[1] Frances Mary was born in London on 27 April 1800[2] to the Italian exile Gaetano Polidori, former secretary of Vittorio Alfieri, and the Englishwoman Anna Maria Pierce, an Anglican, private governess to high-born families, and daughter of a successful writing teacher.

Frances received an excellent education from her parents and, at the age of 26, she married the Italian poet, patriot and exile, Gabriele Rossetti.

[8] Gabriele received a Roman Catholic education and he was a free Christian thinker on very critical positions concerning papal politics, while Frances was a devout Anglican.

In 1854, after Gabriele's death, Frances burned the remaining copies of her husband's book:The Mystery of the Platonic Love of the Middle Ages, a work of about 1500 pages divided into 5 volumes.

[16] The son projecting his family experience, enhances the qualities of the mother who is depicted in the act of educating her daughter Christina.

The two lend their figures to Anne, who oversees the education of her young daughter Mary, intent on embroidering, while her father, in the background, works in the vineyard.

[1] Frances died on 8 April 1886[17] and was buried with her husband and Dante's wife, Elizabeth Siddall, in the family grave on the west side of Highgate Cemetery in London.