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This is a chronological list of women playwrights who were active in the United Kingdom before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. (NB. Drama is the focus of this list, though many of these writers worked in more than one genre).

Aphra Behn, Restoration playwright, by Mary Beale

• Jane Lumley (1537–1578): first translator of Euripides into English
• Mary Sidney Herbert (1561–1621): translated one play
• Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639): wrote the first original play in English by a woman
• Mary Wroth (1587–1652): primarily a poet; one drama extant
• Jane Cavendish (1620/21–1669): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Elizabeth Egerton
• Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673): author of closet dramas
• Elizabeth Egerton (1626–1663): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Jane Cavendish
• Katherine Philips (1631-1664): mainly a poet; author of two plays (one unfinished)
• Aphra Behn (1640-1689): highly successful playwright
• Elizabeth Polwheele (ca. 1651-ca. 1691): two plays extant
• Anne Finch (1661–1720): primarily a poet; author of verse dramas
• Frances Boothby (fl. 1669–1670): author of the first original play by a woman to be produced in London
• Delarivier Manley (1663 or ca. 1670-1724): successful playwright
• Mary Pix (1666-1709): successful playwright
• Susannah Centlivre (ca. 1667-1723): highly successful playwright
• Mary Davys (1674-1732): novelist; produced one play; had another published
• Penelope Aubin (ca. 1679–ca. 1731): primarily a novelist; had one play produced
• Catherine Trotter (1679-1749): successful playwright
• Jane Wiseman (fl. ca. 1682–1717): author of one successfully produced play
• Mary Wortley Montagu (ca. 1689-1762): wrote primarily in other genres
• Eliza Haywood (1693-1756): successful as a playwright; wrote primarily in other genres
• Catherine Clive (1711–1785): highly successful actress; wrote farces with some success
• Charlotte Charke (1713-1760): playwright/actress/manager
• Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804): wrote primarily in other genres; two plays (one an adaptation)
• Frances Brooke (1723-1789): primarily a novelist; successful with comic opera
• Frances Sheridan (1724-1766): successful playwright
• Elizabeth Griffith (ca. 1727-1793): successful playwright
• Charlotte Lennox (ca. 1727-1804): limited success as playwright; primarily a novelist
• Dorothea Celesia (bap. 1738, d. 1790): translated Voltaire's Tancrède
• Hannah Cowley (1743-1809): successful playwright and poet
• Hannah More (1745-1833): successful as a playwright; published in many genres
• Mary Bowes (1749–1800): published one play
• Charlotte Smith (1749-1806): novelist and poet; one comedy attributed to her
• Elizabeth Craven (1750-1828): limited success as a writer of light plays
• Sophia Lee (1750–1824): successful playwright.
• Frances Burney (1752-1840): primarily a novelist; author of several plays, only one of which was produced in her lifetime
• Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821): successful playwright
• Ann Yearsley (ca. 1753-1806): primarily a poet; produced and published one play
• Hannah Brand (1754–1821): productions largely unsuccessful; published her plays
• Harriet Lee (1757-1851): successful playwright
• Mary Robinson (1757-1800): wrote primarily in other genres; one play produced
• Jane West (1758-1852): wrote primarily in other genres; her plays enjoyed limited success
• Anne Plumptre (1760-1818): wrote primarily in other genres; translated dramas
• Elizabeth Kemble (1761-1836): mainly known for acting
• Mariana Starke (1761/2–1838): author of four plays, not all produced; mainly a travel writer
• Joanna Baillie (1762-1851): prolific playwright
• Barbarina Brand (1768–1854): author of four published plays, one produced
• Frances Burney (1776–1828): published two tragedies, never produced
• Jane Porter (1776-1850): two plays; limited success
• Jane Scott (ca. 1779-1839): prolific author of stage pieces; theatrical manager; performer
• Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855): some success as a playwright
• Felicia Hemans (1793-1835): primarily a poet; wrote some verse drama
• Catherine Gore (1799-1861): eleven plays produced
• Catherine Crowe (1800-1876): primarily a writer of fiction; wrote two plays, one of which was produced
• Elizabeth Polack (active 1830-1838): author of five plays, three of which survive

• Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990.
• Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Prentice Hall, 1992.
• Chadwyck-Healey Database of English Prose Drama (through 1750) and (1750-1939)
• Greer, Germaine, ed. Kissing the Rod: an anthology of seventeenth-century women's verse. Farrar Staus Giroux, 1988.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London: Routledge, 1989.

• List of early-modern women poets (UK)
• Category:Women dramatists and playwrights
• List of playwrights
• List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth
• List of women novelists before Jane Austen
• List of women writers
• Lists of writers
• Women's writing in English

• Bibliography of Early Modern Women Writers That Are In Print
• British Women Playwrights around 1800
• The Brown University Women Writers Project
• A Celebration of Women Writers
• Early Modern Women Database provides links to Web resources useful for the study of women in early modern Europe and the Americas. Materials range from bibliographic databases to full-text resources, images, and sound recordings.
• Emory Women Writers Resource Project
• List of biographical dictionaries, with a focus on 17thc women writers
• London Theater People - 1660-1800
• Luminarium
• The Perdita Project
• The Restoration Comedy Project
• Romantic Circles
• Women Romantic-Era Writers
• The Women Writers Archive: Early Modern Women Writers Online