Congreve, Maria Bury (1846-1915)

Maria Bury Congreve's father, Dr. Bury, was George Eliot's family physician and was the reason they met in their youth. They met again years later as neighbors in Wandsworth in 1859, when their husbands became acquainted. They remained good friends for several decades, up until Eliot's death. Maria and her husband, Richard Congreve, were attempting to establish a Positivist church in London.
The couple became two of the few people Eliot told about her fiction writing career before others uncovered the secret. Richard, who was a doctor, became an invaluable source of information while Eliot was writing Lydgate's story in Middlemarch. However, because of their Positivist prejudices against remarriage, Eliot did not confide to the couple of her impending marriage to Cross. In response to a short letter from Maria on the eve of the wedding, Eliot responded with a promise that Charles Lewes would explain 'a great, momentous change' that was coming: her marriage to John Cross. Eliot remained close to the couple for years after. (Letters 7:277)

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

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GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859
GE to Mrs. Richard Congreve, Wandsworth, 8 June 1859
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 27 June 1859
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 6 July 1859
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Rome, 4-6 April 1860
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Naples, 5 May 1860
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 16 October 1860
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 19 October 1860
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 7 December 1860
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 6 February 1861
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 16 February 1861
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 18 July 1861
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 23 October 1861
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 7 January 1862
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 23 February 1862
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 2 October 1862
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 18 April 1863
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, [October 1863]
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 28 November 1863
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 19 January 1864
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, [July 1864]
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, [10? October 1864]
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, [3 October 1864]
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 25 December 1864
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 3 January 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 27 January 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 19 February 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 27 February 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 16 March 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 11 April 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 11 May 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 April 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 1 August 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 6 August 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 4 December 1865
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Tunbridge Wells, 28 January 1866
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 5 June 1866
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Schwalbach, 25 June 1866
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 3 August 1866
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 December 1866
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Biarritz, 16 January 1867
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Biarritz, 10 March 1867
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 28 July 1867
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 December 1867
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 9 January 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, [16 March 1868]
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Torquay, 4 April 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 17 April 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 20 September 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 27 October 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 October 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 12 November 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 16 December 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 29 December 1868
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 26 May 1869
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 1 August 1869
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 31 December 1869
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Berlin, 3 April 1870
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 2 December 1870
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Shottermill, 13 July 1871
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Shottermill, 14 August 1871
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Redhill, 4 July 1872
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Redhill, 19 July 1872
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 12 December 1872
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 15 April 1873
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 25 May 1873
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Homburg, 9 August 1873
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 5 May 1880
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Venice, 10 June 1880
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Witley, 3 November 1880
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 6 December 1880

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Maria Bury Congreve (1846-1915), Congreve, Maria Bury (1846-1915), Social Network Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/97155