Shakespeare Ladies

The True History of the Shakespeare Ladies Club (Est. 1736)

In 1730s London, most male intellectuals, even those who admired his work, lamented that Shakespeare was not better educated, that his characters were not better bred, and that his plays were not more in keeping with Aristotelian conventions.

Like Shakespeare, Georgian women also went without a university education. In the eighteenth century, anything beyond a rudimentary education for girls was deemed unnecessary, pointless, and even dangerous. Despite this, the determined members of the Shakespeare Ladies Club took on the intellectual heavyweights of the day and bested them all, establishing the once ‘almost-forgotten Shakespeare’ as England’s national poet.

I first learned about the club in 2021, from a talk by Robin Williams, Phd. If you are curious about the role women played in saving Shakespeare’s literary legacy, I highly recommend clicking the link below.

18th-Century Shakespeare Ladies Club Members

In the Shakespeare Quarterly of 1958, Emmett L. Avery gave a wonderfully thorough account of the club’s success, yet said that the identities of the original Shakespeare Ladies Club had ‘eluded our times.’ In 1994, however, Michael Dobson, author of The Making of the National Poet, identified Susanna Ashley-Cooper as a prominent member and gave evidence that Mary Cowper and Elizabeth Boyd were also connected to the club.

More recently, Mary Montagu was also identified, and I believe that Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington, may also have been one of their number, as first intimated to me by Genevieve Kirk, author of And His Works in a Glass Case: The Bard in the Garden and the Legacy of the Shakespeare Ladies Club.

‘Ladies of Learning with Fruitcake and Cherries’ by Iain Will of the Visual Shakespeare Project

Each of these women is represented in my forthcoming novel, The Women Who Saved Shakespeare. I’ve spent five years writing and researching their stories, and I really hope I’ve done them justice. From the modesty and honesty with which she talks about her own struggles as a writer, I am hopeful that Elizabeth Boyd, at least, would excuse any inaccuracies.

Available from all good retailers from May 28th 2026

Mary Montagu, Duchess of Montagu

Mary Montagu was a woman ahead of her time. Outspoken, passionate, and determined, she was a leading light in the Shakespeare Ladies Club and, together with her husband, helped rescue and educate Ignatius Sancho. Ignatius was himself a keen Shakespeare fan and the first black man to gain the vote in England.

The following stanza is taken from a poem by Frances Hawling, published in 1752.

Here, Hawling describes how the ladies’ wit and charm are spreading across the world in a way that war and violence once had.

‘Our Sails, throughout the distant Main,

Shall spread the Virtue of your Charms,

And tell them how Supreme we reign

In Wit, as heretofore in Arms.’

Susanna Ashley-Cooper, Countess of Shaftesbury

Susanna Ashley-Cooper was a passionate supporter of the arts, including Shakespeare’s works. She was a subscriber to Elizabeth Boyd’s novel and also a patron to the playwright John Gay and the classical composer George Frideric Handel. These lines are taken from a poem written by Thomas Cooke in praise of the Countess and other members of the Shakespeare Ladies Club.

To the Right Honourable Countess of Shaftesbury

‘Fair Patroness of long departed Worth

O! Thou, who lately call’d our Genius forth.

Who like a Guardian Angel dids’t inspire

Thousands and taught them what they should admire

O! Thou, whose Spirit wak’s a drowsy Age

To pay due Regard to Shakespeare’s Page.’

Mary Cowper

Portrait of an Unknown Young Woman by Allan Ramsay

Aged just seventeen, Mary Cowper was the youngest of the Shakespeare Ladies. She was deeply impressed and inspired by their work, paying tribute to it in her 1738 poem, “On the Revival of Shakespeare’s Plays by the Ladies.” In this, she calls to women (‘ye Gen’rous Fair!) to ‘reform the stage’ and so ‘Mend the Age.’ From correspondence recently discovered by Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth, it seems that she herself became a member, both recording the club’s efforts for posterity and furthering their cause.

Here are a few lines from her poem. Stirring stuff indeed!

See Wisdom, like a Stream, whose rapid Course

Has long been stopp’d, now with redoubled Force

Breaks out – the softer Sex redeems the Land

And Shakespeare lives again by their Command.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a portrait of Mary Cowper, but I like to think she bears some resemblance to the young woman above.

Lady Dorothy Savile, Countess of Burlington

For three hundred years, credit for the raising of the Westminster Shakespeare memorial has been awarded to Lady Burlington’s husband and three other men. This is despite a speech by Shakespeare enthusiast David Garrick, who said ‘you ladies’ raised the money and arranged the installation.

Cousin to Susanna and sometime friend of the poet Alexander Pope, it seems likely that Lady Burlington would have been a member of the club.

Elizabeth Boyd, Poet and Author

Portrait of an 18th-century lady – Anonymous

Unlike the other known members, Elizabeth Boyd was not of the nobility, and, largely for this reason, no portrait of her exists. For the time being, I have chosen this portrait of an anonymous eighteenth-century lady to represent her.

Despite Elizabeth’s claim that she was ‘never ambitious of the ‘Name of Author’, she was a prolific writer. Through the power of her pen, she supported herself and her mother, who had been ‘worn out through the charge of many children’. I think she would be delighted that so much of her work survives to this day, offering a unique insight into the life, struggles, and passions of an eighteenth-century working woman.

Below is an extract from her 1739 play Don Sancho, in which a statue of Shakespeare is brought to life. This precedes the Shakespeare Ladies Club’s most visible achievement, the installation of the Shakespeare Memorial in Westminster Abbey.