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Portrait Summary

Subject: Martha Ray, 1746 (no date) – 7 April, 1779

• Martha Ray was a talented singer in mid-Eighteenth century London and her good looks attracted the attention of many men. In 1763, aged 17, she became the mistress of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and bore him five children. Then at 11.15pm on Wednesday 7 April, 1779, after leaving Covent Garden Theatre and about to step into a carriage, a man stepped up behind her and shot her once in the back of the head killing her instantly. The killer, Reverend James Hackman, was a long term admirer of Ray, having tried to court her over a number of years. The London Evening Post (8-10 April, 1779) reported the murder. It said after shooting Ray, Hackman tried, but failed to kill himself using a second pistol. He was heard to cry: “Oh! kill me, kill me! for God’s sake, kill me!” At his Old Bailey trial on 16 April, 1779, Hackman read a speech declaring his guilt, but appealing for sympathy claiming his fatal act was thje result of a momentary frenzy. In Fact and Inventions, Frederick Pottle, the famous Boswell scholar, believes James Boswell may have written Hackman’s plea. The jury found Hackman (1752-1779) guilty and he was hanged at Tyburn on 19 April, 1779. This story overshadows the life of Martha Ray who appears to have found herself seeking security in her life, when Sandwich was in some financial difficulties and Hackman did not offer enough security for her.
• Portrait: This sketch is based on a painting of Ray by English artist Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1735–1811). He painted this portrait in 1777, two years before Ray’s murder. Dance-Holland was a well-known artist at this time. Among his paintings are portraits of George III, Tobias Smollet, Lord North, David Garrick and Capability Brown.
• See Nathaniel Dance-Holland’s original painting at the Wikimedia Commons internet page.
• Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell, (ed.) Paul Tankard (2014)