Mary Dinah Taylor
Spinster
Mary Dinah was the daughter of Elizabeth’s sister Mary from her second marriage to Henry Taylor of Longton Hall. Her mothers first marriage was to Robert Moss Esq and lasted just four years before he died suddenly.
After the death of Robert, Mary’s mother acquired the title of ‘landed proprietor’ and resided on Chapel Lane as a widow for eleven years before marrying farmers son and bachelor Henry Taylor, aged thirty-seven of Longton Hall Farm. They had three children, with Mary Dinah being their first child.
Mary spent her childhood on Marsh Lane in Longton. She was an only child until the age of four, when her brother John George came along, followed three years later by sister Annie.
Researching Mary’s life in comparison to Elizabeth’s throws up one striking difference, and that is that Mary was not a spinster alone. Her younger sister Alice remained unmarried until the age of thirty-four, when she married a cotton manufacturer ten years her junior in 1895. Mary was a witness at the wedding which took place at St Stephen’s Church, Preston, and was godmother to the couple’s only daughter, who also never married. Sisters Mary and Alice remained close, living next door to each other their whole lives.
Hutton
Living only half an hour’s drive away from Hutton, I was curious to go and see the sisters’ semi-detached country homes. Described in 1912 as “well elevated and desirable”, the houses are tucked away off Liverpool Road behind hedgerows, mature trees and private gated driveways. The elegant Edwardian chimney stacks and upper-floor windows can be seen on approach. The houses are made from handsome red brick and stand prominently overlooking the turnpike road. Looking at the two houses with original features still present, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the sisters living there a century ago.
Mary’s home boasted two entertaining rooms and five bedrooms, as well as domestic offices and a cellar. The garden featured a tastefully laid-out lawn with shrubberies, herbaceous borders, a kitchen garden and an ornamental conservatory. Mary lived alone in the house except for her servant, who was in charge of domestic chores, including cooking, cleaning and lighting fires. Mary also employed a gardener – local man Benjamin Walton.
Despite the newspaper advert above showing Elder Mount to let, Mary is recorded as residing in the house until 1923.
Mary was quite particular about her servants. References were an essential requirement, and a Protestant was preferred. The latter is not surprising, as she was well connected with St Andrews Church in Longton. Research puts her at the church Harvest Festival in 1905 alongside other women from the village decorating the church windows with arrangements of flowers and fruit. Mary’s commitment to St Andrews Church was lifelong, shown by a generous donation covering the expense of erecting a reredos within the church before her death.*
Property
Mary owned a property on Chapel Lane known as New House Farm; the tenant at the time was Thomas Topping. She purchased the farm in 1903 from the trustees of the will of Thomas Nowell Knowles.
West Cliff, Preston
The sale of Elder Mount in 1912, as seen from the above newspaper advertisement, was likely halted at the time by the outbreak of World War One, but the sale went ahead again in 1923. Records show that Mary left her home in Hutton and moved to a house on West Cliff in Preston, again next door to her sister Annie.
Mary’s new home in Preston was located in one of Preston’s middle-class enclaves close to Fishergate. The house was a comfortable townhouse and was as abundantly spacious as Elder Mount, having two entertaining rooms, four bedrooms, a large kitchen, a scullery, offices and a good garden with a greenhouse and a washhouse.
At this time Preston had grown to become more than just a mill town, evolving into an important administrative centre for many organisations, including the County Council. Not only was Preston the centre for agricultural planning but also a base for many new industries at this time, such as the engineering and service industries, including electricity, gas and telephones.
Mary’s Estate
It is clear that Mary was living quite comfortably and wasn’t in need of any financial support from a husband.
Probate confirms that Mary left behind an estate worth over £10000. The two predominant benefactors of Mary’s estate besides her sister’s daughter Marie Irene, were her brother-in-law Thomas Norris Howarth and members of the Greenwood family. John Sebastian Greenwood, one of the executors of the will, was a friend of Mary’s and a professor of music with a business/shop located on Guild Hall Street in Preston. I initially assumed that this connection suggested Mary had a passion for music, which she may well have done, but further digging led me to John’s wife, Eleanor. Eleanor was the daughter of Mary Cicely Ball (nee Hindle) who was Mary’s cousin and had lived close to Mary on Liverpool Road in Hutton for several years.
To discover what made up the sum of Mary’s estate, I needed to look further into the will. Besides the wealth documented within the will, Mary was also one of the many beneficiaries of her grandfather John Taylor’s estate.
Mary’s last will and testament helped enormously with discovering more about her life. She was a sentimental woman, fond of her jewellery and dinner service sets, which she left to various female relatives. In total she revised her will three times, confirming that she was quite specific and thoughtful about who was left with what. Her last revision was in 1924, four years before her death. At this point, brother-in-law Thomas was and had been attending to Mary’s business affairs for many years, thus offering an explanation as to why the lion’s share of her estate was in the end left to him.
Mary’s will also reveals evidence of a fondness for her servants. Elizabeth Hewitt, a servant in Mary’s home, was left £10. Elizabeth was the daughter of a canal worker from nearby Burscough.
Reflecting on my research into Mary’s life, the overwhelming impression is of a woman deeply rooted in tradition, her faith, and the people she held dear – her family and friends. Her conservative nature and firm Protestant beliefs lead me to suspect that perhaps she simply didn’t find the right life partner, rather than actively choosing to defy societal expectations by remaining unmarried. We must also acknowledge the potential role of her sexuality in this narrative. However, one thing is undeniably clear: her status as a spinster wasn’t due to any parental obligation, or because she was needed in the home. Mary lived a very privileged life at a time when the country was going through national conflict and a subsequent recession. The nature of her death reads as unfortunate considering the image portrayed by the opulence she enjoyed in her lifetime.
