Biography

Mary O'Brien, 3rd Countess of Orkney (c. 1721 – 1790) was the eldest daughter of Anne O'Brien, 2nd Countess of Orkney, and William O'Brien, 4th Earl of Inchiquin, and Countess of Orkney in her own right.

The Countess of Orkney was deaf and dumb, and was married (when Lady Mary O'Brien) to her husband in 1753 by sign language.

The Gentleman's Magazine, in its **1832 Obituary of her daughter, related a story about her that was repeated in several 19th Century books, including the "The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes" (whose version is here quoted):

"... Shortly after the birth of her first child, the nurse saw the mother cautiously approach the cradle in which the infant lay asleep, evidently full of some deep design. The Countess, having first assured herself that her babe was fast asleep, took from under her shawl a large stone, which had purposely been concealed there, and, to the utter horror of the nurse, who largely shared the popular notion that all dumb persons are possessed of peculiar cunning and malignity, raised it up, as if to enable her to dash it down with greater force. Before the nurse could interpose to prevent what she believed would bring certain death to the sleeping and unconscious child, the dreadful stone was flung, not at the cradle, however, but upon the ground, and fell with great violence. The noise awakened the child. The Countess was overjoyed, and, in the fullness of a mother's heart, she fell upon her knees to express her thankfulness that her beloved infant possessed a blessing denied to herself--the sense of hearing. ..."

• *See uploaded documents for image of Gentleman's Magazine article

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Comments

Not the Mary O'Brien who married James Fitzgerald 1740 in Ireland with children of: John Bannister Fitzgerald Sr, Garrett Fitzgerald, Patrick Fitzgerald, Ambrose Fitzgerald, William Fitzgerald, Edmond Fitzgerald Sr., Matthew Fitzgerald and Christopher King Fitzgerald.

References

1. Cokayne, G. E.; H. A. Doubleday & Lord Howard de Walden, eds. (1940). The Complete Peerage, or a history of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times, volume XIII: Peers created 1901 to 1938. 13 (2nd ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press. Volume X, p. 109