Isabel Cargill (10 December 1864 – 17 April 1944) was a New Zealand businesswoman who established English-style tearooms in Rome, Italy, in the early 1890s. [1] [2]
Cargill was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 10 December 1864. [3] [4] She was the granddaughter of William Cargill, the founder of the city, and the fourth daughter of Edward Cargill and his wife, Dorothy Cargill (née Nesham). [5] [6]
In the early 1890s she travelled to England and then, with her English friend Anna Maria Babington, to Italy. When they were unable to find a shop selling cups of tea in the city, the pair decided to open an English-style tearooms, which they called Babington's Tea Room. [7]
Cargill also wrote a column, "Letters from Rome" for the Otago Witness newspaper. [7]
In 1902, Cargill married an Italian artist, Giuseppe da Pozzo. [2] The couple had one daughter, Dorothy, who was born in 1904. [8] [9]
Cargill died in Stra, Veneto, Italy, on 17 April 1944. [10] [11]