 She was an heiress of the Twinings family of tea merchants and was a philanthropist.Elizabeth Twining was born in 1805 into the Twinings tea-merchant family, she was one of the nine children of Richard Twining by his wife Elizabeth Mary Smythies.She was raised in London, where she learned art and drawing as part of her education, during which she was inspired by Curtis's "The Botanical Magazine" and the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick.