Henrietta Maria Bowdler

Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1750–1830), commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, was an English religious author and literary expurgator, notably of the works of William Shakespeare. Family Bowdler was born in Conington, Huntingdonshire, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler and Thomas Bowdler the elders. Her sister Jane was the author of an anonymous, posthumously published series of religious Poems and Essays, (2 vols., Bath, 1786), which appeared in many editions. Writing Bowdler's own Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity appeared anonymously and passed through nearly 50 editions. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, believed they were written by a clergyman, and is said to have offered their author, through the publishers, a living in his diocese.