Mary Harcourt

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MH may never have thought of herself as a writer, though she kept a diary during her time serving at Court (as did several others in her position of a privileged behind-the-scenes angle on people in power). Her Anecdotes of the years 1792-5, when she was, as might be said today, embedded with the British army fighting in the Low Countries, constitute a far more unusual, even a unique text, which makes her arguably the first identified British woman war correspondent, as well as the proponent of a strong case against war as such.
Harcourt, Mary. “Anecdotes Relating to the Years 1792-1795”. The Harcourt Papers, edited by Edward William Harcourt and Edward William Harcourt, pp. 321-44.
Mezzotint of the young Mary Harcourt by Samuel William Reynolds after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, published May 1824 . She sits in a parkland landscape, swathed in a low-necked gown and voluminous shawl, looking upwards out of the picture. Her hair is swept up grandly on her head. National Portrait Gallery.

Milestones

1750

Mary Danby (later MH ) was born, the eldest in her family.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.

23 August 1792-4 April 1795

MH wrote letters to her sister-in-law Elizabeth, Countess Harcourt , mostly about her time with the armies (latterly the British army commanded by her husband ), fighting against the French in the Low Countries.
Neely, Matthew. “Catalogue of Papers of the Harcourt Family, 1638-1910”. Bodleian Library Online Catalogues of Archives and Manuscripts.
Harcourt, Edward William, editor. The Harcourt Papers.
4: 322, 641

14 January 1833

The life-writer Mary, Countess Harcourt died in her early eighties at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, her husband's family seat, owned since his death by a cousin.
Ancestry.co.uk. http://www.ancestry.co.uk.

1880

MH 's Anecdotes Relating to the Years 1792-1795, about her experience as a camp-follower of the British army in the Low Countries, was printed in volume four of The Harcourt Papers, edited by Edward William Harcourt .
Neely, Matthew. “Catalogue of Papers of the Harcourt Family, 1638-1910”. Bodleian Library Online Catalogues of Archives and Manuscripts.
Harcourt, Edward William, editor. The Harcourt Papers.
4: 322-644

Biography

Birth and Family

1750

Mary Danby (later MH ) was born, the eldest in her family.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.

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