English novelist, born in Otterbourne, Hampshire. She achieved great popular success with “The Heir of Redclyffe” (1853) and its successors, publishing some 120 volumes of fiction, high church in tone. Part of the profits of her “Heir of Redclyffe” was devoted to fitting out the missionary schooner “Southern Cross” for Bishop George Selwyn; and the profits of “The Daisy Chain” (£2000) she gave to build a missionary college in New Zealand. She also published historical works, a book on Christian Names (1863), a Life of Bishop Patterson (1873), and a sketch of Hannah More (1888). She edited the girls’ magazine “Monthly Packet” from 1851 to 1890.