[1] She was one of the seven children of James Mangnall of Hollinhurst, Lancashire, and London, and Richmal, daughter of John Kay of Manchester to survive infancy.

[2] Richmal Mangnall began to attend Mrs Wilson's successful school of about 70 pupils at Crofton Old Hall, a Georgian mansion near Wakefield, Yorkshire, built about 1750.

The British Constitution met with her approval, as did her country's abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, but Wellington was rebuked for vanity and egotism, and Rabelais for lacking "that delicacy without which genius may sparkle for a moment, but can never shine with pure, undiminished lustre.

"[5] Details of life at Crofton House school appear in an unpublished childhood diary of Elizabeth Firth (born 1797 at Thornton, near Bradford).

It was her recommendation that persuaded Patrick Brontë to send his daughters Maria and Elizabeth there for a short period from September-December 1823, before finding it too expensive.

"[11] Her headstone reads, "Sacred to the Memory / of / Richmal Mangnall / of Crofton Hall / who departed this life on / May day 1820 // Ah when shall spring / visit the mouldering Urn / of Virtue Knowledge / Friendship naught / remain save her / blest soul now fled / to Realms of Bliss."