Mary Cholmondeley (usually pronounced /ˈtʃʌmli/) was born at Hodnet near Market Drayton in Shropshire, the third of eight children of Rev Richard Hugh Cholmondeley (1827-1910) and his wife Emily Beaumont (1831-1893).
After her father retired in 1896, she moved with him and her sister Diana to Condover Hall, which they had inherited from Reginald.