Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry

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



Born Maria Gunning, she was born in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, the daughter of John Gunning of Castle Coote and his wife, Bridget (a daughter of the 6th Viscount Mayo) and the elder sister of Elizabeth Gunning. The family was relatively poor and when the two sisters came of age, their mother urged them to take up acting to earn a living. They then travelled to Dublin, were befriended by Peg Woffington and worked for some time in the city's theatres. For women, the stage was not yet a stepping-stone to becoming the wife of a noble and so the girls were encouraged to attend social events to attract potential suitors. One such event was held at Dublin Castle by the Viscountess Petersham. However, the two sisters did not have any dresses for the gathering until Tom Sheridan, manager of one of the theatres the young women had acted in, supplied two costumes from the green room, namely Lady Macbeth and Juliet, and they were presented to the Earl of Harrington, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The two sisters then travelled to London in 1751 from Ireland and starred in many West End shows and at New Spring Gardens, as well as being presented at the Royal Court. In both environments, crowds and courtiers would clammer to see both sisters and they became celebrities within months.



In March 1752, Maria married the 6th Earl of Coventry and became the Countess of Coventry. For their honeymoon, the Earl and Countess travelled around Europe accompanied by Lady Petersham but neither ladies enjoyed it much, especially Maria who particularly disliked Paris. The Countess's ignorance of the French language and her husband's decision not to allow her to wear red powder as makeup (which was fashionable in Paris at the time) intensified her dislike of the city and the trip. On one occasion, her husband saw her arrive at dinner with powder on her face and tried to rub it off with his handkerchief.



Maria's popularity and beauty was such, that on her return to London, she was mobbed when she appeared in Hyde Park and was eventually given a guard by the King, led by the Earl of Pembroke. Had she paid heed to her husband's actions in Paris for the rest of her days, her death eight years later (at the age of 27) may not have been so untimely. However, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it was fashionable for ladies to have pale white skins and red rouged cheeks and use lead as a basis for their makeup. It was the noxious effects of the lead which caused skin eruptions (which also encouraged ladies to powder their skins more vigorously to mask their blemishes) and eventually blood-poisining which killed Maria on September 30, 1760.