Enriqueta Rylands

Enriqueta Rylands is well-known as the wife of Manchester industrialist and multi-millionaire, John Rylands. She was born Enriqueta Tennant in 1843, in Cuba, to a family whose wealth came from the production of sugar, cotton, tobacco and timber. After her father’s death the family lived in New York, Paris and eventually England. At some point after 1861 she moved to Longford Hall, Stretford, to become the companion of Martha Rylands, John’s second wife. Martha died in 1875 and later the same year John and Enriqueta were married. After John’s death in 1888, Enriqueta was the sole heir to his fortune, as John had outlived his children from his first marriage. She used over a million pounds of her newly-acquired wealth to commemorate her husband by founding the beautiful John Rylands Library on Deansgate, Manchester, acquiring libraries and archive collections of national and international importance. The Rylands Library was formally dedicated to the public by Enriqueta on what would have been the 24^th anniversary of her marriage to John – 6 October 1899. On the same day, Enriqueta was awarded the honorary Freedom of the City of Manchester – the only woman to be honoured this way until the 1950s. After her death approximately 3000 books, collected by John, were transferred from Longford Hall to the Rylands Library.

Enriqueta’s life and background have been well documented elsewhere; this article looks at documents held by Trafford Local Studies’ archive, which give us an insight into Enriqueta’s role in the public life of Stretford and her time at Longford Hall after John’s death.

John Rylands had erected a number of facilities in Stretford to be used by the townspeople. These were the Public Hall (‘for Public Meetings, Concerts, Bazaars and other like purposes’), the Public Free Library, also used for technical and other classes, as well as the Public Baths, the Coffee House and the Longford Institute, built for recreational purposes. After John’s death, an indenture (i.e., a legal contract) was made between Enriqueta and the Local Board for the District of Stretford to formalise the use of the Hall, Baths and Library. A copy of the indenture is held in the Local Studies archive.

Agreement between Enriqueta Rylands and the Stretford Local Board

Draft copy of agreement between Mrs Enriqueta Augustina Rylands and the Stretford Local Board. Trafford Local Studies collection, cat. ref. LHC/791

Enriqueta wished ‘the premises to be used as fully as possible for the benefit of the inhabitants’. She reserved certain rights to the properties however, including exclusive use of two rooms on the ground floor of the Hall, with her own separate access to those rooms. She also reserved the right to use the large hall and other rooms in the Public Hall for her own purposes.

The document also states that Enriqueta reserved the right to remove the organ in the large hall as well as the gas engine and fittings connected with the organ. The indenture cites a yearly rent of £40 8s 8d and details the Local Board’s responsibilities with regard to the upkeep of the buildings. For fire insurance purposes the value of the buildings and important contents is detailed: buildings, including the baths, £9350; the clock, £200; books, £600; furniture and fittings in the baths, £300; general fixtures, £200; the piano, £150; total, £10,800.

The Trafford Local Studies Archives also contains a series of notes written by Enriqueta to Mr Pilling, a director of John Rylands & Sons Ltd, who had the task of purchasing furniture for Longford Hall. In 1893, five years after John’s death, Enriqueta set about refurbishing parts of the Hall, in particular her bedroom. She gives precise instructions to Mr Pilling about the items that she requires, obviously taking charge of the planning herself: ‘1 wardrobe as per own design’; ‘I shall be glad to choose draperies for my bed windows at your earliest convenience’. No interior designers for Enriqueta! New bookshelves were erected and Enriqueta takes Mr Pilling to task over damage caused to the ‘beautiful dark polish’ of a library cabinet caused when one of Mr Pilling’s workmen took a wax impression from it.

Letters written by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands and her secretary, Miss Huckett of Longford Hall (Stretford) to Mr Pilling. Trafford Local Studies collection, cat. ref. LHC/106

In the same exchange of letters, she asks Mr Pilling to arrange for blinds to be fitted at the Coffee House in Stretford, complaining that the current ones are in ‘such bad condition’.

Despite all the work, Enriqueta did not spend a great deal of time in her newly decorated home. She started to spend more time overseas for health reasons. In 1894 she bought a villa in Torquay, where she died in 1908. Longford Hall and Park were subsequently bought by Stretford Urban District Council. Longford Park was opened to the public in 1912 with the Hall housing the Council’s art collection and used for public events.

Opening of Longford Hall as a convalescent home, 27 May 1916. Trafford Local Studies collection, cat. ref. TL0041

Researched and written by Trafford Local Studies volunteer Sue Arcangeli

Sources:

Brenda Scragg, John Rylands and Mrs Rylands as Book Collectors, reprinted from Nineteenth-century British Book Collectors & Bibliographers

Elizabeth Gow, Enriqueta Rylands: who do you think she was? Discovering the founder of the John Rylands Library, (Manchester: John Rylands University Library, 2008)

Trafford Local Studies Archives