Coke, Mary ___ 1727-1811 ___ British ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Mary was the fifth and youngest daughter of John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, and his second wife, Jane who was a maid of honour to Queen Anne and Caroline. She married Edward, Viscount Coke. However, the marriage was strained from day one, and only after going to court, was Mary able to have some freedom from her husband. But he died when she was only 26. She never remarried by played a full, if increasingly odd, part in society. Horace Walpole, who dedicated his 'The Castle of Otranto' to her, said she was 'violent, absurd and mad'. Her diary is voluminous (26 books) and largely written in the form of letters to her sister Lady Strafford. Ponsonby, the author of ‘English Diaries’, says the journal is often silly and very dull.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Violent, absurd and mad

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1766-1791 ___ domestic travel family society health royalty

WEB TEXT LINKS
a lot about and extracts
several quotes
one long quote about Walpole

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journal of Lady Mary Coke
 

July 2005, August 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.