Maria (Mary) Winifreda Francisca Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (''née'' Shireburn or Sherburne; – 1754) was an English Catholic noblewoman, the last of the wealthy
Shireburn family. She married twice, firstly to
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal (11 December 1683 – 23 December 1732) was an English peer and politician. He was the first son of Lord Thomas Howard and Mary Elizabeth Savile. Upon the death of his uncle Henry Howard, 7th ...
from whom she became estranged before his death and secondly to Peregrine Widdrington. She built a house in London on Arlington Street, which today is the clubhouse of the
Royal Over-Seas League
The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit members' organisation with international headquarters in its clubhouse in central London, England.
Founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 as the Over-Seas Club, it was given a Royal Charter ...
.
Early life
The only surviving child and heir of Sir Nicholas Shireburn, 1st and last
Baronet of Stonyhurst and Catherine Charleton, Maria Shireburn was born into a prominent Catholic family in 1692 or 1693.
Born in London, she grew up mainly at Stonyhurst Hall (now
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic Church, Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. Th ...
) in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. She was christened as Maria Windforda Francesca and always called Mary. Her older sister Isabel had died in 1688 and her brother Richard Francis accidentally killed himself in 1702 by eating poisonous berries. Her health was also bad and in 1698, she was taken to the
Jacobite court at
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the ''département'' of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the ''musée d'Archéologie nationale'' (Nati ...
in France, where she was treated by William Waldegrave,
James II's doctor.
She became the Duchess of Norfolk when she married
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal (11 December 1683 – 23 December 1732) was an English peer and politician. He was the first son of Lord Thomas Howard and Mary Elizabeth Savile. Upon the death of his uncle Henry Howard, 7th ...
on 26 May 1709. She was sixteen years old and brought a large dowry of more than £30,000.
Although Catholics were not allowed to get married in public, the celebratory dinner at Shireburne House in
St James's Square
St James's Square is the only square in the St James's district of the City of Westminster and is a garden square. It has predominantly Georgian and Neo-Georgian architecture. For its first two hundred or so years it was one of the three or fou ...
was a lavish affair.
Marriages
The couple lived at various residences including
Arundel Castle
Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...
in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
,
Worksop Manor
Worksop Manor is a Grade I listed 18th-century country house in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire. It stands in one of the four contiguous estates in the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire. Traditionally, the Lord of the Manor of Worksop may assist a B ...
in
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
and the house on St James Square in London.
When her husband was arrested on 29 October 1722 under suspicion of involvement in a
Jacobite plot and imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
, the Duchess was not allowed to visit him. She nevertheless managed to convince her relative
Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle
Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, PC (c. 1669 – 1 May 1738) was a British nobleman, peer, and statesman.
Charles Howard was the eldest son of Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle, and inherited his title on the death of his father in 1692 ...
to act as surety for his bail in May 1723.
The childless marriage was reputedly unhappy due to the Duchess's strong Catholic and Jacobite feelings, since her husband may have wanted to mute them for political reasons.
By 1730, Howard was living apart from her husband.
She had left him when he, as she put it, "truckled to the
Usurper
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...
".
Another factor was that following the death of her mother in 1728, Howard had inherited the income from the Stonyhurst estate, but by 1730 her husband had taken possession of it. He sold off furnishings and moved some items to Worksop Manor, leaving Howard with jewellery and plate.
![The Royal Overseas League 20130408 106](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/The_Royal_Overseas_League_20130408_106.JPG)
Widowed on 23 December 1732, the Duchess married Peregrine Widdrington in November 1733.
[ He was the brother of William Widdrington, the 4th and last Baron Widdrington of Blankney, and had taken part in the ]Jacobite Rising of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ;
or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts
The House of Stuart, ori ...
.[ The marriage was announced in '']The Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...
'' but not recorded in a parish register, suggesting they were married by a Catholic priest. The refusal to legitimate the marriage caused Howard to split from some Jesuit acquaintances and might have been a means to protect her financial independence after the problems of her first marriage.
Howard decided to build a new house at Arlington Street in London, purchasing land in 1734. She employed James Gibbs
James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...
as architect and commissioned a marble fireplace from John Michael Rysbrack
Johannes Michel or John Michael Rysbrack, original name Jan Michiel Rijsbrack, often referred to simply as Michael Rysbrack (24 June 1694 – 8 January 1770), was an 18th-century Flemish sculptor, who spent most of his career in England where h ...
. Whilst the construction was underway, she lived on Pall Mall. The work was completed in 1740, with skilled craftsmen working on the interior. The house was partially demolished in the 1930s and now serves as the clubhouse for the Royal Over-Seas League
The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit members' organisation with international headquarters in its clubhouse in central London, England.
Founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 as the Over-Seas Club, it was given a Royal Charter ...
. Widdrington died in 1748. By this point, Howard was an absentee landlord
In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 book ...
, managing her northern estates from London. The last recorded time she was in Stonyhurst was 1734. She continued to support Jacobite initiatives but was not linked to the rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took pl ...
.
Death and legacy
Howard is variously recorded as dying in Preston or Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...
or London on 17 or 25 September 1754. She died the last Shireburn, though the line continued through her heir and first cousin-once-removed Edward Weld
Edward Weld (1740–1775) was a British recusant landowner.
Biography
Edward Weld was the eldest of the four sons and one daughter of Edward Weld (1705–1761) and his second wife, Dame Maria née Vaughan.''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic ...
, father of Thomas Weld (of Lulworth)
Thomas Bartholomew Weld (1750–1810), known as Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle, was a member of the English Catholic gentry, landowner, philanthropist and bibliophile. He was connected to many of the leading Catholic families of the land, such ...
. She left property in Lancashire, London, Middlesex, Northumberland and Yorkshire, as well as estates in Blackburn, Ormskirk and the Isle of Man.
The 34 piece silver-gilt
Silver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French term vermeil, is silver (either pure or sterling) which has been gilded with gold. Most large objects made in goldsmithing that appear to be gold are actually ...
toilet service
A toilet service is a set of objects for use at the dressing table. The term is usually reserved for large luxury sets from the 17th to 19th centuries, with toilet set or vanity set used for later or simpler sets. Historically, services were ...
made in 1708, and presented by her father to the Duchess of Norfolk on her marriage was granted an export licence to Australia in 2012, despite objections by the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
. It was valued at £1,380,000.Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Export of Objects of Cultural Interest
, 2012/13 Report
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norfolk, Maria Howard, Duchess of
1690s births
1754 deaths
Year of birth missing
Daughters of baronets
Maria Howard
English Roman Catholics
English Jacobites