Joseph Radcliffe's parents are described in Letter III of the memoirsof the Memoir (Edinburgh, 1810) as living in Yorkshire, and a 'good old couple' who were 'quite overjoyed' 'at seeing their only surviving son so comfortably provided for.
'[4] Mary Ann's first mention of her husband's Derwentwater ancestry occurs when she lists her sons: “and next Joseph, so named after his father, James, in memory of my father, and the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, who forfeited his life in the rebellion of 1715, and Charles after the brother of the Earl of D--, who fell martyr to the same cause, in 1745, from which family I was always told, my husband was a descendent[5]” The couple had eight children in quick succession, Ann, Mary Sarah, Joseph, James, Charles, Winifred and Frances.
Financial difficulties due to their growing family forced Joseph Radcliffe to invest in the sugar industry, and after unsuccessful speculations Mary Ann's inheritance was depleted.
Joseph Radcliffe senior died in 1804 and Edward Stanley, son of Sir John and Bishop of Norwich was executor of his will.
Of Mary Ann and her husband, William Radcliffe the Rouge Croix Pursuivant writes "Joseph Radclyffe of Coxwold, born in 1726, married the heiress of James Clayton of Nottingham.
[citation needed] Radcliffe is most famous for her book,The Female Advocate; or, An Attempt to Recover the Rights of Women from Male Usurpation (1799).
[7] She argued that lack of education, societal prejudices of what a genteel woman should or should not do, hampered women from obtaining a job in a respectable establishment.
Other novels attributed to Mary Ann Radcliffe are Radzivil and The Fate of Velina de Guidova, both published in 1790 by William Lane at the Minerva Press.
[7]: 230 The memoirs are written in a deliberately cryptic style, using initials instead of names for both places and people, however many can be identified using clues provided by Radcliffe in the text.