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MD 's writing was unpublished in her lifetime during the eighteenth century, but letters, occasional poems, and other writings (a libretto, a romance) were as much part of her daily life as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
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...
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
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 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
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...
Friends, Associates Jonathan Swift
Swift helped and befriended a number of women writers. He was a patron of Mary Barber , Constantia Grierson , an unidentified Mrs Sican , Mary Davys , and Laetitia Pilkington , a colleague of...
Friends, Associates Anna Miller
Anna Riggs (later ALM) grew up among the Bath community women: that is, Sarah Scott , Barbara Montagu , Mary Arnold , and Elizabeth Cutts . Margaret Mary Ravaud , who lived with...
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Montagu
The leading figures in the movement were Montagu herself (who spent freely in hospitality, and who was later dubbed the Queen of the Bluestockings or Queen of the Blues) and Carter (the most intellectually...
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...

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.