Helen Taylor

Helen Taylor (31 July 1831 – 29 January 1907) was an English feminist, writer and actress. She was the daughter of Harriet Taylor Mill and stepdaughter of John Stuart Mill. After the death of her mother she lived and worked with Mill, and together they promoted women's rights. From 1876 to 1884 (when she quit due to her health) she was a member of the London School Board. In 1881, she joined the Democratic Federation. She was a supporter of women's suffrage and joined a petition to that effect from 1865, an inspiration for suffragists. Early life Helen Taylor was born at Kent Terrace, London, on 27 July 1831, was the only daughter and youngest of three children of John Taylor, wholesale druggist of Mark Lane, and his wife Harriet, daughter of Thomas Hardy of Birksgate, near Kirkburton, Yorkshire, where the family had been lords of the manor for centuries. Taylor, a man of education, inspired his daughter with a lifelong love for history and strong filial affection from an early age. Helen's education was pursued desultorily and privately. She was the constant companion of her mother, who, owing to poor health, was continually travelling. Mrs. Taylor's letters to her daughter testify to deep sympathy between the two. Helen's father died in July 1849, and in April 1851 her mother married John Stuart Mill. Her mother, Harriet Taylor Mill, wanted Helen to be free to do "what she hoped all women would one day have the liberty to do: to work at a job of her own choosing. The 'experiments in living' that Harriet and John encouraged in On Liberty began with her own daughter", Helen. Helen followed her dream of becoming an actress and went to work at Sunderland in 1856 and worked as an actress for two years. Harriet Taylor Mill died on 3 November 1858 at the Hotel de l'Europe, Avignon, when on the way with her husband to the south of France. In order to be near his wife's grave Mill bought a house at Avignon, which subsequently passed to Helen Taylor. Taylor now devoted herself entirely to Mill, and became his "chief comfort" and he valued her intelligent input. She not only took entire charge of practical matters and of his heavy correspondence, answering many of his letters herself, but also may have co-operated in his literary work, especially in The Subjection of Women (1869), much of which might have been suggested by her mother.