On This Day 17 Sep 1564, it is believed that Dorothy Devereux was born at Chartley Manor, Staffordshire.

Dorothy was the younger daughter of Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford and his wife Lettice Knollys, and was named after her paternal grandmother Dorothy Hastings.
Dorothy, along with her siblings, spent her childhood at Chartley - the principal seat of the Devereux family, being a late 15thc Manor House built nearby the abandoned and ruined Chartley Castle, 9 miles north-east of Stafford. The manor was surrounded by acres of woods and parkland, where the children would learn to ride and hunt.

Dorothy was at Chartley when news of Walter's death in Sep 1576 reached the family. Dorothy then spent a year travelling with her mother Lettice and sister Penelope, including regular visits to Kenilworth Castle in which her mother, sister and other family members participated in Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester's hunting parties.
In Feb 1578, as per Walter's will, Dorothy and Penelope were placed under the guardianship of the Earl and Countess of Huntingdon (Robert Dudley's sister Katherine), living primarily in York. It was here that they continued to receive a well-rounded humanist and 'strictly-Puritan' education.

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