Lucy Reynell née Brandon (1577–1652), also Lady Lucie of Forde, was the daughter of Robert Brandon, the jeweller to Queen Elizabeth I, and his wife Elizabeth.
The couple, who lived in the newly built Forde House in Wolborough near Newton Abbot, Devon, had a daughter, Jane.
The work describes Lucy Reynell as having strict manners but includes a reference to the almshouses of 1640, known as the Clergy Widows House, which she built in Newton Abbot.
[3][4] They were intended as accommodation for four widows, "the relicts of preaching ministers, left poor, without a house of their own".
[4] St Mary's Church, Wolborough, houses an altar tomb with full-sized effigies of Richard and Lucy Reynell.