Mary Hervey, Lady Hervey (née Lepell; c. 1700 – 2 September 1768) was an English courtier.
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Family and early life
Born around 1700, Mary Lepell was the daughter of Brigadier-general Nicholas Wedig Lepell and his wife, Mary Brooke, daughter and co-heiress of John Brooke of Rendlesham, Suffolk. Her tombstone states that she was born on 26 September 1700; there is, however, some uncertainty about the date of her birth and the baptism registers state it was 16 September 1699.
Her father was born in Germany. While a page of honour to Prince George of Denmark, he married in 1698, and in the following year obtained an act of naturalisation. On 3 April 1705, he received a Commission to raise a new regiment of foot, and on 1 January 1710 was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, before being appointed Supreme Commander of the British Forces in Spain, which position he held until 1712.
In 1715, through family connections, she was appointed a maid of honour to Queen Caroline. According to a letter written by the Duchess of Marlborough in December 1737, Mary was made a cornet by her father "in his regiment as soon as she was born … and she was paid many years after she was a maid of honour. She was extreme forward and pert, and my Lord Sunderland got her a pension of the late king George I, it being too ridiculous to continue her any longer an officer in the army."