ELIZA KING
The Lady Who Wore Pants
Buried at St Mary’s is a woman who spent her life campaigning for justice. This brilliant thinker, writer, debater, world traveller called Taranaki home. This is some of her story…
In 1852, twenty-one year old Eliza Mary King, better known as E M King, settled in New Plymouth with her parents. Three years later she married William King in Henui Chapel. Eliza’s father-in-law was Captain William King, the New Zealand Company agent, who was in charge of much of New Plymouth, and who laid the first stone for St. Mary’s Church.
Eliza’s husband was elected to the New Zealand Parliament and captain of Rifle Volunteers. He died in 1861 during the Land Wars, leaving Eliza a single mum with two young daughters. She never remarried and inherited enough wealth to enable her to devote the rest of her life to writing, debating and campaigning for feminist causes. In 1863 she wrote her controversial book, Truth. Love. Joy. or The Fruits of the Garden of Eden in which she challenged the use of scripture to subject women to masculine domination.
In 1870, Eliza returned to England with her daughters, where she was well known for her passion for justice, public debate and protesting for dress reform, paving the way for women to wear pants.
When she was in her fifties, Eliza settled in the United States with her female companion Nellie Glen, where together they continued to campaign for world peace, co-operative housekeeping and the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, which allowed police officers to arrest and physically examine women suspected of being prostitutes, even if there was no evidence of prostitution.
In her old age, Eliza returned to Taranaki to live with her daughters. She died in 1911 and was buried beside her husband and father-in-law in St Mary’s Churchyard, near Robe Street.
“If we assume we know all truth, we shall never find it.”