Martha Ray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with singer/actress Martha Raye.

Martha Ray (1742 – 1779) was a British singer. She was famous for her affair with John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. She lived with him from the age of seventeen as his mistress, while his wife had a mental illness. She gave birth to five children, one of whom was Basil Montagu. She was murdered in the foyer of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden by her former lover, James Hackman, a clergyman.

[edit] External links

• Portraits from National Portrait Gallery
• Details of her murder from a biography of James Hackman

[edit] References

• Martin Levy, Love and Madness: The Murder of Martha Ray, Mistress of the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, Harper & Brothers, 2004. (ISBN 0-06-055975-6)
• John Brewer, A Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. (ISBN 0-374-52977-9)