Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (née Mary Blount; (c. 1712 – 1773), was a British noblewoman after whom Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, was named.
Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (née Mary Blount; (c. 1712 – 1773), was a British noblewoman after whom Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, was named.
The youngest of three daughters of Edward Blount (d. 1726) of Blagdon, Paignton in Devon, by his wife Anne Guise, a daughter of Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet. She was a co-heiress of her father's property. [1] Born into an exiled Roman Catholic family, she spent her adolescence and early years of marriage on the continent. [2] On 26 November 1727, she married Edward Howard, who in 1732 succeeded as the 9th Duke of Norfolk, upon the death of his older brother Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk.
The pair were socially active, using their position as the highest-ranking peers in the kingdom to promote religious tolerance. As Roman Catholics whose immediate predecessors, the 8th Duke and his wife Maria Shireburn, had supported the Jacobite rising of 1715, Mary and Edward Howard were keen to express their support of the Protestant monarch King George II. The Duchess was intelligent and assertive; she was referred to as "My Lord Duchess" by Horace Walpole. Her interest in arts drove her to restore Norfolk House in 1755. [1] An ardent Catholic, she was very fond of French and Italian fashion and styles, employing Giovanni Battista Borra to decorate that residence. The newly built Music Room was a particularly important part of Norfolk House, used by the Duchess for receptions, but contained no musical instruments. [3]
She proceeded to renovate Worksop Manor House. After it burned down in 1761, the Duchess had it restored once again. [4] The childless couple had decided to rebuild the house for the benefit of their nephew Thomas Howard, heir presumptive to the dukedom. Further building was abandoned after the deaths of Thomas and his half-brother Edward in 1763 and 1767, respectively. [5]
The Duchess died in 1773. Her marriage had been childless and her husband survived her. According to the astronomer William Wales, she had asked the explorer Captain James Cook to name an island after her. [6] He had not heard about the Duchess's death when he discovered a suitable one which he named Norfolk Island in her honour. [7]
Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the title refers to the county of Norfolk. The current duke is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk. The dukes have historically been Roman Catholic, a state of affairs known as recusancy in England.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was a prominent English politician and nobleman of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were beheaded, and played a major role in the machinations affecting these royal marriages. After falling from favour in 1546, he was stripped of his Dukedom and imprisoned in the Tower of London, avoiding execution when Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547.
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was an English nobleman and politician. Although from a family with strong Catholic leanings, he was raised a Protestant. He was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I through her maternal grandmother, and held many high offices during her reign.
Baron Stafford, referring to the town of Stafford, is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of England. In the 14th century, the barons of the first creation were made earls. Those of the fifth creation, in the 17th century, became first viscounts and then earls. Since 1913, the title has been held by the Fitzherbert family.
Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk was an English nobleman and politician. He was the second son of Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, and Lady Elizabeth Stuart. He succeeded his brother Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk after Thomas's death in 1677.
Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, of Worksop Manor in Nottinghamshire and of Norfolk House in London, was a British peer, politician and hereditary Earl Marshal.
Norfolk House, 31 St James's Square, Westminster, was built between 1748 and 1752 as his London townhouse by Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (1686–1777) to the design of Matthew Brettingham (1699–1769), "the Elder", and was demolished in 1938. His country house and main seat was Worksop Manor in Nottinghamshire. Norfolk House was built on a site formerly occupied by two houses, namely St Albans House, the residence of the Earl of St Albans, and the other the residence of John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (1614–1689). Both these houses were demolished in 1748 by the 9th Duke of Norfolk in preparation for his new house.
Charlotte Sophia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was a daughter of the 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife, Elizabeth, suo jure Countess of Sutherland.
Margaret Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was the sole surviving child of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, and Lady Elizabeth Grey, herself the daughter of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and his wife Margaret Wotton.
Worksop Manor is a Grade I listed 18th-century country house in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire. It stands in one of the four contiguous estates in the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire. Traditionally, the Lord of the Manor of Worksop may assist a British monarch at his or her coronation by providing a glove and putting it on the monarch's right hand and supporting his or her right arm. Worksop Manor was the seat of the ancient Lords of Worksop.
Kenninghall is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England, with an area of 5.73 sq mi (14.8 km2) and a population of 950 at the 2011 census. It falls within the local government district of Breckland. Home to the kings of East Anglia, after the Norman invasion of 1066 William the Conqueror granted the estate to William of Albany and his heirs as a residence for the Chief Butler of England.
Duchess of Norfolk is a title held by the wife of the Duke of Norfolk in the Peerage of England. The Duke of Norfolk is the premier duke in the peerage of England, and also, as Earl of Arundel, the premier earl. The first creation was in 1397.
Lady Elizabeth Stafford was an English aristocrat. She was the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Lady Eleanor Percy. By marriage she became Duchess of Norfolk. Her abusive marriage to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, created a public scandal.
Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey was an English heiress who became the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. She served successively as a lady-in-waiting to two Queen consorts, namely Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV, and later as Lady of the Bedchamber to that Queen's daughter, Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII. She stood as joint godmother to Princess Margaret Tudor at her baptism.
The Fitzalan Chapel is the chancel of the church of St Nicholas in the western grounds of Arundel Castle.
Maria (Mary) Winifreda Francisca Howard, Duchess of Norfolk was an English Catholic noblewoman, the last of the wealthy Shireburn family. She married twice, firstly to Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk from whom she became estranged before his death and secondly to Peregrine Widdrington. She built a house in London on Arlington Street, which today is the clubhouse of the Royal Over-Seas League.
Jane Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, was the second wife of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk.
Blagdon historically in the parish of Paignton in Devon, England, is an historic manor, the seat of the Kirkham family from the 13th to 17th centuries. The manor house known as Blagdon Manor (House) survives as a grade II* listed building about two miles west of the historic centre of the town of Paignton, situated behind the "Blagdon Inn" public house, and almost surrounded by the "Devon Hills Holiday Park" of caravans and mobile homes, set-back at the end of a short driveway off the A385 Paignton to Totnes road. The settlements or farms of Higher Blagdon, Middle Blagdon and Lower Blagdon are situated to the north of the manor house.
Buckenham Tofts is a now deserted historic parish and manor in Norfolk, England, situated about 7 miles north of Thetford, and since 1942 situated within the Stanford Training Area, a 30,000-acre military training ground closed to the public. It was situated about one mile south of the small village of Langford, with its Church of St Andrew, and about one mile west of Stanford, with its All Saints' Church and one mile north of West Tofts, with its Church of St Mary, all deserted and demolished villages. None of these settlements are shown on modern maps but are simply replaced by "Danger Area" in red capital letters. It is situated within Breckland heath, a large area of dry sandy soil unsuited to agriculture. The parish church of Buckenham Tofts, dedicated to St Andrew, was demolished centuries ago and stood to the immediate north of Buckenham Tofts Hall, the now-demolished manor house, as is evidenced by a graveyard which was discovered in that location. The parishioners, few as they were, used nearby St Mary's Church, West Tofts, one mile to the south, where survive 18th-century monuments to the Partridge family of Buckenham Tofts. In 1738 the Norfolk historian Blomefield stated of Buckenham Tofts "there is nothing remaining of this old village, but the Hall, and the miller's house". The ancient manor house was rebuilt in 1803 by the Petre family in the Georgian style and on a grand scale, was sold with the large estate in 1904 and was finally demolished by the army in 1946, having suffered major damage from military training exercises and shelling. In the early 21st century the remains of the manor house were described as follows: "a grassy platform of raised ground and beside a short line of dilapidated stone steps. The raised ground made a sort of elevated lawn, large enough for a tennis court or two, and the steps went to the top of the platform, and then went nowhere."
St Marys Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. It was built from 1838 to 1840 by Weightman and Hadfield in the Gothic Revival style. It is located on Park Street to the south of the town centre. It was paid for by Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk after the sale of Worksop Manor and was once visited by Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It is a Grade II listed building.