Frances Burney was born in 1752 in a port town about one hundred miles north of London. She was the third oldest among six children, and ultimately among eight when her father remarried a few years after her mother’s death in 1762. When Burney was eight years old, the Burneys moved to London. There, the family flourished. Frances, remembered as the most celebrated member of her family today, was once considered the dunce of the lot.
