Editing Maria Fitzherbert (section)

==Marriages==
[[File:Pompeo G. Batoni - Edward Weld - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maria's first husband, [[Edward Weld]], by [[Pompeo Batoni]]]]
At eighteen, Maria married [[Edward Weld]], 16 years her senior, a rich [[Catholic]] widower and landowner of [[Lulworth Castle]] in July 1775.<ref name="Kauffman">{{cite book |last1=Kauffman |first=Miranda |title=English Heritage Properties – 1600-1830, Slavery Connections – A Report Undertaken to Mark the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Atlantic Slave Trade |section=Lulworth Castle: Family |volume= One: Report and Appendix 1 |publisher=Historic England |date=2007 |pages=46–47 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/eh-properties-1600-1830-slavery-connections/eh-properties-slavery-connections-vol1/ |access-date=27 September 2021}}</ref> Weld died just three months later, after a fall from his horse; having failed to sign his new will, his estate went to his younger brother [[Thomas Weld (of Lulworth)|Thomas]], the father of fifteen children, including the future [[Thomas Weld (cardinal)|Cardinal Weld]].<ref name="mistresses">{{cite web |location=Georgian index |title=Mistresses of the Prince |url=http://www.georgianindex.net/mistresses/prinny_mistresses.html#TOP |access-date=16 March 2012 |archive-date=16 April 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030416160610/http://www.georgianindex.net/mistresses/prinny_mistresses.html#TOP |url-status=dead}}</ref> His widow was left effectively destitute, had little or no financial support from the Weld family, and was obliged to remarry as soon as she was able.

Three years later, in 1778, she married Thomas Fitzherbert of [[Swynnerton Hall]], [[Staffordshire]]. He was ten years her senior. They had a son who died young. She was widowed again on 7 May 1781. He left her an annuity of £1,000 (£{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK|1000|1781|r=-3}}}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK}} and a town house in [[Park Street, Mayfair]].<ref name="mistresses"/>
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