 Her father was William Ward (1737–1798), a haberdasher, who moved the family to Bath to manage a china shop in 1772.Her mother was Ann Oates (1726–1800) of Chesterfield.Radcliffe occasionally lived in Chelsea with her maternal uncle, Thomas Bentley, who was in partnership with a fellow Unitarian, Josiah Wedgwood, maker of the famous Wedgwood china.