Maria Nugent

Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent born Maria Skinner (1770/71 – 1834) was a diarist and art collector. She was born in the colony of New Jersey to a British loyalist family. She married British M.P. George Nugent and is known for her diary, which she wrote while he was lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of Jamaica and again in India. Part of her diaries were published privately in 1839. Her diaries written in India were published later, and her art collection was sold for £420,000 in 2020. Life Nugent was born in either 1770 or 1771 in the colony of New Jersey. She was one of the twelve children born to Elizabeth (born Kearny) and Cortlandt Skinner, the Attorney-General of New Jersey and a descendant of the Schuyler and Van Cortlandt families of British North America, When the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, her father, who was a British loyalist, moved to Britain. In 1801, she and her husband went to Jamaica, where he was lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief. She wrote a journal before they returned in 1806. She became Lady Nugent when her husband was made a baronet. In 1812, they set sail to India, and they once went on a tour to inspect the territory. She rode on elephants occasionally while there, and was more usually carried by servants in a single-poled sedan chair called a tonjon. Nugent had to leave her children behind, including a six-week-old baby. While she was in India she met other powerful women, including the Mughal Emperor's wives and daughters; Munni Begum; Begum Johnson; and the adventuress Begum Samru. Most British wives stayed in England, so she was unusual when she went to India. Her journal was written as if she intended it to be published, or at least as stories for her children to read when they were reunited. She saw widows burned at their husband's funeral, servants who refused her food, snakes being charmed and nawabs demonstrating traditions and etiquette that the British could only covet. Her writings improved in detail and she recorded sights that she was unfamiliar with.