Frances Neville

Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny (? – 1576) was an English noble and author. She was the daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland and married Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny in 1554 and had a daughter, Mary, who married Sir Thomas Fane and became Baroness le Despencer. Little is known of either Lady or Lord Bergavenny, except that the latter was accused of behaving in a riotous and unclean manner by some Puritain commentators. Frances Neville's work appeared in "The Monument of Matrones" in 1582 and was a series of "Praiers". Her devotions were sixty-seven prose prayers, one metrical prayer against vice, a long acrostic prayer on her daughter's name, and an acrostic prayer containing her own name.

References

*Beilin, Elaine V. "Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny" in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." vol. 45, 490-491. London: OUP, 2004.