Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), writer and educationist, was born in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire to Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817), engineer, inventor and educationist, and the first of his four wives, Anna Maria Elers (1743-1773). The family returned to live on the family estate in Edgeworthstown, Ireland, in 1782. Richard Lovell Edgeworth had twenty-two children in total and Maria became responsible for the education of her many younger half-siblings.

A member of the Lunar Society, Richard Lovell Edgeworth was associated with many of the learned and scientific minds of the day. Alongside his inventions, he was also interested in the education of children. Maria was encouraged by her father to write and her first published work, Letters for Literary Ladies, was published in 1795. This was followed by her book for children, The Parent's Assistant in 1796. Along with her father, Maria published their seminal work Practical Education in 1798.

Maria's first novel, Castle Rackrent, was published in 1800 and Maria soon became regarded as one of the pre-eminent novelists of the period and certainly one of the most commercially successful. After her father's death in 1817 and her subsequent editing of the Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, her creative output diminished and her final novel, Helen was published in 1834.