Ann Dillingham (1726-1808) was the daughter of William Dillingham, an eminent surgeon in Leicestershire. In 1746 she married William Ord (1715-1768), who had inherited estates at Fenham in Northumberland. He developed lead and silver mining and also coal mining on his estates, and became very prosperous. Following his death, Mrs Ord moved from Newcastle to London and lived in Queen Anne Street, where she hosted many of the Bluestockings. She was a subscriber to James Beattie’s Essays and took Fanny Burney to Windsor in her carriage when she took up her position in the Queen’s household. The Gentleman’s Magazine printed a memoir of her in 1808, recalling that “her society in town was select; seldom having any other company at dinner previous to the BLUE party, than Mrs Boscawen, Mrs Montagu, Mrs Carter, Mrs Garrick, and Hannah More”. She was known for her musical taste and fine singing voice, and was a wide reader in French and Italian as well as English. Her two daughters predeceased her, one dying from consumption and the other burned to death in a domestic accident, and of her seven sons, only one survived her. Mrs Ord died at the age of eighty-two; she published nothing and none of her letters survives.