Mary Shirley, Countess Ferrers

Mary Shirley, Countess Ferrers, (née Meredith, later Lady Frederick Campbell; c. 1730 – 25 July 1807), was an English noblewoman.

Lady Frederick Campbell, portrait by Thomas Gainsborough

Early life

Mary was the youngest daughter of Amos Meredith of Henbury, Cheshire, and his wife, the former Joanna Cholmondeley. Her brother, William, was an MP and became 3rd Baronet Meredith in 1752, on the death of his grandfather.[1]

Personal life

On 16 September 1752,[2] she married Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers.[3] In 1758, the couple were legally separated, with Mary citing the earl's cruelty as the cause.[4] He was widely believed to come from a family where mental illness was congenital, and in 1760 he was found guilty of murdering one of his servants, and was hanged at Tyburn in May 1760. At his execution he wore his wedding suit, claiming that his "unhappy conduct" was the result of "a forced marriage".[5] There were no children from the marriage,[2]

Second marriage

On 28 March 1769, Mary married Lord Frederick Campbell, the third son of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, and his wife, Mary (a daughter of John Bellenden, 2nd Lord Bellenden), at the Church of St Martin in the Fields.[6] they had two daughters, including:[7]

Lady Campbell was killed in a fire at their home, Combe Bank, Kent.[2] Since the fire caused little damage to the house, it was speculated that Lady Campbell had suffered some kind of fit "with her head in the candle".[9] Her second husband outlived her by nine years.[10]

References
  1. John Burke, Bernard Burke (1844). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland. W. Clowes. p. 632. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  2. Edmund Lodge (1834). The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage: With Brief Sketches of the Family Histories of the Nobility. Saunders and Otley. p. 170.
  3. Hamilton, John Andrew (1886). "Campbell, Frederick (1729-1816)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 8. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 195.
  4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ferrers, Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 287.
  5. "The Annual Journal of Caroline Powys, née Girle, begun 1757" British Library Add MS 42160, f. 5
  6. "CAMPBELL, Lord Frederick (1729-1816), of Ardencaple, Dunbarton, and Coombe Bank, Kent". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  7. "The tragic story of Lady Mary Campbell". www.friendsoflydiardpark.org.uk. Friends of Lydiard Park. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  8. John Burke (1833). A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. pp. 565.
  9. James Thorne (1876). Handbook to the environs of London, alphabetically arranged. Murray. pp. 592–.
  10. Grenville, Richard; Grenville, George (1852). The Grenville Papers. p. 262.
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