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Lily Maxwell was the first women to vote in Britain in 1867 after the Great Reform Act of 1832 that explicitly excluded all women from the voting register by deliberately using the term "male" rather than "person". Before this, a very small number of wealthy women were able to vote. Maxwell, a shop owner, met the property qualifications required to become eligible for the vote and her name was accidentally added to the election register; this was used for great publicity by the women's suffrage campaigners at the time. Women's voting was later declared illegal.
References
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/m.gratton/Ladies%201st%20-%20L.htm
