MONTAGU, Edward Wortley, only son of the preceding Lady Mary, was born in October 1718, and, in the early part of his life, the object of his mother's most tender regard. In 1716, he accompanied his parents to Constantinople, and, on their return to England in 1718, was placed at Westminster School. Here he gave the first indication of his wayward disposition, by running away, and eluding all search, until about a year afterwards, when he was accidentally discovered at Blackwall, with a basket of fish on his head. In point of fact, he had bound himself, by regular indenture, to a poor fisherman, whom he had served faithfully, making shrewd bargains, and honestly accounting to the fisherman for his gains. Emancipated from this degrading condition, he was again placed at Westminster School; but ere long he absconded a second time, and bound himself to the master of a vessel engaged in the Oporto trade, who, supposing him a friendless boy, treated him with great kindness and humanity. This generous conduct, however, awakened no corresponding feelings of gratitude upon his part; for he had scarcely landed at Oporto when he ran away up the country, and contrived to get employment for two or three years in tending the vines. Here he was at length discovered, brought home, and, on promise of amendment, pardoned; but unhappily with no better effect than before. He ran away a third time, after which his father procured him a tutor, who so far reclaimed him to habits of regularity, that he obtained an appointment in one of the public offices. In 1747, he was elected one of the knights of the shire for the county of Huntingdon; but he does not appear to have in any way distinguished himself as a member of parliament, nor did he long retain his seat, his expenses having so far exceeded his income, that, towards the close of the year 1751, he found it prudent once more to leave England. He proceeded to Paris, where, in a short time, he was imprisoned in the Châtelet for some fraudulent gambling transaction in which he had been concerned; but he soon escaped, or effected his liberation, though by what means is unknown. He published a defence of his conduct, written by himself, in French, against one Abraham Payba, a Jew by birth, who assumed the fictitious name of Roberts; and had it translated into English from an authentic copy, which he transmitted to this country for the purpose. In the parliament which assembled in 1754, he was returned for Bossiney; and, besides some dull communications to the Royal Society, he published a book on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republics, the merit of which was afterwards claimed by his tutor, Mr. Foster. In a word, he seems to have been the offspring of the perplexity of his father's and mother's first position, the victim of their mistake, and privileged to obtain what excuses and comforts he could get from them; which, to do them justice, they generally afforded, though not always in the best manner, or with the right distribution of blame, and the proper allowance on all sides. His father died in the year 1761, at an advanced age, and, by his will, bequeathed to his son a considerable annuity, at the same time empowering him to make a settlement of £800 a year upon any woman
he might marry, and devising to any son of such marriage an estate in the west riding of Yorkshire. It was this clause which gave rise to a story that he had advertised for a wife, promising to marry any widow or single lady, of genteel birth and polished manners, who happened to be five, six, or seven months advanced in pregnancy. That such an advertisement appeared is certain; but then its publication took place in 1776, within a few months of his death, and at a time when he was abroad, circumstances which render the story somewhat improbable. His mother died in the year 1762, and left him only one guinea. He had offended her irreconcilably. But as his father's bequest had rendered him independent, he took a final leave of his native country, passed the remainder of his life in foreign parts, and died at Padua in 1776. Before his death he realized a remarkable prediction of his mother, by becoming first a Catholic and then a Mahomedan, in which latter character he ended his days, with a turban on his head, a long beard, and, it is alleged, a harem into the bargain. He travelled into the East, and wrote some observations on Pompey's Pillar, as it is called, as well as an account of a journey from Cairo to the Gebel Mokattam, or Written Mountains, in the desert of Sinai. He is also said to have published an Explication of the Causes of Earthquakes, though it has not been mentioned at what time, or in what place. His travels in the East occupied several years, during which he underwent his different religious transformations, and ultimately settled down into Mahomedanism, the ceremonies of which he performed with a punctuality savouring of that peculiar derangement which he more or less exemplified in almost every action of his life. (A.)