Lady Gregory was born Isabella Augusta Persse on March 15, 1852, in Roxborough House in Galway, Ireland to Dudley Persse and Frances (Barry) Persse. She was educated at home and heavily influenced in her interests by her nurse, Mary Sheridan. In 1880 she married Sir William Gregory, who owned Coole Park, an estate in County Galway. They had one child, Robert Gregory, born in 1881. The couple was involved in the London literary scene and traveled around the world, including Egypt and Ceylon. She became romantically linked with the poet Wilfred Scawen Blunt in 1882 while in Egypt, and during this time she published her first work under her own name, Arabi and His Household (1882) as well as a series of poems called A Woman's Sonnets which appeared anonymously in a work of Blunt's.

In 1892, Sir William Gregory died and Lady Gregory edited his autobiography. In the 1890s she began to study Irish language and culture and became involved in the Irish nationalist movement. She collected Irish fairy tales and legends; composed poems, plays, and other literary works; and wrote pamphlets and articles concerning home rule. Lady Gregory befriended W. B. Yeats in 1896, and together they founded the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899. In 1918, her son, Robert Gregory, was killed in action in Italy while serving as a fighter pilot during World War I.

In 1927 Lady Gregory sold Coole Park to the Irish Forestry Commission but continued to live there. She died at home on May 22, 1932.

Source:

Patrick Maume. "Gregory, (Isabella) Augusta Lady Gregory Persse". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009 https://dib-cambridge-org.proxy.bc.edu/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3622