Topic summary
Maria Skerret
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Maria, Lady Walpole.
Biography
Walpole had become estranged from his first wife, Catherine, and took a series of mistresses. Maria Skerret was a long-term companion (1723–1738); they lived together in both Richmond and Houghton Hall in Norfolk while Walpole's first wife was still alive. Skerret was received everywhere and moved in fashionable society. She was even alluded to as Polly in The Beggar's Opera written in 1728 by John Gay, in which 'Macheath' was Walpole.