Bristol

Daughter of Robert Fitzhamon, who strengthened Bristol Castle. She married Henry I's son Robert in 1114. Her dowry was a large part of her father's estates, and Robert became the first Earl of Gloucester.

When Henry I died in 1135, the Earl of Gloucester backed his sister Matilda against King Stephen. After Stephen was captured in 1141 and imprisoned in Bristol Castle, Matilda had to exchange him to free Robert.

A writer from Bristol and a good friend of the campaigners William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. In 1788 she published 'Slavery, A Poem'.

In 1811 she patented a design for a suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge. It was never built, and it wasn't entered in the later competition.

She founded 'ragged schools' and reformatories in Bristol.

She was chosen to christen the SS Great Britain at its launch in 1843. Her son was Bristol's MP and a director of the shipping company.

A campaigner for women's rights. She was born in Bristol.

The Redmaids' School was founded in 1634 by John Whitson, and claims to be England's oldest girls' school.

In 2009, Alice Ferguson and Amy Rose founded Playing Out, a community interest company, in Bristol.