Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg (9 February 1637 (christened) – 14 March 1713) was an English noblewoman, the third daughter of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

and his wife Elizabeth Bourchier.

Biography

Born in either late 1636 or early 1637, Mary Cromwell was christened on 9 February 1637. On 19 November 1657 she married Thomas Belasyse, 1st Earl Fauconberg (then Viscount Fauconberg), at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

, and became a Viscountess (later Countess Fauconberg in 1689). Fauconberg had been previously married to Mildred Saunderson, who had died. Lady Fauconberg's residence in London was Fauconberg House which was on the north side of Sutton Street, and on the eastern side of

Soho Square Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park leasehold estate, let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II of Engla ...

. It has been claimed that, when her father's body was disinterred and symbolically executed at the Restoration, Mary bribed some guards to substitute another body for Cromwell's and to give her the real body, which she arranged to have buried at Newburgh Priory, the family seat of the Fauconbergs. She died on 14 March 1713 in Sutton Manor in Little Sutton, Chiswick, at the age of 76, and was buried on 24 March in the church of St. Nicholas Church, Chiswick, the district where she had lived since 1676.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fauconberg, Mary Cromwell, Countess 1630s births 1713 deaths English countesses Cromwell family 17th-century English women 17th-century English nobility 18th-century English women 18th-century English nobility Children of Oliver Cromwell Mary