Edward Wortley Montagu (1713 – 29 April 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 Westminster School, 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 Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdonshire in 1747, and was one of the secretaries at the conference of Aix-la-Chapelle that closed the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1751 he was involved in a disreputable gaming quarrel in Paris; arrested for cheating a Jew at cards and then robbing him when he refused to pay[1]; and was imprisoned for eleven days in the Châtelet. He was cleared after the first court hearing before the decision was overturned by the Parlement of Paris and he was ordered to pay a fine of 300 livres. 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, the author's sister,
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 single guinea in her will, but her annuity devolved on him at her death. He died at Padua in Italy.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thomas Foster William Breton |
Member of Parliament for Bossiney with Richard Heath 1747 |
Succeeded by Richard Heath William Ord |
| 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 |