Family Life and Home
The History of the Rathbone Family
"What ought to be done, can be done"
Eleanor was born into a family whose sense of high social consciousness led to a tradition of philanthropy and public service.
The family's origins are traced to Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, where the first William Rathbone was born in 1669. Subsequently, the family moved to Liverpool, establishing a timber business and making international connections. These early business ventures led to the creation of Rathbone Brothers and Co. in 1824, an illustrious Liverpool merchant firm, trading during the 19th century in a variety of commodities including American cotton, China tea and silks, and Brazilian coffee, and involving the energies of several members of the Rathbone family, through the generations, as partners.
William Rathbone II had joined the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, in 1726, and certain particularly Quaker and Unitarian traditions of industry and the zeal to correct social wrongs pervade generations of the Rathbone family: not least in the many good works of William Rathbone VI and his daughter, Eleanor.
Greenbank House
In 1788, William Rathbone IV had leased a residence near Liverpool, Greenbank, to house his family in a country environment, which was bought by the family in 1809. It was to remain the Rathbone family home for over a century, visited by many notable figures in the fields of politics and social reform, the Unitarian Church, and the arts.
Eleanor was born in 14 Princes Gardens, London, and her childhood years were divided between the two cities. Apart from a year at Kensington Girls’ School, her education was conducted at home.
Although profoundly linked to Liverpool, by 1918 Eleanor was travelling to London on a weekly basis. In 1919, she purchased a house in Romney Street, just off Smith Square in London, with her friend and companion Elizabeth Macadam. It eventually became her primary home.
The estate and buildings at Greenbank were presented to the University of Liverpool through the 1930s-40s.
From 1940, the Greenbank library collections were deposited at the University Library. This was a typical act of generosity which continued a long tradition of service, in many forms, to a city close to the family’s heart.
