(1843 – 1908)
Born in Cuba to British merchant family, Enriqueta was raised in New York, London and Paris (quite an education) before settling in England when her parents died.
Sometime after 1860, Enriqueta became companion to Martha, the wife of wealthy Manchester merchant John Rylands. In 1875, eight months after Martha’s death, Enriqueta married John Rylands, then aged 74. When he died in 1888, Enriqueta inherited his estate, becoming a major shareholder of his family’s textile firm and the Manchester Ship Canal.
In memory of her husband, Enriqueta founded the John Rylands Library. She admired the design of the library at Oxford’s Mansfield College library and commissioned the architects for something similar, albeit more lavish. In 1899 John Rylands Library was formally dedicated to the public by Enriqueta on what would have been their wedding anniversary. 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. Enriqueta continued to donate large sums of her fortune, often in secret, until her death. Despite Enriqueta’s fame and achievements, not much is known about her private life, as she asked for her personal correspondence to be destroyed when she died.
A full-length statue of her stands in the library, commissioned by supporters and was unveiled a few months before her death. The literature alongside the statue explains the link between the family’s wealth and the cotton slave industry.
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