MONTAGU, Edward Wortley, only son of Edward Wortley Montagu, Esq., and Lady Mary, the subject of the preceding article, was born at Wharncliffe in Yorkshire in October 1713. 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, having bound himself, by regular indenture, to a poor fisherman. 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,
Montaigne, who, supposing him a friendless boy, treated him with great kindness and humanity. He had scarcely landed at Oporto, however, when he ran away, and contrived to get employment for two or three years in tending 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 soon effected his escape. In the Parliament which assembled in 1754 he was returned for Bosciney. 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. His father died in the year 1761, at an advanced age, and by his will bequeathed to his son a considerable annuity. His mother died in the year 1762, and left him only one guinea. He had offended her irreconcilably by his misconduct. 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 became first a Catholic and then a Mohammedan, in which latter character he ended his days. He travelled in the East; and among other pieces is said to have published an Explanation of the Causes of Earthquakes.