Frances Neville, Lady Bergavenny (died 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.
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Frances, Lady Bergavenny (born circa 1530),writer, was the third daughter of the ten children of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. Before 1554 Neville had married Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny. They had a one daughter, Mary (1554-1626) who married Sir Thomas Fane. She died circa September 1576 and was buried at Birling,Kent, England (OUP).
Neville’s father was Thomas Manners (1497-1543), a soldier who was the eldest son of Sir George Manners of Belvoir, Leicestershire, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas St Leger and Anne, sister of Edward IV. Lady Frances’ husbandHenry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny, 4th Lord Abergavenny was born circa 1527-1535. He was the son of Sir George Neville, 3rd Lord Abergavenny and Lady Mary Stafford. Sir Henry succeeded to the title of 4th Lord Abergavenny in 1535. He held office of Chief Larderer at the coronation of Queen Mary in 1553. He was reported to have died February 10 1586/87. He was buried on 21 March 1586/87 at Birling, Kent, England.
Her daughter Mary Neville, Baroness Le Despenser was born on 25 March 1554. She was the daughter of Sir Henry Neville, 4th Lord Abergavenny and Lady Frances Manners. She married Sir Thomas Fane, son of George Fane, on 12 December 1574. She died on 28 June 1626 at age 72. From before 1587, her married name became Fane. She gained the title of Baroness Le Despencer on 25 May 1604, suo jure. She had claimed the succession to the Barony of Bergavenny, but this was settled on her cousin, Edward.
Her Praiers in prose and verse were later published in Second Lamp of The Monument of Matrones 1582 The Monument of Matrones, Thomas Bentley’s anthology of protestant women writer’s prayers. In a deathbed dedication of her work to her daughter, she calls it a "jewell of health for the soule, and a perfect path to paradise." Her collection includes sixty-seven pages of prose prayers for private use and public worship linked to various occasions and times of day; a five-page acrostic prayer based on her daughter Mary Fane’s name, and a concluding prayer based on her own name.
Thomas Manners Accessed November 2011