CENTLIVRE, SUSANNA (1667-1723), a dramatic writer, was the daughter of Mr Freeman of Holbeach, in
Lincolnshire; and exhibited such an early turn for poetry, that she is said to have written a song when only seven years old. On the death of her father she was committed to the care of a stepmother, from whose treatment she determined to flee to London, where, after some equivocal adventures, she was married to a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox. About twelve months afterwards her husband died; and she was then married to an officer in the army of the name of Carrol. Carrol was killed in a duel about a year and a half after their marriage; and his widow was left to support herself by her pen. Under the name of Carrol some of her earlier pieces were published. Her first attempt was a tragic piece called the Perjured Husband; but her natural vivacity inclining her rather to comedy, we find but one more attempt of this kind among eighteen dramatic pieces which she afterwards wrote. In 1706 she married Mr Joseph Centlivre, principal cook to her Majesty, with whom she lived till her death in 1723. Mrs Centlivre for many years enjoyed the intimacy of Sir Richard Steele, Rowe, Budgell, Farquhar, Dr Sewell, and other persons of note, and received numerous tokens of esteem and patronage from the great. Her dramatic works were published in 3 vols. 12mo, 1761.