Primary Sources

While there are many excellent secondary sources on Englishwomen translators during the Reformation, reading the work of these women is essential for a researcher. While this page is not exhaustive, it offers some names of translators, and some volumes for beginning research on their work.

Some Women Translators


Anne Cooke Bacon

Sister of Elizabeth Hoby Russell

Mary More Roper

Translated her father, Thomas More

Lady Margaret Beaufort

Founder of Tudor dynasty

Lady Jane Lumley

Translator of Greek drama

Elizabeth Tudor

Future ruler of England

Mary Tudor

Future ruler of England

Anne Locke Prowse

Middle class proponent of Presbyterianism

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke

Paraphrased most of the Psalter into poetry

Catherine Parr

Queen of England

Potentiana Deacon

Anonymous member of Cambrai convent

Mary Percy

Anonymous member of Brussels Benedictines

Lady Elizabeth Hoby Russell

Sister of Anne Cooke Bacon

The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1500-1640

This series is published by Routledge, and provides accessible facsimiles of major texts by Englishwomen writers and translators. Below is a link to each part of the series along with the women translators in each set.

Katherine Parr, Margaret Tyler, Mary Sidney Herbert, Suzanne DuVerger


Anne Bacon Cooke, Margaret More Roper, Mary Basset, Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Tudor, Jane Owen, Anne Locke Prowse, Elizabeth Hoby Russell, Elizabeth Cary, Alexia Grey


Elizabeth Evelinge, Judith Man, Prudentiana Deacon