"Mary Delany" Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Delany_%28n%C3%A9e_Granville%29_by_John_Opie.jpg.
Mary Delany
-
Standard Name: Delany, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Granville
Married Name: Mary Pendarves
Married Name: Mary Delany
Pseudonym: Aspasia
Indexed Name: Mrs Delany
MD
's writing was unpublished in her lifetime during the eighteenth century, but letters, occasional poems, and other writings (a libretto, a romance) were as much part of her daily life as her art works. Little except her letters survives.
Connections
| Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| death | Mary Barber | Earlier in 1755 her friend Mary Delany
had written that Barber's husband drinks his claret, smokes his pipe, and cares not a pin for any of his family. qtd. in Stewart, Wendy. “The Poetical Trade of Favours: Swift, Mary Barber, and the Counterfeit Letters”. Lumen, Vol. xviii , 1999, pp. 155-74. 159 |
| Dedications | Alexander Pope | It is dedicated to George Granville, Lord Lansdowne
(uncle of the future Mary Delany
). |
| Education | Constantia Grierson | Constantia Crawley (later CG
) became (through her own efforts, said Mary Barber
) proficient in Latin, Greek, history, theology, philosophy and mathematics. Laetitia Pilkington
says she also knew Hebrew (which Mary Delany
doubted), and... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Amelia Opie | This was John Opie's second marriage; his first wife had deserted him and their marriage had been dissolved by act of parliament. The second marriage remained childless. John Opie had been enjoying professional success in... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Sarah Chapone | |
| Friends, Associates | Laetitia Pilkington | LP
's friendship with Constantia Grierson
had begun before her marriage. Both she and her husband were friends and protegées of Swift
, and she met and entertained the future Mary Delany
on the latter's... |
| Friends, Associates | Hannah More | Here she began to gather the circle of friends which by the end of her long life had touched every cranny of English society. She had already met Edmund Burke
in Bristol the previous September... |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Barber | MB
was a close friend of Constantia Grierson
. Her friendship with Jonathan Swift
endured many vicissitudes; that with Laetitia Pilkington
did not survive her apparently siding with Pilkington's husband
when the couple fell out... |
| Friends, Associates | Georgiana Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire | Georgiana did not restrict herself to this circle. She made some eminent older friends in the world of literature and culture, like Mary Delany
, Elizabeth Montagu
, and Samuel Johnson
. From 1777 she... |
| Friends, Associates | Frances Burney | Among those whom FB
met through the Thrales' hospitable house at Streatham were members of the Bluestocking circle. Through Hester Chapone
she met Mary Delany
, and a real friendship developed despite the more than... |
| Friends, Associates | Elizabeth Elstob | By this time, however, she was acquiring a circle of patrons. She had met Sarah Chapone
, parson's wife and proto-feminist, who this same year published her anonymous, hard-hitting The Hardships of the English Laws... |
| Friends, Associates | Caroline Herschel | Though CH
recorded in summer 1774 that she had lost her only female acquaintance (apparently because her work for her brother left her no time for social life), she later met Charles
and Frances Burney |
| Friends, Associates | Anne Hunter | Among Anne's personal friends and guests at her gatherings were Elizabeth Carter
, Mary Delany
, Elizabeth Montagu
, Hester Thrale
, her niece by marriage Joanna Baillie
(whom she first met when Baillie came... |
| Friends, Associates | Sarah Chapone | In her teens Sarah Kirkham developed a close friendship with a girl of her own age, Mary Granville (later Delany)
, who called her Sappho and described her like this. She had an uncommon genius... |
| Friends, Associates | Jane Williams | JW
became a member of the literary circle of Augusta Hall, later Lady Llanover
(who is known as a patron of Lady Charlotte Guest
and as editor of Mary Delany
's autobiography and correspondence). Fraser, Maxwell. “Jane Williams (Ysgafell) 1806-1885”. Brycheiniog, Vol. 7 , 1961, pp. 95-114. 102 Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/. under Augusta Hall |
Timeline
25 March 1738: The Irish harper, composer, and song-writer...
Writing climate item
25 March 1738
The Irish harper, composer, and song-writer Turlough Carolan (Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin)
, died.
McGuire, James, and James Quinn, editors. Dictionary of Irish Biography. 2009, http://dib.cambridge.org/.
November 1739: The anonymous, probably female Sophia published...
Women writers item
November 1739
The anonymous, probably female Sophia
published a pamphlet entitled Woman not Inferior to Man.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
9 (1739): 608
February 1741: Mary Pendarves (later Delany) wrote of her...
Building item
February 1741
Mary Pendarves (later Delany)
wrote of her friend the Duchess of Queensberry
's court dress representing botanically exact flowers of many species, with the banks and tree-stumps they grew on.
Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
41-3 and n23
2 May 1742: Lady Euston, formerly Lady Dorothy Boyle,...
Building item
2 May 1742
Lady Euston
, formerly Lady Dorothy Boyle
, died of her husband's ill-treatment within seven months of her wedding.
Walpole, Horace. The Letters of Horace Walpole. Editor Toynbee, Mrs Paget, Clarendon, 1903–1925, 16 vols.
1: 112; 2: 41
13 September 1742: Frances Williams wrote a letter of pure anger...
Building item
13 September 1742
Frances Williams
wrote a letter of pure anger to her husband
, who had hinted that she must have infected him with venereal disease when it was actually the other way round.
Stewart, Mary Margaret. “’And Blights with Plagues the Marriage Hearse’: Syphilis and Wives”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 103-13.
106-10
23 November 1752: George Ballard dated his preface to Memoirs...
Women writers item
23 November 1752
George Ballard
dated his preface to Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain . . . (better known as Memoirs of Eminent Ladies); it was published that year.
Ballard, George. Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain. Editor Perry, Ruth, Wayne State University Press, 1985.
41
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
8: 124
Staves, Susan. “Church of England Clergy and Women Writers”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 81-103.
84
1872: US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy,...
Writing climate item
1872
US writer Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncy, or Chauncey, Woolsey) published her highly popular and influential story for girls entitled What Katy Did.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
There seems to be no agreement as to the spelling of her...
Texts
Delany, Mary. A Catalogue of Plants Copyed from Nature in Paper Mosaick. Privately printed, 1778.
Delany, Mary. Flora Delanica. 1782.
Delany, Mary, and Sybil Connolly. Letters from Georgian Ireland. Editor Day, Angélique, Friar’s Bush Press, 1991.
Delany, Mary. Letters from Mrs. Delany (widow of Doctor Patrick Delany) to Mrs. Frances Hamilton. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.
Delany, Mary. Marianna. 1759, p. 75.
Delany, Mary. The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany. Editor Llanover, Augusta Hall, Baroness, R. Bentley, 1862, 6 vols.