The Roche family moved frequently throughout Southern Ontario during her childhood because of her mother's ill health and her father's work as a travelling salesman. She lived successively in Newmarket (1879–85), at least two separate addresses in Toronto (1885–88), several dwellings in Orillia (1888–91), Galt (1891-92), Orillia (again, 1892–94) and Toronto (again, 1894-1900). She was a lonely child who became an avid reader and developed her own fictional world, "The Play," in which she created imaginary scenes and characters. One of the family's moves meant some years on a farm owned by a wealthy man who farmed as a hobby. There de la Roche began to develop her fictional world of rural aristocracy that would—years later—become Jalna.