Hervey, Mary (1700–1768)

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Hervey, Mary (1700–1768)

Baroness of Ickworth. Name variations: Mary Lepel or Lepell; Lady Mary Hervey. Born Mary Lepel or Lepell in 1700; died in 1768; daughter of Brigadier-General Lepel or Lepell; married John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth, in 1720.

Born in 1700, Mary Lepel married Lord John Hervey, baron of Ickworth, in 1720. As Lady Mary Hervey, she was known for her beauty and lauded in the writings of Alexander Pope, John Gay, Philip Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield, and Voltaire. Her correspondence to Reverend Edmund Morris, which took place between 1742 and 1768, was published in 1821; other correspondence was published in the letters of Henrietta Howard , countess of Suffolk (1824). Lady Hervey's epitaph was written by Horace Walpole.