Maria Gunning:

In 1750 there were no more famous women alive than Elizabeth and Maria Gunning, from Ireland. They were mobbed in the streets by admirers anxious to catch a glimpse of them, or still better to touch them. They could not emerge from a carriage without causing a stampede.

In October 1748, a ball was held at Dublin Castle by the Viscountess Petersham. The two sisters did not have any dresses for the gathering until Thomas Sheridan, the manager of one of the local theatres, supplied them with two costumes from the green room, those of Lady Macbeth and Juliet. (Acting was not considered a respectable profession, as many actresses doubled as courtesans to wealthy benefactors.) Wearing the costumes, they were presented to the Earl of Harrington, the then-Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Harrington must have been pleased by the meeting as, by 1750, Bridget Gunning had persuaded him to grant her a pension, which she then used to transport herself, Maria and Elizabeth back to their original home in Huntingdon, England.

With their attendance at local balls and parties, the beauty of the two girls was much remarked upon. They became well-known celebrities, their fame reaching all the way to London.

On 2 December 1750, they were presented at the court of St James, at which time they were sufficiently famous that the presentation was noted in the London newspapers. Maria, who was notoriously tactless, was reported to have made a notable gaffe by telling the elderly George II that the spectacle she would most like to see was a royal funeral. Fortunately, the king was highly amused.

Maria married the 6th Earl of Coventry and became the Countess of Coventry. Her husband became involved with the then-famous courtesan Kitty Fisher, which caused Maria much distress. She was rumored to have been involved romantically with the 3rd Duke of Grafton, Highly probable,but this was never confirmed Maria became Countess of Coventry.

She wore too much white paint on her face, and contracted a consumptive condition as a result, from which she died at the age of twenty-five.

Poor Maria Gunning came to an untimely end. Throughout the l7th and l8th centuries ladies of fashion continued the cult of pale white skins and red rouged cheeks. The use of lead continued as the basis of make-up. The noxious effect of the lead caused skin eruptions which encouraged ladies to powder their skins more vigorously to mask these unsightly blemishes. This caused the death of several ladies of fashion, most notoriously, the death in 1760, of Maria, Lady Coventry.