Mary Delany

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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MD 's writing was unpublished in her lifetime during the eighteenth century, but letters, occasional poems, and other writings (a libretto, a romance) were as much part of her daily life as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.
Portrait of Mary Delany, by John Opie, 1782. Her face and grey hair are enclosed by a white cap; she wears a dark cloak with a hood, white linen at her neckline, and a pendant.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Features Margaret Bingham Countess Lucan
Although Sir Joshua Reynolds supposed MBCL insufficiently skilled as an artist to manage history painting,
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Editor Gibbs, Vicary, St Catherine Press, 1910–1959, 14 vols.
8: 238
and Rose E. McCalmont in Memoirs of the Binghams, 1915, was dismissive about her artistic work, Horace Walpole
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...
Publishing Sarah Lady Pennington
She appended her signature in the same form as before, S. Pennington, to her preface. The subscribers are a highly impressive collection in terms of social status; few writers subscribed and those, like Lord Chesterfield
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...
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
He is thought to have survived...
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...
Occupation Frances Burney
Once FB had met the king and queen, through Mary Delany , her father expended much effort to secure her a court position. He thought of it as a triumph. She, on the other hand...
Occupation Frances Burney
FB betook herself, with a visit en route to Mary Delany , to begin her work as Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte .
Doody, Margaret Anne. Frances Burney: The Life in the Works. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
171
Publishing Elizabeth Carter
The book had gone to press in June 1757.
Feminist Companion Archive.
The original press run of 1,018 copies had to be supplemented with a further 250. First of several more editions was the Dublin one of the...
Literary responses Jane Cave
Schürer has noted that JC is unique in handling this material in print: nowhere else in eighteenth-century non-fictional texts does a respectable woman track her husband to a brothel or catch a venereal disease from...
Intertextuality and Influence Hester Mulso Chapone
HMC published A Letter to a New-Married Lady: a pamphlet-sized book on a subject suggested by Mary Delany .
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Wealth and Poverty Hester Mulso Chapone
She was left to comparative poverty; her uncle the bishop paid her an allowance of £20 a year. After her father's death in 1763 her financial situation somewhat improved. But when her uncle in turn...
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...
Family and Intimate relationships Sarah Chapone
SC 's daughter Sally, to whom Mary Delany and her sister were both godparents, was probably born in spring 1731.
Wesley, John. The Works of John Wesley. Clarendon; Oxford University Press, 1975–1983.
25: 280
Friends, Associates Sarah Chapone
SC 's friendship with John Wesley continued after her marriage, and included Wesley's brother Charles , Mary Pendarves (later Delany) , and Mary's sister Anne Granville , who stayed at her house for a week...

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.