Elizabeth Mary Lea was born in the East End of London on 10 October 1863, the eldest daughter of an Anglican clergyman.

[2] After a period at boarding school Elizabeth lived at home "a very easy and pleasant life, though uneventful and rather useless",[3] until Sophie Weisse, the older sister of her brother's schoolfriend, encouraged her to "aim at more profitable employment of my time and such talents as I possessed."

At her father's suggestion she applied to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she was accepted, matriculating in October 1887.

[4] She first encountered Joseph Wright in her second year at Lady Margaret Hall, when she attended his Old English lectures.

[7] In Joseph Wright's Dictionary of National Biography entry they are recorded as being described by contemporaries as "the happiest couple in Oxford".