Edward Wortley Montagu (traveller)

Edward Wortley Montagu (15 May 1713 – 29 April 1776) was an English author and traveller.

He was the son of Edward Wortley Montagu, MP and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose talent and eccentricity he seems to have inherited. In 1716 he was taken by his parents to Constantinople, and at Pera in March 1716-17 was inoculated for smallpox, being the first native of the United Kingdom to undergo the operation.

On the return of his parents to England in 1718 he was placed at Westminster School, from which he ran away more than once. On the first occasion in July 1726, he was traced to Oxford, and was with difficulty 'reduced to the humble condition of a school-boy.' He decamped again in August 1727, and was not recovered for some months. Two similar escapades are mentioned by his tutor, Forster, chaplain to the Duchess of Kingston, but without dates. The first ended in his discovery, after a year's absence, selling fish in Blackwall; on the second occasion he worked his passage out to Oporto, deserted, went up country, and found employment in the vineyards, but returning to Oporto in charge of some asses, was arrested at the instance of the British consul, brought back to his ship, identified and restored to his parents by the master.

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 many years later to prosecute his studies. His father made him a meagre allowance, and he was heavily encumbered with debt.

He served in the British army from 1743-1748, first as a cornet in the 7th Dragoon Guards and later as a captain-lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Foot. He fought at the Battle of Fontenoy. He left the army in 1748. He thereafter traveled in various parts for many years, writing brief diary notes of his travels along with occasional sketches; and finally returned to his studies in 1769.

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