Martha Ray

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- set matching 'Frances Burney Diary, 1768-78 (vol 2, part 1)'

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Martha Ray

by and published by Valentine Green, after Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
mezzotint, published 25 May 1779 (1777)
9 7/8 in. x 7 1/2 in. (252 mm x 189 mm) plate size; 10 3/4 in. x 8 1/8 in. (272 mm x 207 mm) paper size
Bequeathed by (Frederick) Leverton Harris, 1927
Reference Collection
NPG D14336

Sitterback to top

  • Martha Ray (1742?-1779), Singer and murder victim; mistress of 4th Earl of Sandwich. Sitter in 7 portraits.

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Current affairs

Admiral Augustus Keppel, First Lord of the Admiralty during the final years of the American War of Independence is tried and acquitted at court martial of misconduct at the Battle of Ushant the previous year. His case becomes a cause célèbre.
Botanist Joseph Banks tells a committee of the House of Commons that the east coast of Australia is suitable for the transportation of convicted felons.
Penitentiary Act authorises state prisons.

Art and science

Swiss artist Henry Fuseli settles in London after nine years in Rome. Painter and President of the Royal Academy Joshua Reynolds' celebrated Discourses on art are published as a book.
World's first iron bridge is assembled across the Severn at Coalbrookdale.Inventor Samuel Crompton introduces the Spinning Mule.
John Newton and William Cowper's Olney Hymns is published, containing the first printed version of Amazing Grace.

International

American War of Independence: Spain, in alliance with France and the US, declares war on Britain. Great Siege of Gibraltar begins, in which French and Spanish forces try to wrest power from the established British Garrison, under the leadership of General George Augustus Eliot.
Captain James Cook is killed in a skirmish with natives on the Sandwich Islands on his third and final voyage.

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