Sophia Louisa (Davis) Taylor (1847 - 1930)

Sophia Louisa Taylor was a New Zealand suffragist and landowner she was a member of the women's franchise League Auckland branch and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Biography

Sophia (Davis) Taylor was a part of the Suffragette Movement.

Sophia (Davis) Taylor is Notable.

Sophia Davis was born in Kaitaia, Northland, New Zealand in 1847. Her parents were the John Davis and Mary Ann Cryer. John Davis was a private tutor ,when he was dismissed from his job the family moved to Auckland.

Sophia married Allan Kerr Taylor on 8 June 1865 he was a widower who was 15 years her senior.They had 10 children ^[1] Sophia moved toAlberton her husbands home, in Mount Albert, Alberton was expanded to an 18-room mansion in the 1870s and became known for the garden parties, hunts, and other entertainments held there .The family was actively engaged in ^[2]St Luke's Church the family gave the land for the church in the early 1870s and donated the church bells.St Luke's Church was registered with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on 7 April 1983 as a Category II heritage building with registration number 681.

When her husband Allan died in April 1890, he left Sophia with an estate valued at £20,000 but with a £4,000 mortgage. Sophia was unprepared for the financial burden. She had to sell investments and land in order to pay death duties and run the household,she also sold some of their horses and carriages, and reduced the number of servants, including the coachman.For the next 40 years she managed the estate, earning income from the sale of things she grew on the farm including vegetables, fruit,flowers and selling eggs .

Because Sophia Taylor had to pay taxes she realized women had the same obligations as men she supported the women's franchise movement , but she was opposed to women standing for Parliament. She joined the first committee of the Women's Franchise League's Auckland branch in 1892, and also joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, although she was not a prohibitionist.

Women gained suffrage in New Zealand in 1893 Sophia Taylor continued to be politically active on a range of issues, both speaking and writing, as late as the end of World War I. From 1908 she ended her earlier custom of entertaining guests at^[3] Alberton and lived there with her son Hector until his death in 1914 and her three unmarried daughters. In 1916 16 acres (6.5 ha) of the estate was sold for the Mount Albert Grammar School. After her death on 24 January 1930, her three unmarried daughters, Winifred, Millicent and Muriel, lived on the estate for the rest of their lives. When the last daughter died in 1972, ownership of the estate was passed to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

Sources

1. ↑ NZ Museums - Photography and Multimedia Cabinet photograph Sophia Kerr Taylor and children - J W Edwards (estab. 1880s)
2. ↑ Heritage New Zealand - St Luke's Church (Anglican)704 New North Road, Mt Albert, Auckland
3. ↑ Heritage New Zealand - Alberton Lot 3 DP 51530 (CT NA1C/842), North Auckland Land District

• New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24J-GY34 : 4 October 2016), Allan Herr Taylor and Sophia Louisa Davis, 1865; citing Marriage, New Zealand, registration number 1865/5630, Archives of New Zealand, Wellington.

• Wikipedia - Sophia Taylor
• Tera.govt.NZ Story - Taylor, Sophia Louisa Page 1 - Biography
• Auckland New Zealand - Alberton - once the Party house for the elite.