Edward Wortley Montagu
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Edward Wortley Montagu (1713 – April 29, 1776), was an English author and traveller.
He was the son of Edward Wortley Montagu, MP and of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose talent and eccentricity he seems to have inherited.
He twice ran away from Winchester College, and the second time made his way as far as Porto. He was then sent to travel with a tutor in the West Indies, and afterwards with a keeper to the Netherlands. He made, however, a serious study of Arabic at Leiden (1741), and returned twenty years later to prosecute his studies. His father made him a meagre allowance, and he was heavily encumbered with debt.
He was MP for Huntingdon in 1747, and was one of the secretaries at the conference of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1751 he was involved in a disreputable gaming quarrel in Paris, and was imprisoned for eleven days in the Châtelet. He continued to sit in parliament, and wrote Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Antient Republics ... (1759). His father left him an annuity of £1000, the bulk of the property going to Lady Bute.
He set out for extended travel in the East, and George Romney describes him as living in the Turkish manner at Venice. He had great gifts as a linguist, and was an excellent talker. His family thought him mad, and his mother left him a Guinea, but her annuity devolved on him at her death. He died at Padua in Italy.
[edit] Reference
- This entry incorporates domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Coulson Fellowes William Montagu |
Member of Parliament for Huntingdonshire with Coulson Fellowes 1747–1754 |
Succeeded by Coulson Fellowes The Lord Carysfort |
| Preceded by William Ord William Montagu |
Member of Parliament for Bossiney with Edwin Sandys 1754–1761 John Richmond Webb 1761–1766 Lord Mount Stuart 1766–1768 1754–1768 |
Succeeded by Lord Mount Stuart Henry Luttrell |
