Her parents were Isabel (born Grey) and Sir Francis Radcliffe (1563–1622) of Dilston near Corbridge in Northumberland, and Derwentwater in Cumberland.
Building at the family seat including a chapel was said to have been funded by money left over after the gunpowder plot failed.
They were there for four years and Radcliffe created a regime for the nuns although she later feared that it was too tough as it was based on her own training as a Poor Clare.
[1] In September 1626 a Franciscan commissary deposed Tyldesley as abbess at Gravelines and appointed Radcliffe to replace her.
Tyldesley was restored to her former position in 1627[1] after Radcliffe, and ten others, were moved to the Poor Clare convent in Dunkirk.