Elizabeth Boyd (1710–1745)

Little is known of Elizabeth Boyd's origins. From her writings, it can be gleaned that she came from a large family that had supported the Stuart cause. Her mother is said to have been worn down by the care of many children. It was to support her ailing mother that Elizabeth took up writing. The subscription lists to her work contain many aristocrats, which suggests the family had been well connected but had fallen on hard times. She first published poetry under the pen name Louisa, including Variety, A Poem (1727) and Verses on the King's Birthday (1730). Her first major work was a novel called The Happy Unfortunate; or The Female Page, which was published in 1732 and reprinted in 1737. With money she earned from this, Elizabeth set up a stationer's shop in Princes Street, London. The Humorous Miscellany of 1733 contains her best known poem, "On the Death of an Infant of Five Days Old." She also wrote a play, Don Sancho, or The Students Whim (1739), which was never produced on the stage, though it was given a reading in the green room of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The Snail: or the Lady's Lucubrations was an ambitious project in 1745 to produce a monthly periodical aimed at aristocratic ladies. Only one volume was ever printed. Many Shakespearean scholars believe Elizabeth Boyd was involved in the Shakespeare Ladies Club and specifically the Club's fundraising efforts for the Shakespeare memorial statue in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, installed in 1740.