Frances [Fanny] Trollope (née Milton), born in Stapleton on the 10th March 1779, lived here. Her maternal grandfather, Francis Gresley, was a respected apothecary who lived in Bristol's fashionable Queen Square, and laid claim to Norman ancestry. Her novel, The Widow Barnaby, offers glimpses into the fashionable social world of Clifton, Bristol. It depicts respectable middle-class, professional people and the aristocracy in a world where working life is peripheral to the story line, where marriage-alliances underlie the social world of 'taking the waters', attending balls, visiting, promenading, and subscription libraries, and where military rank and red uniforms impress the ladies.