Francesca Maria Steele (21 April 1848 – 10 August 1931) was an English novelist, historian, and biographer, who began writing to support her family.

[1][2][3][note 1] Her parents were Robert Peter Steele (1816 – 10 May 1884),[4] the secretary of the Royal Assurance Company and Frances Mary Francis (8 February 1818 – 3 October 1902).

[8] Alice went on to become a nun and was the sister in charge at Tyburn Convent at 6 Hyde Park Place, in London at the time of the 1911 census.

[9] Steele had already moved to Loretto House at Stroud in Gloucestershire when her mother died there on 3 October 1902.

[6][10] Even after her mother died, Steele was still supporting her youngest sister, Emma Caroline, when she applied to the Royal Literary Fund in 1914.

At the time of the 1911 Census, Steele was living with her sister Emma Caroline at Loretto House in Stroud.