She was born 28 October 1780 at Marnham, Nottinghamshire[2] or Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire.
[3] ("Rape" here is an obscure word meaning a county subdivision; that of Bamber centres on the River Adur.)
Frances's mother died on 12 September 1785, and after her father married again she was adopted by her uncle, the reforming politician John Cartwright, and sent to school at Richmond, to the west of London.
In 1823, influenced by Spanish activists against King Ferdinand VII who had been hosted by her uncle (see Trienio Liberal), she learnt Spanish and translated a few of Rafael del Riego's poems into English.
Her translations of Riego's poems appeared, with her initials, in the poet's Obras Póstumas Poéticas (1844).