Delany, MRS (Mary Granville)

Delany, MRS (Mary Granville), was born at Coulston, Wiltshire, 14th May 1700. The niece of Lord Lansdowne, she married first, in 1718, 'fat, snuffy, sulky' Alexander Pendarves (1659-1724); and secondly, in 1743, the Rev. Patrick Delany (1685-1768), an Irish divine, Swift's friend, and the author of a dozen volumes. After his death she lived chiefly in London, till her own death at Windsor on 15th April 1788. Her much-admired 'paper mosaics,' or flower-work, have long since faded; but she is remembered through her patronage of Miss Burney, and by her Autobiography and Correspondence (6 vols. 1861-62). See also G. Paston, Mrs Delany, a Memoir (1900).