Mary Frances Parker, Countess of Macclesfield (c.1761 – 1 January 1823), formerly Mary Drake, was the wife of George Parker, 4th Earl of Macclesfield.

Mary was the daughter of the Reverend Thomas Drake, rector of Amersham, who claimed descent from Sir Francis Drake; he died when she was in her teens. She married the earl, then an MP and heir to the earldom, on 24 (or 25)[1] May 1780, while she was still technically a minor.[2] Her sister, Sarah, married Augustus Pechell, a son of Sir Paul Pechell, 1st Baronet.[3]

Parker succeeded to the earldom in 1795, whereupon his wife became a countess. They had one daughter, Lady Maria Parker (1781-1861),[4] who married Thomas Hamilton, 9th Earl of Haddington, but had no children.[5]

The countess was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III of Great Britain, from 1801 until the queen's death in 1818.[6]

She died at the family seat of Shirburn Castle, after a long illness.[7]

References

  1. ↑ John Burke (1832). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn and R. Bentley. pp. 116–.
  2. ↑ The registers of marriages of St Mary Le Bone, Middlesex, 1668-1812 … Part III (London, 1921), p. 71.
  3. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. page 2092
  4. ↑ L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 195.
  5. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. page 2456.
  6. ↑ "Household of Queen Charlotte 1761-1818". Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 15 March 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  7. ↑ The New Monthly Magazine. 1823. pp. 143–.
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