Papers relating to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's childhood, schooling and adolescence

This section contains papers relating to Elizabeth (Elsie) Mary Taylor's childhood and adolescence including her schooling between 1872 and 1876. The section includes documents relating to Elizabeth Taylor's education in Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, between 1872 and 1874 and her time attending the North London Collegiate School between 1874 and 1876. The section also features a large amount of correspondence exchanged between Elizabeth Taylor and her relatives during the 1860s and 1870s which provides an insight into the childhood experiences of Elizabeth Taylor and her siblings and her participation in Quaker philanthropic work as a young woman.

Finding number: MS 466/119-126

Biographical information about the Taylor Family and Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury taken from Richenda Scott, 'Elizabeth Cadbury, 1858-1951' (London: Harrap, 1955), see especially pp. 12-20 and 25. Details also taken from Sara Delamont, 'Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth Mary (1858-1951)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45784] accessed 27th October 2008. Information about Miss Frances Mary Buss taken from Elizabeth Coutts, 'Buss, Frances Mary (1827-1894)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2006, Internet; [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37249], accessed 3rd March 2009.

Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's parents John and Mary Jane Taylor first lived at Elm Place in Peckham Rye, where Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1858. In 1863 the Taylors moved to a house called Sunbury in Peckham Rye. The Taylors were surrounded by relations including their parents and siblings and their children became closely interwoven into their kinship network, socialising with their large number of cousins. Elizabeth Taylor and her siblings were also encouraged to participate in their parents' charitable and philanthropic endeavours from an early age.

Following a brief period attending a Quaker day school, Elizabeth Taylor was educated by governesses at home in Peckham Rye. In 1872 Elizabeth and her elder sister Margaret (Pearlie) were sent overseas to a school in the German town of Meiningen. In autumn 1873 Margaret Taylor returned home to help the girls' mother with her new baby, Margaret's and Elizabeth's younger brother John Augustine, who was born in November 1873. Elizabeth remained at the school for a further year, returning home to England in July 1874. Following her return to England, in the autumn of 1874 Elizabeth Taylor entered the North London Collegiate School for Girls which she attended until 1876, under the leadership of the schools' founder and headmistress Frances Mary Buss (1827-1894). Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury attended the North London Collegiate School's centenary celebrations in 1950.