Helen was the youngest of three, and the only daughter, of Harriet and John Taylor, a prosperous wholesale druggist of Mark Lane, London. She was born at Kent Terrace, London. Harriet was the daughter of Thomas Hardy of Birksgate, Yorkshire, where his family were lords of the manor for centuries. Harriet was educated at home, and did the same for her three children, instilling in Helen independence, and resistance to any sort of political or social repression.
Taylor had allowed Harriet to become very close with John Stuart Mill, the economist/philosopher, so long as she maintained Taylor's household, and the appearance of a marriage. John Taylor died in 1849, and Harriet and Mill married in 1851.
Helen had long aspired to the stage, which dream she fulfilled at Sunderland for two years. When Harriet died in 1858, Helen Taylor took her place as Mill's assistant and 'chief comfort,' taking charge of mundane household duties, answering his correspondence, and likely contributing to his writing; she was particularly involved in 'The Subjection of Women' (1869), which was likely the thinking of Harriet Mill. J. S. Mill was known to remark of his later work that it was the result, not of one intelligence, but of three: himself, his wife, and his stepdaughter.
Helen Taylor edited the miscellaneous and posthumous works of H. T. Buckle, a Mill acolyte (1872); Mill's 'Autobiography' (1873); and Mill's essays 'Nature,' 'The Utility of Religion' and 'Theism.'
In 1870, Mill had refused an invitation to be the Southwark Radical Association candidate to the new London School Board. The same invitation was extended to Helen in 1876, and she took up the gauntlet with a vengence. She polled at the top of the field, and her eloquence won her the support of even her opposition within the Board. She retired in 1884 due to her health, but in nine years she had abolished school fees and corporal punishment, enabled smaller classes, and seen to the provision of "all things essential to the development of the child," e.g. midday meal, boots and stockings, teacher salary increases, some of it from her own pocket. In 1882 she made public allegations of'scandal' at St. Paul's Industrial School, about which the Home Secretary made inquiry, and the school was closed. As a result, Thomas Scrutton brought a libel action against Helen in June of 1882, at which she did not prevail. She paid Scrutton £1000, and the judge exonerated her from any personal malice, in view of her public-spirited intention. Drastic reform of all London industrial schools resulted.
Helen Taylor was active in:
Irish Ladies' Land League
Land Reform Union
League for Taxing Land Values
Democratic Federation
(a forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation).
After nineteen years at the estate in the south of France, Helen returned to England, and lived out her last years at Torquay, Devon, with a niece. She is buried in the Torquay Cemetery.
Taylor had allowed Harriet to become very close with John Stuart Mill, the economist/philosopher, so long as she maintained Taylor's household, and the appearance of a marriage. John Taylor died in 1849, and Harriet and Mill married in 1851.
Helen had long aspired to the stage, which dream she fulfilled at Sunderland for two years. When Harriet died in 1858, Helen Taylor took her place as Mill's assistant and 'chief comfort,' taking charge of mundane household duties, answering his correspondence, and likely contributing to his writing; she was particularly involved in 'The Subjection of Women' (1869), which was likely the thinking of Harriet Mill. J. S. Mill was known to remark of his later work that it was the result, not of one intelligence, but of three: himself, his wife, and his stepdaughter.
Helen Taylor edited the miscellaneous and posthumous works of H. T. Buckle, a Mill acolyte (1872); Mill's 'Autobiography' (1873); and Mill's essays 'Nature,' 'The Utility of Religion' and 'Theism.'
In 1870, Mill had refused an invitation to be the Southwark Radical Association candidate to the new London School Board. The same invitation was extended to Helen in 1876, and she took up the gauntlet with a vengence. She polled at the top of the field, and her eloquence won her the support of even her opposition within the Board. She retired in 1884 due to her health, but in nine years she had abolished school fees and corporal punishment, enabled smaller classes, and seen to the provision of "all things essential to the development of the child," e.g. midday meal, boots and stockings, teacher salary increases, some of it from her own pocket. In 1882 she made public allegations of'scandal' at St. Paul's Industrial School, about which the Home Secretary made inquiry, and the school was closed. As a result, Thomas Scrutton brought a libel action against Helen in June of 1882, at which she did not prevail. She paid Scrutton £1000, and the judge exonerated her from any personal malice, in view of her public-spirited intention. Drastic reform of all London industrial schools resulted.
Helen Taylor was active in:
Irish Ladies' Land League
Land Reform Union
League for Taxing Land Values
Democratic Federation
(a forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation).
After nineteen years at the estate in the south of France, Helen returned to England, and lived out her last years at Torquay, Devon, with a niece. She is buried in the Torquay Cemetery.
Helen was the youngest of three, and the only daughter, of Harriet and John Taylor, a prosperous wholesale druggist of Mark Lane, London. She was born at Kent Terrace, London. Harriet was the daughter of Thomas Hardy of Birksgate, Yorkshire, where his family were lords of the manor for centuries. Harriet was educated at home, and did the same for her three children, instilling in Helen independence, and resistance to any sort of political or social repression.
Taylor had allowed Harriet to become very close with John Stuart Mill, the economist/philosopher, so long as she maintained Taylor's household, and the appearance of a marriage. John Taylor died in 1849, and Harriet and Mill married in 1851.
Helen had long aspired to the stage, which dream she fulfilled at Sunderland for two years. When Harriet died in 1858, Helen Taylor took her place as Mill's assistant and 'chief comfort,' taking charge of mundane household duties, answering his correspondence, and likely contributing to his writing; she was particularly involved in 'The Subjection of Women' (1869), which was likely the thinking of Harriet Mill. J. S. Mill was known to remark of his later work that it was the result, not of one intelligence, but of three: himself, his wife, and his stepdaughter.
Helen Taylor edited the miscellaneous and posthumous works of H. T. Buckle, a Mill acolyte (1872); Mill's 'Autobiography' (1873); and Mill's essays 'Nature,' 'The Utility of Religion' and 'Theism.'
In 1870, Mill had refused an invitation to be the Southwark Radical Association candidate to the new London School Board. The same invitation was extended to Helen in 1876, and she took up the gauntlet with a vengence. She polled at the top of the field, and her eloquence won her the support of even her opposition within the Board. She retired in 1884 due to her health, but in nine years she had abolished school fees and corporal punishment, enabled smaller classes, and seen to the provision of "all things essential to the development of the child," e.g. midday meal, boots and stockings, teacher salary increases, some of it from her own pocket. In 1882 she made public allegations of'scandal' at St. Paul's Industrial School, about which the Home Secretary made inquiry, and the school was closed. As a result, Thomas Scrutton brought a libel action against Helen in June of 1882, at which she did not prevail. She paid Scrutton £1000, and the judge exonerated her from any personal malice, in view of her public-spirited intention. Drastic reform of all London industrial schools resulted.
Helen Taylor was active in:
Irish Ladies' Land League
Land Reform Union
League for Taxing Land Values
Democratic Federation
(a forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation).
After nineteen years at the estate in the south of France, Helen returned to England, and lived out her last years at Torquay, Devon, with a niece. She is buried in the Torquay Cemetery.
Taylor had allowed Harriet to become very close with John Stuart Mill, the economist/philosopher, so long as she maintained Taylor's household, and the appearance of a marriage. John Taylor died in 1849, and Harriet and Mill married in 1851.
Helen had long aspired to the stage, which dream she fulfilled at Sunderland for two years. When Harriet died in 1858, Helen Taylor took her place as Mill's assistant and 'chief comfort,' taking charge of mundane household duties, answering his correspondence, and likely contributing to his writing; she was particularly involved in 'The Subjection of Women' (1869), which was likely the thinking of Harriet Mill. J. S. Mill was known to remark of his later work that it was the result, not of one intelligence, but of three: himself, his wife, and his stepdaughter.
Helen Taylor edited the miscellaneous and posthumous works of H. T. Buckle, a Mill acolyte (1872); Mill's 'Autobiography' (1873); and Mill's essays 'Nature,' 'The Utility of Religion' and 'Theism.'
In 1870, Mill had refused an invitation to be the Southwark Radical Association candidate to the new London School Board. The same invitation was extended to Helen in 1876, and she took up the gauntlet with a vengence. She polled at the top of the field, and her eloquence won her the support of even her opposition within the Board. She retired in 1884 due to her health, but in nine years she had abolished school fees and corporal punishment, enabled smaller classes, and seen to the provision of "all things essential to the development of the child," e.g. midday meal, boots and stockings, teacher salary increases, some of it from her own pocket. In 1882 she made public allegations of'scandal' at St. Paul's Industrial School, about which the Home Secretary made inquiry, and the school was closed. As a result, Thomas Scrutton brought a libel action against Helen in June of 1882, at which she did not prevail. She paid Scrutton £1000, and the judge exonerated her from any personal malice, in view of her public-spirited intention. Drastic reform of all London industrial schools resulted.
Helen Taylor was active in:
Irish Ladies' Land League
Land Reform Union
League for Taxing Land Values
Democratic Federation
(a forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation).
After nineteen years at the estate in the south of France, Helen returned to England, and lived out her last years at Torquay, Devon, with a niece. She is buried in the Torquay Cemetery.
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