The Right Honourable

The Countess Grey
Countess Grey with her children Caroline and Georgiana, in a print after Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1831
Born
Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby

(1776-03-04)4 March 1776
Whitehaven
Died26 November 1861(1861-11-26) (aged 85)
Eaton Square, London
NationalityBritish
Known forSpouse of the prime minister of the United Kingdom (1830–1834)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1794; died 1845)​
Children16, including Henry, Charles, and Frederick
Parents

Mary Elizabeth Grey, Countess Grey (née Ponsonby; 4 March 1776 – 26 November 1861) was a British aristocrat and political hostess.[1] She is notable for being the wife of the prime minister in the 1830s through her marriage to Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey.

Biography

Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby was born on 4 March 1776 in Whitehaven. She was the only daughter of William Ponsonby (1744–1806), the future 1st Baron Ponsonby and his wife, the Honourable Louisa Molesworth (1749–1824), daughter of Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth.

Personal life

She married on 18 November 1794 Charles Grey MP (1764–1845), the future 2nd Earl Grey and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the son of Charles Grey (1729–1807), later 1st Baron Grey and 1st Earl Grey, and his wife Elizabeth Grey née Grey (1743–1822). They had ten sons and six daughters:

Later life and death

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. Mary Grey, Countess Grey, was widowed on 17 July 1845. She lived until 26 November 1861, when she died aged 85 in Eaton Square, London.

References

  1. ↑ Lewis, Judith Schneid (2003). Sacred to female patriotism : gender, class, and politics in late Georgian Britain. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-82202-9. OCLC 841171677.
  2. ↑ Burke's Peerage, (1999), pp.1225–6
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