Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
beauty and society hostess during the reign of King George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
.
Life
She was born Maria Gunning in Hemingford GreyHemingford Grey
- Location:It is situated on the southern bank of the River Great Ouse in the county of Cambridgeshire, with the northern bank occupied by the flood meadow. Until 1965 it was in Huntingdonshire and between 1965 and 1974 it was in the short-lived county of Huntingdon and Peterborough...
, Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
and was the eldest child of John Gunning of Castle Coote, County Roscommon
County Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...
and his wife Hon. Bridget Bourke, daughter of Theobald Bourke (1681–1741), 6th Viscount Mayo. Maria's younger siblings were Elizabeth
Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton
Elizabeth Campbell, Duchess of Argyll & 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon was a celebrated Irish belle and society hostess.- Early life :...
, Catherine (married Robert Travis, died 1773), Sophia, Lizzie, and John (a general in the army). Although her beginnings were humble, Maria Gunning would go on to become one of the most celebrated beauties of her day.
In late 1740 or early 1741, the Gunning family returned to John Gunning's ancestral home in Ireland, where they divided their time between their home in Roscommon, and a rented house in Dublin. According to some sources, when Maria and her sister Elizabeth came of age
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
, their mother urged them to take up acting in order to earn a living, owing to the family's relative poverty. The sources further state that the Gunning sisters worked for some time in the Dublin theatres, befriending actors like Peg Woffington
Margaret Woffington
Margaret "Peg" Woffington was a well-known Irish actress in Georgian London.- Early life :Woffington was born of humble origins in Dublin. Her father is thought to have been a bricklayer, and after his death, the family became impoverished...
, even though acting was not considered a respectable profession as many actresses of that time doubled as courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
s to wealthy benefactors. However, other sources deny this and point out that Margaret Woffington did not arrive in Dublin until May 1751, by which time Maria and her sister Elizabeth were in England.
In October 1748, a ball was held at Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
by the Viscountess Petersham. The two sisters did not have any dresses for the gathering until Tom Sheridan, the manager of one of the local theatres, supplied them with two costumes from the green room, those of Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
and Juliet
Juliet
Juliet is one of the title characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the other being Romeo. She is the daughter of old Capulet, head of the house of Capulet. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself....
. Wearing the costumes, they were presented to the Earl of Harrington
William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington
William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, PC was a British statesman and diplomat.He was a younger son of John Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire, and a brother of Charles Stanhope , an active politician during the reign of George I. His ancestor, Sir John Stanhope , was a half-brother of Philip...
, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. Harrington must have been pleased by the meeting as, by 1750, Bridget Gunning had persuaded him to grant her a pension, which she then used to transport herself, Maria, and Elizabeth, back to their original home in Huntingdon, England. With their attendance at local balls and parties, the beauty of two girls was much remarked upon. They became well-known celebrities, their fame reaching all the way to London, and themselves following soon afterward. On December 2, 1750, they were presented at the court of St James. By this time, they were sufficiently famous that the presentation was noted in the London newspapers.Maria, who was notoriously tactless, was reported to have made a notable gaffe by telling the elderly George II
George II
George II may refer to:* George II of Abkhazia * George II of Georgia * Yuri II of Vladimir or George II * George II of Bulgaria * George II of Kakheti * George II of Imereti...
that the spectacle she would most like to see was a royal funeral. Fortunately the King was highly amused.
Within a year, her sister Elizabeth had married the Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage , and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas...
. In March 1752, Maria married the 6th Earl of Coventry
George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry
George William Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry , known as Viscount Deerhurst from 1744 to 1751, was a British peer and Tory politician....
and became the Countess of Coventry. For their honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
, the Earl and Countess traveled around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
accompanied by Lady Petersham, but neither lady enjoyed it much, especially Maria who particularly disliked Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The Countess's ignorance of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and her husband's decision not to allow her to wear red powder as make-up (which was fashionable in Paris at the time) intensified her dislike of the city and the trip. On one occasion, her husband saw her arrive at dinner with powder on her face and tried to rub it off with his handkerchief. Her tactlessness, which had amused George II, struck the French Court as simple bad manners.
Maria's popularity and beauty was such, that on her return to London, she was mobbed when she appeared in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
and was eventually given a guard by the King, led by the Earl of Pembroke
Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke
Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke, 7th Earl of Montgomery was the son of the ninth earl of Pembroke, and was named after his father.-Biography:...
. Her husband became involved with then famous courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
Kitty Fisher
Kitty Fisher
Kitty Fisher was a prominent British courtesan. Her celebrity was boosted by the attention that Sir Joshua Reynolds and other artists paid her...
, which caused Maria much distress.
Maria, also, became involved in at least one affair. She was rumoured to have been involved romantically with the 3rd Duke of Grafton
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, KG, PC , styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era...
, but this was never confirmed beyond doubt.