Mary, Countess of Harold

File:Mary Tufton.jpg

Mary, Countess of Harold (née Lady Mary Tufton; 6 July 1701{{snd}}19 February 1785) was an English aristocrat and philanthropist.

She was the eighth and youngest child of Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet and Lady Catherine Cavendish, daughter of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her father, a politician, was himself noted for his charitable giving.{{Cite book|title=Thomas Coram, Gent., 1668-1751|last=Gillian.|first=Wagner|date=2004|publisher=The Boydell Press|isbn=978-1843830573|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk|pages=199; 122|oclc=53361054}} Her sisters included Lady Anne Tufton (d. 1757), who married James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and Lady Margaret Tufton, who married Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester.

She was named in her father's will as an executor and administrator of the trust he established to provide for charities,{{cite book |last1=Great Britain. Commissioners to Inquire Concerning Charities and Education of the Poor in England and Wales |title=Reports of the Commissioners Appointed in Pursuance of Acts of Parliament ... to Inquire Concerning Charities and Education of the Poor in England and Wales |date=1839 |publisher=House of Commons |location=London, England |pages=355–356 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hxo7AQAAMAAJ&q=%22Mary%2C+Countess+of+Harold%22&pg=RA3-PA356 |access-date=25 November 2018}}{{cite book |title=The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales: Adapted to the New Poor-law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical Arrangements, and Compiled with a Special Reference to the Lines of Railroad and Canal Communication, as Existing in 1845-6 (Vol. 3) |date=1847 |publisher=A. Fullarton and Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2T5aMzyhvwC&q=%22Countess+of+Gower%27s+Charity%22&pg=PA4 |access-date=25 November 2018}} including a school for poor children.{{cite journal |last1=Lawson-Tancred |first1=Jo |title=The Foundling Museum puts women in their rightful place |journal=Apollo - the International Art Magazine |date=25 October 2018 |url=https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-foundling-museum-puts-women-in-their-rightful-place/ |access-date=25 November 2018}}

Charity

Lady Mary was one of the group of aristocratic women who signed Thomas Coram's petition to King George II to establish the Foundling Hospital, a place of safety for babies and children at risk of abandonment.{{cite news |last1=Clinton |first1=Jane |title=Help find Foundling 'mothers' |url=http://camdennewjournal.com/article/help-find-foundling-mothers |access-date=25 November 2018 |work=Camden New Journal |publisher=New Journal Enterprises |date=22 February 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Sanderson |first1=David |title=Race to honour first ladies of charity |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/race-to-honour-first-ladies-of-charity-3qt2vw7ft |access-date=25 November 2018 |work=The Sunday Times |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |date=19 February 2018 |location=London, England}} She signed on 6 November 1733. She joined the group in supporting an increase in systematised social welfare initiatives. In an essay which celebrates the role of women in the history of the Foundling Hospital, Elizabeth Einberg states that the women not only lent it their social cachet, but could 'highlight the Christian, virtuous and humanitarian aspects of such an endeavour', making it 'one of the most fashionable charities of the day'.Elizabeth Einberg, 'Elegant Revolutionaries', article in Ladies of Quality and Distinction exhibition catalogue, Foundling Hospital, London 2018, pp. 14-15, p.15. https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/ladies-of-quality-distinction/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117192855/https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/ladies-of-quality-distinction/ |date=17 November 2018 }}

Her father's will had stipulated that, if she remarried, she would cease being an executor of his trust and charities. However, at the time of her marriage to John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower on 16 May 1736, she was the only surviving executor. She petitioned for, and was granted, letters of administration that enabled her to continue in that role. She provided financial support to other charities, including almshouses in Vauxhall for seven poor widows, which she had repaired and for which she purchased shares to provide them with an ongoing income, and a school for poor children in Brighton, Sussex (or Brighthelmston, as it was known in 1771). One hundred and forty years after her death, these charities were still known as 'the Countess of Gower's Charity'.{{cite news |title=A Countess Dowager and a Brighton Charity School |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002166/19310122/185/0013 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=West Sussex Gazette |date=22 January 1931 |page=13}}{{cite news |title=Charity Commission |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000213/18891026/078/0008 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=South London Press |date=26 October 1889 |page=8}}{{cite news |title=Charity Commission |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002308/18920206/070/0004 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=Norwood News |date=6 February 1892 |page=4}} She also provided additional income for clergy livings at several churches in Lancashire and Cumbria,{{cite news |title=St Cuthbert's Parish Church, Lytham |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001667/18950608/047/0002 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=Preston Herald |date=8 June 1895 |page=2}}{{cite news |title=Dearham Band Contest |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002305/18930513/094/0006 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=West Cumberland Times |date=13 May 1893 |page=6}} for which she was remembered as "that great friend of poor livings".{{cite news |title=The Vicars of Bolton |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002296/19220620/135/0006 |access-date=1 December 2018 |work=Penrith Observer |date=20 June 1922 |page=6}}

Marriages

Lady Mary married Anthony Grey, Earl of Harold, on 17 February 1718.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, Vol. 1, p. 1065. Grey died at the age of 27 by choking on an ear of barley, on 21 July 1723.Sir Bernard Burke, C.B. LL.D., A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition (1883; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), p. 11. {{cite journal |last1=Crompton |first1=Sarah |title=Beacons of empathy: the forgotten women who brought the Foundling Museum to life |journal=The Art Newspaper |date=21 September 2018 |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/beacons-of-empathy |access-date=25 November 2018}}

At the news of her marriage to Leveson-Gower, a contemporary commented 'everybody thinks him a lucky man to get a woman of her understanding and fortune [...] but love removes great obstacles.'{{Cite book|title=The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany|year=1861|editor-last=Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover|volume=I|pages=557}} At the time her jointure from her first marriage was £2000, a significant fortune ({{Inflation|UK|2000|1736|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).{{Cite book|title=The rise of the egalitarian family : aristocratic kinship and domestic relations in eighteenth-century England|last=Randolph.|first=Trumbach|date=1978|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0127012506|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/riseofegalitaria00trum/page/28 28]|oclc=3869747|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/riseofegalitaria00trum/page/28}}

By her marriage to Leveson-Gower, she had two children, the younger of whom was Rear-Admiral John Leveson-Gower. She died on 19 February 1785, at the age of 83.