Elizabeth Wordsworth

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Dame Elizabeth Wordsworth (1840-1932) was the great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth. She was the daughter of Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and the sister of John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury and Christopher Wordsworth, the liturgical scholar.

She was the Founder in 1878 of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford as a college for female undergraduates, on Norham Gardens in North Oxford, and its first Principal from 1879 to 1909.

In 1886 she also founded St Hugh's College as a college for poor female undergraduates. Today this is one of the largest colleges in Oxford University.

She was a prolific author, writing poetry, plays, biographies and religious articles, as well as writing and lecturing on women's education. She published the novels Thornwell Abbas, (two volumes, 1876) and Ebb and Flow, (two volumes, 1883) under the pseudonym Grant Lloyd.