Mary Barbara Chichester

Mary Barbara Chichester later Lady Chichester born Mary Clifford became Mary Barbara Constable (29 October 1801 – 14 December 1876) was an English Catholic diarist.

Life She was born in Tixall Hall in 1801. Her parents were Mary MacDonald and Thomas Hugh Clifford. Her father was a topographer and botanist who would take the family name of Clifford Constable in 1821. She had a brother, a sister and a strict Catholic upbringing. In 1822 she started a diary, characteristically while travelling, in this case to Ghent.

In 1826 Mary Clifford Constable married her cousin Charles Chichester, an army officer. He had been brought up a Catholic, attending Stonyhurst College. They had 11 children, with five surviving their childhood. She lived at Calverleigh Court until 1835 when she followed her husband, living at Pau; and then in 1837 they were in British North America.

Her diaries and papers are held with those of her husband at Hull University Archives. The records start with letters before her marriage.