Background
Her father was a corsetmaker and her mother was a servant in a noble household. Good-looking, intelligent, and a talented singer, she came to the attention of many of her father"s patrons.
Her father was a corsetmaker and her mother was a servant in a noble household. Good-looking, intelligent, and a talented singer, she came to the attention of many of her father"s patrons.
During this time, she conducted a successful singing career, for which she became well-known, as well as completed her education with Lord Sandwich"s support.
She is best known for her affair with John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. She gave birth to five children, one of whom was Basil Montagu. Sandwich set Ray up in a residence in Westminster, and gave her a generous allowance, allowing her a place to stay during periods in which she did not wish to remain at his home.
During this period, Ray was introduced to a soldier, James Hackman, by Sandwich.
Hackman became a frequent visitor, and is thought to have proposed marriage to Ray on several instances, but she declined each time. Also by this time, Sandwich was deeply in debt.
lieutenant is believed that while Sandwich was financially generous to Ray, he did not offer her any long-term financial security, which may have been what led Ray into tolerating Hackman"s advances. In 1779, Hackman left the British Army to join the church.
At some point, believed to have been around 1778, Ray and Hackman had become involved romantically, but this affair was short-lived, by most reports due to her believing he lacked the financial means and social status to support her.
However, Hackman was completely infatuated with Ray, becoming increasingly jealous, and continued to pursue her. She had been approached by Hackman earlier that evening, but when she declined to tell him where she was going he followed her to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, where he murdered her. Hackman believed that she had taken another lover, William Hanger, Baron Coleraine, whom Hackman witnessed her meeting at Covent Garden.
Whether she and Coleraine were involved in an affair has never been established beyond some doubt.
Sandwich was devastated by her death. Hackman attempted to shoot himself to death following his murder of her, but only wounded himself, and was arrested.
Two days after her 14 April burial, Hackman was sentenced to hang, and the sentence was carried out on 19 April in front of a large crowd in Tyburn, London. The events surrounding her murder were used in the popular 1780 novel Love and Madness by Herbert Croft.