Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny (died 1576) was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 noble and author. She was the daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 13th Baron de Ros of Helmsley was created an earl by King Henry VIII of England in 1525.-Family background:...

 and married Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny

Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny

Henry Nevill, 6th and de jure 4th Baron Abergavenny K.B. was an English peer. Son of Sir George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny and Mary Stafford daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham...

 in 1554 and had a daughter, Mary, who married Sir Thomas Fane

Thomas Fane (d 1589)

Thomas Fane was born at Badsel Manor, Tudely, Kent, the son of George Fane, High Sheriff of Kent. The family lived on estates bought in the 14th century from the ransomed monies received for capturing King John II of France at the battle of Poitiers 1356.Sir John Fane or Ivon Vane as he was also...

 and became Baroness le Despencer

Baron le Despencer

The title Baron le Despencer has been created several times by writ in the Peerage of England.-Creation:The first creation was in 1295, when Hugh the elder Despenser was summoned to the Model Parliament. He was the eldest son of the sometime Justiciar Hugh le Despenser , who was summoned in 1264 to...

. 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

The Monument of Matrones

The Monument of Matrones was the first published anthology of English women's writing. A compilation of prayers and meditations written largely by and for women published in London, its full title was The Monument of Matrones: Conteining Seven Severall Lamps of Virginitie, or Distinct Treatises;...

in 1582 and was a series of "Praiers". Her devotions were sixty-seven prose prayers, one metrical prayer against vice, a long acrostic

Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...

prayer on her daughter's name, and an acrostic prayer containing her own name.