Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry

Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry (1733 – 30 September 1760) was a famous London beauty and society hostess during the reign of King George II.

She was born Maria Gunning in Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire and was the eldest child of John Gunning of Castlecoote,County Roscommon and his wife Hon. Bridget Bourke, daughter of Theobald Bourke (1681–1741), 6th Viscount Mayo. Maria's younger siblings were Elizabeth, Catherine (married Robert Travis, died 1773), Sophia, Lizzie, and John (a general in the army). Although her beginnings were humble, Maria Gunning would go on to become one of the most celebrated beauties of her day.

In late 1740 or early 1741, the Gunning family returned to John Gunning's ancestral home in Ireland, where they divided their time between their home in Roscommon, and a rented house in Dublin. According to some sources, when Maria and her sister Elizabeth came of age, their mother urged them to take up acting in order to earn a living, owing to the family's relative poverty. The sources further state that the Gunning sisters worked for some time in the Dublin theatres, befriending actors like Peg Woffington, even though acting was not considered a respectable profession as many actresses of that time doubled as courtesans to wealthy benefactors. However, other sources deny this and point out that Margaret Woffington did not arrive in Dublin until May 1751, by which time Maria and her sister Elizabeth were in England.

In the park Lady Coventry asked Kitty Fisher for "the name of the dressmaker who had made her dress."
Kitty Fisher answered she ..."had better ask Lord Coventry as he had given her the dress as a gift."
The altercation continued with Lady Coventry calling her an impertinent woman.
Kitty replied that she ... "would have to accept this insult because Maria was socially superior since marrying Lord Coventry, but she was going to marry a Lord herself just to be able to answer back."

In October 1748, a ball was held at Dublin Castle by the Viscountess Petersham. The two sisters did not have any dresses for the gathering until Tom Sheridan, the manager of one of the local theatres, supplied them with two costumes from the green room, those of Lady Macbeth and Juliet. Wearing the costumes, they were presented to the Earl of Harrington, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Harrington must have been pleased by the meeting as, by 1750, Bridget Gunning had persuaded him to grant her a pension, which she then used to transport herself, Maria, and Elizabeth, back to their original home in Huntingdon, England. With their attendance at local balls and parties, the beauty of the two girls was much remarked upon. They became well-known celebrities, their fame reaching all the way to London, and themselves following soon afterward. On 2 December 1750, they were presented at the court of St James. By this time, they were sufficiently famous that the presentation was noted in the London newspapers. Maria, who was notoriously tactless, was reported to have made a notable gaffe by telling the elderly George II that the spectacle she would most like to see was a royal funeral. Fortunately, the King was highly amused. He could not have known then that his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, with whom he had a conflictual relationship, was to die on 31 March 1751 of a burst abscess in his lung.

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