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

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

, a small

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

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

, was named.

Early life

Mary Blount was the youngest of three daughters of Edward Blount (d. 1726) of

Blagdon Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural ...

, near

Paignton Paignton ( ) is a seaside town on the coast of Tor Bay in Devon, England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority, borough of Torbay which was created in 1968. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the Engli ...

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 The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 elder brother Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk.

Activities

The pair were socially active, using their position as the highest-ranking peers in the kingdom to promote

religious tolerance Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...

. 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 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland ...

, 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 Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

. Her interest in arts drove her to restore

Norfolk House Norfolk House was the London residence of the Howard family headed by the Dukes of Norfolk, and as such more than one building has been given this name. The first was opposite Lambeth Palace, set in acres of garden and orchards on a site o ...

in 1755. An ardent Catholic, she was very fond of French and Italian fashion and styles, employing Giovanni Battista Borra to decorate that residence. The newly built Music Room was a particularly important part of

, used by the Duchess for receptions, but it 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 a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

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 Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

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, 2012.

References

External links

The Music Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Mary, Duchess of Norfolk 1773 deaths Mary History of Norfolk Island English Roman Catholics Year of birth uncertain