Husband
Portrait of John Rylands
John Rylands was a spectacularly successful businessman, expanding the small family firm of Rylands & Sons into an international company that dominated the cotton industry and textile trade, profiting from slavery through the transatlantic cotton trade. When John died, his widow became one of England’s wealthiest women. The directors of Rylands & Sons supported Enriqueta in her ambitious plans to commemorate him.
‘honest, able, unique, successful’
Joseph Parker, Well Begun: Notes for Those Who Have to Make Their Way in the World, 1894, p. 210
Portrait of John Rylands by Charles Allen Duval (1810-1872)
Enriqueta’s Bible, which John gave her on their wedding day, Wednesday 6 October 1875.
John Rylands credited his love of the Bible to his mother, a Congregationalist. After she died, he moved to Manchester and was baptized at John Birt’s Baptist Chapel. John worshipped regularly at Cavendish Road Congregational Chapel with his second wife, Martha.
Although Enriqueta Tennant went with them, she is not included in the membership rolls. John also continued to attend Baptist services and became friends with the minister Samuel Gosnell Green (1822-1905), an important figure in the history of The John Rylands Library. Enriqueta adopted her husband’s religion, identifying herself as ‘a Dissenter’.
John’s first wife, Dinah Raby, died in 1843, aged forty-one. Of the seven children she bore him, only two sons, John and William, survived to adulthood. William, the second son and intended heir, died in 1861, aged thirty-three. John Garthwaite Rylands, the oldest son, died in 1872, after this note was written.
![A black and white group photograph of William Carnelley on the left, John Rylands second from the left, [unidentified lady], Elen Carnelley, and Mrs William Carnelley.](https://www.digitalexhibitions.manchester.ac.uk/files/large/ad71b41b850aa11309ab0b61d1f64c6c1c8b32f6.jpg)
John and Enriqueta became close friends with the other directors of Rylands and Sons. After John died William Carnelley and his colleague William Linnell assisted Enriqueta. They helped her implement her secret plans for a memorial library before she even told her family what she intended.
This group photograph shows William Carnelley seated on the far left, with John Rylands sitting next to him. William's wife sits on the far right, with their daughter Ellen beside her. The lady standing at the back has not been identified.
When William Carnelley died in 1919, he was buried in a plot facing that of John Rylands in Southern Cemetery.
After John died Enriqueta commissioned a commemorative volume containing this portrait engraved by the French firm Goupil & Cie.
Text alternative for the John Rylands family tree
This family tree shows John Rylands, his parents, siblings, marriages, children and adopted children. The central image of John Rylands is illustrative; the same information is provided in text.
Parents
- Joseph Rylands (1767–1847), married Elizabeth Pilkington (1761–1829).
Children of Joseph Rylands and Elizabeth Pilkington
- Eleanor Rylands (1794–1819), married John Cross.
- Joseph Rylands (1796–1853), married Mary Ann Roberts, died 1889.
- Richard Rylands (1798–1863), married Elizabeth Heyes.
- John Rylands (1801–1888).
- Betty Rylands.
John Rylands’ marriages
- In 1825, John Rylands married Dinah Raby (1802–1843).
- In 1848, John Rylands married Martha Carden (1806–1875).
- In 1875, John Rylands married Enriqueta Augustina Tennant (1843–1908).
Children of John Rylands and Dinah Raby
- John Garthwaite Rylands (1826–1872).
- William Rylands (1828–1861).
- Joseph Rylands (1829–1830).
- Emily Rylands (1831–1832).
- Eliza Rylands (1831–1832).
- Eliza Rylands (1832).
- Emily Rylands (15 May–4 December 1834).
Adopted children of John Rylands and Enriqueta Augustina Tennant
- Maria Castiglioni, adopted, born 1874.
- Arthur Forbes, adopted, 1877–1952.