User:Carbon Caryatid/Frances Lupton

Frances Lupton (1821–1892) was a member of the Lupton family who worked to open up educational opportunities for women. She lived in Leeds, a large city in the North of England, during the Victorian era.

Family background and early life
She was born Frances Elizabeth Greenhow, into a medical family. Her father was Thomas Michael Greenhow, who founded the medical school in Newcastle in 1834. His brother's son, Edward Headlam Greenhow, Elizabeth's first cousin, was also a physician-educationalist, who made his mark in epidemiology and public health.

Her mother was Elizabeth Martineau, from the political dynasty of that name. Many of the Martineaus were prosperous merchants in Birmingham, and nationally prominent as Unitarians, a branch of English Dissenters. Her mother's siblings included James, the religious philosopher, and Harriet, the social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist. Frances was educated first at her aunt Rachel's school, but stayed close to her aunt Harriet all her life. The Unitarian ethos of liberalism and service to society stayed with her throughout her life.

Marriage and children
In 1847 she married Francis Lupton (1813-1884), part of a prosperous and politically active cloth manufacturing family in Leeds. In addition to his business interests, he was one of the founders of the Yorkshire College of Science in 1874, which later became part of the federal Victoria University, and from 1904 the University of Leeds. The Luptons were, like the Martineaus, a family of Unitarians. They worshipped at the Mill Hill Chapel, right on Leeds City Square; a stained glass window commemorates the family.

She had married into a family of activists: her husband's younger brother, Joseph, for example, was a committed anti-slavery campaigner. He was a Liberal and sat on the executive of the National Reform Union; he also supported the struggle for women's suffrage and sat on the committee of the Manchester National Society (for Women's Suffrage)

Frances and Francis lived in attractive villages just outside the industrial city, first at Potternewton, later establishing the family seat at a Georgian country house in Roundhay. Beechwood, which was bought from the politician George Goodman, stayed in the family until the 1990s. Francis ran a successful farm there and continued to work until he died suddenly at the age of 70. Their sons Francis Martineau, Arthur, Charles, and Hugh, all contributed to the eminence of Victorian Leeds.

Context for her work
Secular education of women had become a more pressing issue by the middle of the nineteenth century. Girls' schools, including small boarding establishments, had existed for generations, but a new impetus was given by the founding of colleges offering single-sex education to young women. One example, Queen's College, opened in London in 1848, originally to provide qualifications for governesses. Emily Davies campaigned for women's education in the 1860s, and founded Girton College in 1869; Anne Clough founded Newnham College in 1875; both of these colleges were affiliated with but not entirely accepted by the University of Cambridge.

Lupton's aunt Harriet Martineau paid a long visit to the United States in 1834, one of her areas of interest being the emerging girls' schools. In Society in America (1837), the sociologist angrily criticized the state of female education: "'The intellect of women is confined by an unjustifiable restriction of... education... As women have none of the objects in life for which an enlarged education is considered requisite, the education is not given... The choice is to either be ill-educated, passive, and subservient, or well-educated, vigorous, and free only upon sufferance.'"

Her impact on female education
Frances Lupton's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes her pioneering work in expanding the opportunities for female education.

In 1871 she became Honorary Secretary to the Ladies’ Honorary Council of the Yorkshire Board of Education, then just six years old. She "was the powerful driving force of the organization" and also of the Leeds Ladies' Educational Association. One of her first successes was setting up a students' library. Soon, the committees had arranged to superintend the first Cambridge Local examination for women in Leeds.

However, the most pressing need was for better all-round education for girls, equivalent to what boys received at traditional academic grammar school. Established interests prevented the use of existing charitable funds, so Lupton led a meeting between the Leeds Association and the Ladies Council to create a new way forward: a joint stock company. Her business acumen meant that Leeds Girls' High School opened in 1876.

She and the Ladies Council also saw the need for the dissemination of practical information on traditionally female subjects such as health and nursing. They launched a cooking school in 1874 (having requested but not received help from civil servant Sir Henry Cole). In the following decade, the Yorkshire Training School of Cookery developed teacher training courses at the request of the school boards; eventually this formed a component part of Leeds Metropolitan University.

Frances Lupton died at home on 9 March 1892 and was buried in Roundhay churchyard.