Mary, Countess of Harold

She was named in her father's will as an executor and administrator of the trust he established to provide for charities,[2][3] including a school for poor children.

[4] Lady Mary was one of the group of aristocratic women who signed Thomas Coram's petition to King George II to establish the Foundling Hospital, a place of safety for babies and children at risk of abandonment.

In an essay which celebrates the role of women in the history of the Foundling Hospital, Elizabeth Einberg states that the women not only lent it their social cachet, but could 'highlight the Christian, virtuous and humanitarian aspects of such an endeavour', making it 'one of the most fashionable charities of the day'.

She provided financial support to other charities, including almshouses in Vauxhall for seven poor widows, which she had repaired and for which she purchased shares to provide them with an ongoing income, and a school for poor children in Brighton, Sussex (or Brighthelmston, as it was known in 1771).

[16][5] At the news of her marriage to Leveson-Gower, a contemporary commented 'everybody thinks him a lucky man to get a woman of her understanding and fortune [...] but love removes great obstacles.