Lady Frances Devereux was born on 30 September 1599 at Walsingham House, Seething Lane, London.

At the time of Frances's birth, her father, who was a former favourite of Queen Elizabeth and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was under arrest for treasonous behaviour in the Nine Years' War during the disastrous Irish campaign in which he parleyed with the rebellious Earl of Tyrone, and thus incurred the Queen's wrath.

Frances was his second wife, his first having been Arbella Stuart whom he married secretly in 1610, and without permission from King James, which resulted in their imprisonment in the Tower of London.

William and Frances together had eight children: She died on 24 April 1674 at the age of 74, and was buried in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire.

In 1706 a marble memorial topped with a bust was placed in St Mary's Church, Great Bedwyn,[3] at the expense of Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, who had married her granddaughter Frances Finch.