immediately successful. Leapor died of measles at Brackley on 12 November 1746 at the age of 24. The Bishop's Transcripts of the Parish Records record that she was buried "in woollen" two days later in Brackley. Although Mary is thought to have lived in the south Brackley area known as Goose Green, which had its own church of St James (now demolished), George Baker in a description of the parish church of St Peter with St James in volume 1 of his History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton (published 1822–1830) suggests that Mary is buried in St Peter's churchyard. Some proceeds from the publication of Volume One of her Poems Upon Several Occasions were used to pay for a headstone, but this has been lost. According to Mary's contemporary, Henry Purefoy and George Baker, the headstone read, "In Memory of Mary Leapor daughter of Phillip and Ann Leapor: who departed this life Nov. ye 26. 1746 Aged 24". The date of death on the headstone is believed to be incorrect; the Bishop's Transcript has the definitive record of the date. Bridget Freemantle continued her quest to publish Leapor's work. In 1748 she arranged for the posthumous publication of Poems upon Several Occasions with some 600 subscribers, for the benefit of Philip Leapor. A second volume of poetry and drama was published three years later by Samuel Richardson and edited by Isaac Hawkins Browne. Mary Delany, Stephen Duck, Elizabeth Montagu, and Sarah Scott were among the subscribers. These volumes secured Leapor's reputation as "one of the most interesting of the natural poets." John Duncombe praised her in The Feminead (1754), and Bonnell Thornton and George Colman included her in their Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755). Leapor herself seems not to have welcomed her status as a "natural" poet "untainted" by artifice. She worked hard to acquire a literary education as best she could and embraced the neoclassical ideals of her period. At the time of her death she had accumulated 17 volumes and several volumes of plays: a considerable library for someone with a limited income. There are many grammatical errors in Leapor's work, for which Freemantle apologises in the Preface to the "Poems Upon Several Occasions", assuring readers that had Leapor lived to edit them, the poems would have been flawless. She adds that they are, nevertheless, entertaining. Commemorations After the "centuries of neglect" recognised by Prof. John