Edward Wortley Montagu (diplomat)

Wortley Hall

Sir Edward Wortley Montagu (8 February 1678 – 22 January 1761) was British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, husband of the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and father of the writer and traveller Edward Wortley Montagu.

Son of Sidney Wortley Montagu and grandson of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, Wortley Montagu was educated at Westminster School, Trinity College, Cambridge (1693) and trained in the law at the Middle Temple (1693). He was called to the bar in 1699 and entered the Inner Temple in 1706.

He was best known for his correspondence with, seduction of, and elopement with Mary Pierrepont, daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull. They married in 1712. Edward succeeded his father in 1727, inheriting Wortley Hall, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

Edward was a prominent Whig politician, and was MP for Huntingdon before eventually becoming a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1714 to 1715.

He made Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and elected the representative of the Levant Company on the nomination of King George I on 10 May 1716. He arrived with his wife at Adrianople (now known as Edirne) on 13 March 1717. As Ambassador, he was charged with pursuing the ongoing negotiations between the Ottomans and the Habsburg Empire. Unsuccessful in his position, he was not made Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte in Constantinople before he was recalled in October 1717. He left Turkey on 15 July 1718 and traveled for some time in the East. Upon his return to England from Constantinople, he fell out with the Whig hierarchy but remained a Member of Parliament for Huntingdon (1722–1734) and Peterborough (1734 until his death in 1761).

From 1757 to 1761, he remodelled Wortley Hall, adding the East Wing. On his death, he left the hall and a large fortune to his daughter Mary, having in 1755 cut off his son Edward with only a small allowance. Mary married the future Prime Minister, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute.

References

• The Life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Robert Halsband – Clarendon Press – 1956

Parliament of England
Preceded by The Earl of Orrery Anthony Hammond	Member of Parliament for Huntingdon 1705–1707 With: Sir John Cotton 1705–1706 John Pedley 1706–1707	Succeeded by Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Parliament of England	Member of Parliament for Huntingdon 1707–1713 With: John Pedley 1707–1708 Francis Page 1708–1713	Succeeded by Viscount Hinchingbrooke Sidney Wortley Montagu
Preceded by Thomas Medlycott Sir Thomas Crosse	Member of Parliament for Westminster 1715–1722 With: Sir Thomas Crosse	Succeeded by Archibald Hutcheson John Cotton
Preceded by Viscount Hinchingbrooke Sidney Wortley Montagu	Member of Parliament for Huntingdon 1722–1734 With: Roger Handasyde	Succeeded by Roger Handasyde Edward Montagu
Preceded by Joseph Banks Armstead Parker	Member of Parliament for Peterborough 1734–1761 With: Armstead Parker 1734–1741, 1742–1747 The Earl FitzWilliam 1741–1742 Sir Matthew Lamb 1747–1761	Succeeded by Sir Matthew Lamb Armstead Parker
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Sir Robert Sutton	British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1716–1718	Succeeded by Abraham Stanyan