Mary Elizabeth Southwell Dudley Leathley

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, in 1818, she was the daughter of George Dudley and was raised in a Quaker family. She published her first book at sixteen and became a prolific author, writing children's stories as well as religious works.

In 1847 she married William Henry Leathley and later that year converted to Catholicism. She spent much of her life in England, living in places including Midhurst, Ascot, Malvern, and Hastings.

Reference sources describe her as the author of more than a hundred publications. Among the works most often noted are Chickseed without Chickweed (1861), which was reported to have sold up to half a million copies, Children of Scripture (1866), The Story of Stories (1875), and Requiescent (1888).