She was the second daughter of Robert Plumptre who became President of Queens' College, Cambridge and Anne née Newcome.
[1] Along with her younger sister Annabella [Bell] Plumptre (1769–1838) she received an excellent education and became active in the Enfield circle, a local group of literati.
Her first book, a novel in two volumes, entitled Antoinette, was published anonymously, but was acknowledged in a second edition.
She became well known as a supporter of Napoleon; in 1810 she declared that she would welcome him if he invaded England, because he would do away with the aristocracy and give the country a better government.
She died in Norwich on 20 October 1818, at the age of 58, after a "productive and for the most part successful literary career" (Shaffer).