Frances Lupton

Frances Elizabeth Lupton (née Greenhow; 20 July 1821 – 9 March 1892) was an Englishwoman of the Victorian era who worked to open up educational opportunities for women. She married into the politically active Lupton family of Leeds, where she co-founded Leeds Girls' High School in 1876 and was the Leeds representative of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.

Lupton was born Frances Elizabeth Greenhow on 20 July 1821, into a medical family in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Her father, Thomas Michael Greenhow, co-founded the city's Eye Infirmary, with Sir John Fife, and then Newcastle University Medical School. He worked at Newcastle Infirmary, renamed the Royal Victoria Infirmary, for many years and was instrumental in its expansion in the 1850s.

Her mother, Elizabeth, was born into the Martineau family, an intellectual, business, and political dynasty. Many of her relatives were nationally prominent as Unitarians, a branch of English Dissenters; a main hall of the post-Blitz rebuilding of Essex Hall – the national headquarters for British Unitarians – was named after them. Elizabeth grew up in Norwich, attending the Octagon Chapel. Her siblings included James, the religious philosopher and professor at Manchester New College (known today as Harris Manchester College, Oxford University); Harriet, the social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist; and Robert, Mayor of Birmingham.

Thomas and Elizabeth Greenhow lived in Newcastle's fashionable Old Eldon Square. The couple had several children; Frances and at least two boys. Henry Martineau Greenhow (1829–1912) followed his father into medicine. He joined the Indian Medical Service and spent his career in British India, rising to surgeon major. His garrison withstood the Siege of Lucknow, a key part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Another brother, William Thomas Greenhow (1831–1921) became a judge. The siblings' first cousin Edward Headlam Greenhow was a physician-academic, who made his mark in epidemiology and public health.

Frances was educated at her aunt Rachel Martineau's school and remained close to Rachel's sister Harriet in adulthood. The Unitarian ethos of liberalism and service to society stayed with her throughout her life.

In 1847 Frances married Francis Lupton (1813–1884), a member 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 became part of the federal Victoria University, and from 1904 the University of Leeds. The Luptons were Unitarians who worshipped at Mill Hill Chapel on Leeds City Square, where a stained glass window commemorates them.

Frances married into a family of activists. Her husband's younger brother, Joseph Lupton, was president and later vice-president of Manchester New College, the training college for ministers where Frances's uncle taught. He was an anti-slavery campaigner and a Liberal who sat on the executive of the National Reform Union. He sat on the committee for the National Society for Women's Suffrage. The brothers' cousin Jane married the minister at Mill Hill, Charles Wicksteed, an educational reformer. He co-founded the Leeds Education Society, a precursor to the National Education League.