MARK OF FREDRICK KANDLER, LONDON, 1777

Mary Nesbitt was born Mary Davis; her parentage in unknown although contemporary satirists said she had been born 'in a wheelbarrow in Covent Garden.' She became known in society through beauty and her role as an artist's model, first sitting for Joshua Reynolds in 1764. She was introduced to the wealthy merchant banker Alexander Nesbitt (1730-1772) marrying him in 1768. He left her his house in Upper Norwood. It was said her infidelities led to her husband's insanity and death in 1772. A year before she had been taken up by the naval officer Augustus Hervey, who would later succeed as 3rd Earl of Bristol. He was devoted to her, describing her in his will as 'my dear valuable and best friend'. As executor and legatee of his will she received over £12,000 in land and chattels, which she put to use adding to her estate in Norwood and establishing herself as a political hostess. In later life she was plagued by debts dying in Paris in 1825.