Jessica Mitford Jessica Mitford Jessica Lucy 'Decca' Freeman-Mitford (11 September 1917 – 22 July 1996) was an English author, journalist, civil rights activist and political campaigner, and was one of the Mitford sisters. Born at Asthall Manor, Mitford, the sixth of seven children, was the daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney (daughter of politician and publisher Thomas Bowles), and grew up in a series of her father's country houses. She had little formal education, but nevertheless did a great deal of reading. Her sisters Unity and Diana were well-known members of the British Union of Fascists and
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa took the name of Soeur Marie-Salomé, and on 6 July 1873 she pronounced her first vows. Lavigerie requested help in recruiting nuns from his former diocese of Nancy, and some sisters came from two congregations in Nancy, the Sisters of St. Charles and the Sisters of the Assumption. These two congregations joined to form the Sisters of Our Lady of African Missions in 1878. In 1880 Mother Marie-Salomé was placed in charge of the novitiate, and in 1882 she was elected Superior General of the White Sisters at the first General Chapter of the Congregation. She would head the group