Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (née Mary Blount; ( 1712 – 1773), was a British noblewoman after whom

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

, a small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, was named.

Early life

The youngest of three daughters of Edward Blount (d. 1726) of

Blagdon, Paignton Blagdon historically in the parish of PaigntonPole, p.279 in Devon, England (today in the parish of Collaton St Mary), is an historic manor, the seat of the Kirkham family from the 13th to 17th centuries. The manor house known as Blagdon Manor ...

in Devon, by his wife Anne Guise, a daughter of Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet. She was a co-heiress of her father's property.The Music Room From Norfolk House, St James' Square, London
/ref> Born into an exiled Roman Catholic family, she spent her adolescence and early years of marriage on the continent. On 26 November 1727, she married Edward Howard, who in 1732 succeeded as the 9th Duke of Norfolk, upon the death of his older brother

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 ...

Activities

The pair were socially active, using their position as the highest-ranking peers in the kingdom to promote religious tolerance. As Roman Catholics whose immediate predecessors, the 8th Duke and his wife Maria Shireburn, had supported 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 ...

, Mary and Edward Howard were keen to express their support of the Protestant monarch King George II. The Duchess was intelligent and assertive; she was referred to as "My Lord Duchess" by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

. Her interest in arts drove her to restore

Norfolk House Norfolk House, 31 St James's Square, Westminster, was built between 1748 and 1752 as his London townhouse by Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (1686–1777) to the design of Matthew Brettingham (1699–1769), "the Elder", and was demolishe ...

in 1755. An ardent Catholic, she was very fond of French and Italian fashion and styles, employing

Giovanni Battista Borra Giovanni Battista Borra (27 December 1713 - November 1770) was an Italian architect, engineer and architectural draughtsman. Life Borra was born in Dogliani. Studying under Bernardo Antonio Vittone from 1733 to 1736 (producing 10 plates for his te ...

to decorate that residence. The newly built Music Room was a particularly important part of Norfolk House, used by the Duchess for receptions, but contained no musical instruments. She proceeded to renovate Worksop Manor House. After it burned down in 1761, the Duchess had it restored once again. The childless couple had decided to rebuild the house for the benefit of their nephew Thomas Howard,

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the dukedom. Further building was abandoned after the deaths of Thomas and his half-brother Edward in 1763 and 1767, respectively.

Death and legacy

The Duchess died in 1773. Her marriage had been childless and her husband survived her. According to the astronomer William Wales, she had asked the explorer Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

to name an island after her. He had not heard about the Duchess's death when he discovered a suitable one which he named

in her honour.

Bibliography

*''Of Her Making: the cultural practices of Mary Blount, 9th Duchess of Norfolk'',

Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature ''Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature'' (''TSWL''), founded by Germaine Greer in 1982, is devoted to the study of women's literature and women's writing in general. Publishing "articles, notes, research, and reviews of literary, historicist, and t ...

, 2012.

References

External links

The Music Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Mary, Duchess of Norfolk 1773 deaths

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

History of Norfolk Island English Roman Catholics Year of birth uncertain