Caroline Stephen

Caroline Emelia Stephen (8 December 1834 – 7 April 1909), also known as Milly Stephen, was a British philanthropist and a writer on Quakerism. Her niece was Virginia Woolf.

Life Stephen was born on 8 December 1834 at Kensington Gore on Hyde Park Gate in London. and father of Virginia Woolf. She was educated by governesses in a literary and religious home. Her home moved from London to Brighton and back to Windsor and then Wimbledon.

Good works and becoming a Quaker Stephen was moved to charitable works in the 1860s and she published The Service of the Poor in 1871 after discussing her hypothesis with Florence Nightingale. She also began discussions of faith with Robert Were Fox. She decided to become a Quaker and she left behind her parents' evangelical Christianity. She looked after her mother until she died when she co-founded the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants with her cousin, Sara Stephen (other claims exist). In 1877, she arranged for a building for women to live in Chelsea. This was Hereford Buildings and it was located on what would become Old Church Street.

Cambridge Stephen moved to Cambridge in 1895 where she was able to witness to students at Newnham and Girton College about the beliefs of Quakers. She was assisted at Newnham by her niece, Katharine Stephen, who was the principal of Newnham College. When Virginia Woolf had a breakdown after her father died in 1904, she recovered at a friend's home and then spent time with her aunt in Cambridge. (see A Room of One's Own). In 1911 Katharine Stephen published The Vision of Faith and other Essays which contained Caroline Stephen's writing.