Maria Howard, Duchess of Norfolk

Maria (Mary) Winifreda Francisca Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (née Shireburn or Sherburne; – 1754) was an English Catholic noblewoman, the last of the wealthy Shireburn family. She married twice, firstly to Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, from whom she became estranged before his death, and secondly to Peregrine Widdrington. She built a house in London on Arlington Street, which today is the clubhouse of the Royal Over-Seas League.

Early life The only surviving child and heir of Sir Nicholas Shireburn, 1st and last Baronet of Stonyhurst and Catherine Charleton, Maria Shireburn was born into a prominent Catholic family in 1692 or 1693. . Her health was also bad and in 1698, she was taken to the Jacobite court at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France, where she was treated by William Waldegrave, James II's doctor. Although Catholics were not allowed to get married in public, the celebratory dinner at Shireburne House in St James's Square was a lavish affair. The childless marriage was reputedly unhappy due to the Duchess's strong Catholic and Jacobite feelings, which her husband may have wanted to suppress for political reasons. She had left him when he, as she put it, "truckled to the Usurper" (i.e. King George I). Another factor was that following the death of her mother in 1728, Howard had inherited the income from the Stonyhurst estate, but by 1730 her husband had taken possession of it. He sold off furnishings and moved some items to Worksop Manor, leaving Howard with jewellery and plate. Widdrington died in 1748. By this point, Howard was an absentee landlord, managing her northern estates from London. The last recorded time she was in Stonyhurst was 1734. She continued to support Jacobite initiatives, but was not linked to the rising of 1745. She left property in Lancashire, London, Middlesex, Northumberland and Yorkshire, as well as estates in Blackburn, Ormskirk and the Isle of Man.