Margaret Clement

Margaret Clement (1539 – 20 May 1612) was an English prioress of St Ursula's convent in Leuven.

Life Margaret Clement was born in England. Her Catholic parents were the physician John Clement who died in 1572 and Margaret Clement, the adopted daughter of Thomas More. Her father taught Greek and Latin and both her parents taught her. had been a nun there since 1548. Elizabeth had been a nun in England and had stayed with her father after her English convent was suppressed in 1549.

Death and legacy In 1606 Clement retired and the new elected prioress was Flemish. A group of six nuns, unhappy that their candidate, Mary Wiseman, had not been elected, decided to establish an English house.

In 1616 or 1626 Elizabeth Shirley wrote what is now thought to be the first biography of a woman, by a woman in English. She chose to record Clement's life and how she led St Ursula's convent in Leuven.