Edward Wortley Montagu

Edward Wortley Montagu, born 1750, illegitimate son of the traveller, diplomat and gambler of the same name, has a memorial tablet in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey.

Life

He was the grandson of Edward Wortley Montagu (1678-1761) M.P. and Ambassador to Constantinople, and his wife Lady Mary (Pierrepont) the famous hostess and writer (she was buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden). Like his grandfather and father he was educated at Westminster School where he was a King's Scholar. In 1768 he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford and then became a Cadet with the East India Company. On arrival at Fort St George he joined the infantry. He resigned in 1777 to return home when he heard of his father's death (which happened on 29th April 1776 in Italy) but he never reached England. He had requested that the profits from the sale to Dolben of his father's manuscripts be given to the Dame who had looked after him while at school, Mrs Anne Burgess.

Monument

The monument was put up in 1787 and is of artificial stone by E.M. Coade. It consists of a sarcophagus supported on paws, with a garlanded urn on top. In a roundel is a seated figure and the Latin inscription can be translated:

"This monument was erected to Edward Wortley Montagu, who was shipwrecked while returning to Britain from the East Indies in 1777 in his 27th year, by John English Dolben, heir to the aforementioned Edward's library, and his joint residuary legatee, in memory of a friendship which began at the neighbouring royal school [Westminster School], continued without interruption at Oxford, was not diminished though half the world lay between, was hardly broken even by death, and which, if it pleases God, shall be renewed in Heaven".