Jane Burden was the embodiment of the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She became the wife of William Morris and the inspiration and mistress of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

She was born in Oxford on 19 October 1839, at which time her father Robert Burden was a stableman, living with her mother Ann Burden (formerly Maizey) at St Helen's Passages, St Peter in the East, Oxford.

She married William Morris at St Michael's Church, Oxford, on 26 April 1859. Her father was at that time described as a groom, in stables at 65 Holywell Street, Oxford.

Jane Burden and William Morris settled at Kelmscott Manor, on the Oxfordshire - Wiltshire borders, where they both lived until they died: he in 1896, she in January 1914.

They had two daughters, Jane Alice (Jenny) born January 1861 and Mary (May) born March 1862, died 1938, who was the editor of her father's works.

The fullest modern account of Jane Burden Morris, from a large variety of written sources and lavishly illustrated, is Jane Morris: The Pre-Raphaelite Model of Beauty (2000) by Debra N. Mancoff.