Constance Maynard was born in 1849 in Highbury, Middlesex to an upper-middle-class family. She was one of four daughters and two sons of Henry Maynard (1800-1888) a South African merchant, and his wife Louisa née Hillyard (1806-1878). She grew up in Hawkhurst, Kent, in the house of Oakfield. Her two brothers attended boarding school, while she and her sisters were educated at home by governesses, except for one year at Belstead School in Suffolk. When their education was considered complete, she and her sisters cared for her invalid mother and did charitable work. Studies of Maynards autobiography reveal that she suppressed her carnal desires to "achieve salvation."Constance Maynard's Passions: Religion, Sexuality, and an English Educational Pioneer, 1849-1935, University of Toronto Press, Retrieved 11 March 2017
