Dido Lindsay was the daughter of Sir John Lindsay, a captain of the Royal Navy. She was born in England to a woman taken prisoner by Lindsay from a Spanish ship. It is not clear whether her mother was stolen by Lindsay or rescued by him from the Spanish, but Lindsay did acknowledge his paternity by providing generously in his will in 1788. She spent the first thirty years of her life in Kenwood, Hampstead, in the care of her great uncle William Murray, also known as Lord Mansfield, the justice whom Granville Sharp called upon to decide the fate of slaves in the 1772 Somerset case. She was raised with his daughter Lady Elizabeth Murray.

Her position in the family was not defined. She may have been a playmate and attendant to Lady Elizabeth. Later, she was responsible for running the poultry yard and the dairy on Murray's estate. She was more like a valued poor relation who received a quarterly allowance, birthday and Christmas gifts. When Lady Elizabeth married and left Kenwood in 1785, she remained with the Murrays, who were by this time quite old, and even after their deaths she was well cared for, receiving £500 plus £100 for life from her great uncle's will. Her bed was hung with glaze chintz, she had ass's milk when she was ill, and a mahogany table was made for her. Her great uncle also made certain that her freedom was documented, in order to protect her future.

Not much is known about Dido after Murray's death, but it is believed that she married - in 1794 her name changed to Dido Elizabeth Davinier.

From Black England - Life before Emancipation by Gretchen Gerzina