Margaret Vallance Taylor (née Vallance; 1 April 1840 â 26 December 1922) was a Canadian teacher and social reformer, who for half a century promoted womenâÂÂs missionary work, child welfare, travelling libraries and public-health initiatives in Ontario and Manitoba. Twice president of the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC), she also founded WinnipegâÂÂs ChildrenâÂÂs Home and, at the suggestion of Lady Aberdeen, organised the nationwide Aberdeen Association to ship books and magazines to remote Prairie settlements.
Margaret Vallance was the fourth of seven children born to customs officer Hugh Vallance and Ann Little, a Scottish immigrant whose first husband had died of cholera soon after the family reached Hamilton in 1832. She received a âÂÂgood basic educationâ at a private school that stressed deportment and social graces. When her father died in 1856 the family finances collapsed, delaying her professional training until she could enter the Toronto Normal School in 1863. She graduated the following year with a first-class teaching certificate and began teaching in Bartonville (now part of Hamilton). Her school was located directly across from Thomas Wardlaw TaylorâÂÂs residence. During her time there, she caught his attention and they later married in 1864, making her his second wife. The couple had no children together.
Taylor joined the newly formed WomanâÂÂs Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (WFMS) in 1876. After the family moved to Winnipeg in 1883, Sir Thomas having been appointed to the Manitoba Court of QueenâÂÂs Bench, she founded the WFMSâÂÂs first western auxiliary (1884) and later served as president of the Augustine Church auxiliary and vice-president of the Winnipeg presbyterial.
An early member of the Christian Women's Union of Winnipeg (1883), Taylor steered the establishment of the ChildrenâÂÂs Home of Winnipeg (1885) and chaired its board from 1887 to 1899. Under her leadership the Home cared for more than 1,200 children in its first two decades. The Home cared for destitute children and aimed to place them in foster or adoptive homes.
Prompted by Lady AberdeenâÂÂs address at a Winnipeg womenâÂÂs meeting on 19 October 1890, Taylor organized the Aberdeen Association within a month and served as its president until 1899. She drafted detailed regulations to ensure a steady flow of âÂÂinstructive and entertainingâ literature, including religious, agricultural, and scientific periodicals, fashionable magazines, childrenâÂÂs books, history, biography, and fiction, to settlers in the Northwest. Under TaylorâÂÂs leadership, the Association mailed 300âÂÂ400 parcels of literature each month to isolated Prairie households, with free carriage arranged through the post office, steamship, and railway companies. At its peak, the Association operated 12 to 16 branches nationwide, aided by these transportation partnerships
A founding vice-president of the Winnipeg Local Council of Women (1894), Taylor served as its second president (1896âÂÂ99). The council campaigned successfully for police matrons, improved prison conditions for women and the 1897 opening of the Girlsâ Home of Welcome for immigrant women.
Taylor succeeded Lady Aberdeen as National Council of Women of Canada president in 1899 and guided the organisation through 1902; she served again from 1910 to 1911 after the sudden death of Lady Edgar. She resisted proposals to reduce the CouncilâÂÂs annual meetings, arguing that yearly sessions were vital despite their cost, and repeatedly tackled the bodyâÂÂs chronic funding shortfalls. During her terms the NCWC her actions included:
TaylorâÂÂs Presbyterian and maternalist convictions did not extend to womenâÂÂs suffrage. In 1910, she told National Council of Women of Canada delegates that manhood suffrage had proved âÂÂvenalâ and argued that doubling the electorate would simply âÂÂdouble political corruption.âÂÂ
Taylor resumed Red Cross work during World War I in 1914, but poor health soon curtailed her public activity. Following Sir ThomasâÂÂs death in 1917 she divided her time between Hamilton and Winnipeg. She died in Winnipeg on 26 December 1922 and was buried in Hamilton Cemetery beside her husband. Scholars of Canadian womenâÂÂs history credit TaylorâÂÂs âÂÂstrength, clear thinking and sound judgementâ for shaping the NCWC into an influential voice in public policy.