Lady Mary Chudleigh

English poet and feminist essayist Lady Mary Chudleigh (1656–1710) was a devout Anglican who educated herself and, ahead of her time, challenged traditional gender roles. She was born in Winslade, Devon, and though she had limited formal education, she was an avid reader of theology, science, and philosophy. In 1701, she published The Ladies Defense, a long poem in response to John Sprint’s The Bride-Woman’s Counsellor, a marriage sermon he delivered in 1699. Her frequently anthologized poem “To the Ladies” appeared in Poems on Several Occasions (1703); it echoes the feminist argument she set forth in The Female Advocate; or, A Plea for the Just Liberty of the Tender Sex and Particularly of Married Women (1700). In 1710, she published Essays upon Several Subjects. That same year, she died on December 15, and she is buried in the church of St. John the Baptist, Higher Ashton, Devon. The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh, edited by Margaret J.M. Ezell, was published by Oxford University Press in 1993.