Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry

Maria was born in Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, England and was the eldest child of John Gunning of Castle Coote in County Roscommon, Ireland, and his wife Hon.

According to some sources, when Maria and her sister Elizabeth came of age, their mother urged them to take up acting in order to earn a living, owing to the family's relative poverty.

The sources further state that the Gunning sisters worked for some time in the Dublin theatres, befriending actors like Peg Woffington, even though acting was not considered a respectable profession, as many actresses doubled as courtesans to wealthy benefactors.

The two sisters did not have suitable attire to attend such an occasion 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.

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.

[citation needed] Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it was fashionable for women to whiten their skin with a lead-based make up, Venetian ceruse, and paint on red rouged cheeks.