cadbury publically promoted closer relationships between religious denominations through the World Council of Churches during the late 1930s. In 1926 Taylor Cadbury delivered the first edition of the BBC Sunday Evening Service to be broadcast from the new BBC studios in Birmingham. From 1896 onwards Taylor Cadbury was also involved with the work of the National Union of Women Workers, later renamed the National Council of Women, serving as President of the Council between 1906 and1907. In 1911, following her co-option to Birmingham City Council Education Committee, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was appointed Chair of the Committee's Hygiene Sub-committee, an office which she held for over twelve years, leading the establishment of a school medical service which was identified by her contemporaries as an influential exemple for other cities. In 1919 she was elected Birmingham City Councillor for Kings Norton before standing unsuccessfully as the Liberal Party parliamentary candidate for this ward in 1923. In 1914 Taylor Cadbury was elected Convenor of the International Council of Women's Peace & Arbitration Sub-Committee and in 1936 led a delegation of women from United Kingdom to the World Congress of the International Council of Women in India. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was a prominent figure in campaigns for improved international relations throughout the early twentieth century. During the First World War and the early 1920s Taylor Cadbury led efforts to support the welfare of refugee children from Serbia and Austria who were evacuated to Birmingham. She also played a leading role in the Birmingham branch of the League of Nations Union as well as serving as President of the United Nations Association in Bournville. In 1916 Taylor Cadbury was elected to the National Peace Council, an international body formed in 1908 to promote peace and international co-operation. From 1924 until 1946 she served as Treasurer of the Council, before being elected Vice-President, maintaining her association with the Council until her death in 1951.
Between 1941 and 1948 Taylor Cadbury served as President of the United Hospitals in Birmingham which incorporated the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Medical School at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston and the city's General Hospital. During the Second World War Taylor Cadbury was involved with the work of the Friends Ambulance Unit and supported the welfare of refugees, working after the war to re-establish the International Council of Women. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury received formal recognition for her public work during the twentieth century, including international honours such as the Serbian Red Cross of Honour for her endeavours supporting refugees in wartime. A year after receiving her OBE in 1918, Taylor Cadbury was awarded an honorary MA from the University of Birmingham. In 1934 she was created a DBE becoming Dame Elizabeth Cadbury.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury celebrated her ninetieth birthday in 1948 surrounded by one hundred and fifty relatives including thirty seven grandchildren and forty nine great grandchildren. She was present at celebrations for Bournville's jubilee anniversary held in 1951 which proved to be her last public appearance. Dame Elizabeth died at the Manor House in Northfield on 4th December 1951 after suffering a cerebral thrombosis on 28th November. Tributes published following her death celebrated her youthful energy in a life devoted to philanthropic work supporting the welfare of others. She was described in the 'Birmingham Post' as one of Birmingham's 'most grand and outstanding' women. |