BIOGRAPHY
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née, Pierrepoint) was born c. 1689 and died in 1762. In a time when women were being “groomed for matrimony” (Porter, 26), Lady Mary taught herself in her father’s library at Thoresby Hall. At the young age of fourteen her writings included “poems, a brief epistolary novel, and a prose-and-verse romance” (Grundy). Lady Mary’s fame lies in her correspondence. Over the years she wrote many letters and a number of these letters were to her friend, Anne Wortley. Anne also acted as the go-between for her brother and Lady Mary’s letters to each other (Symonds, 22). After Anne died in 1710, Edward Wortley Montagu continued writing to Lady Mary. He presented himself as a suitor for Lady Mary but her father rejected him because Montagu refused to bequeath his estate to his “hypothetical future eldest son” (Grundy). This did not stop Lady Mary from continuing her correspondence with Montagu and after pressure from her father to marry Clotworthy Skeffington, she eloped and married Montagu on 23 August 1712 (Grundy). After a few years of marriage, Lady Mary had a son and her first work was published. It was a piece published in 1714 under the pseudonym ‘Lady President” for the Spectator.
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Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her Son
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The first few years of marriage were much different than those after 1715 particularly because of the political backdrop. England at the time was under Stuart rule, a time of parliamentary tensions and constitutional changes (Symonds, 200). When Queen Anne died in 1714, George I ascended and the Whigs came to power again. Hence, “the Montagus and Pierrepoints shared in the general Whiggish prosperity” (Symonds, 201). Lady Mary became one of the most popular women at court and befriended George I as well as the Prince of Wales (Grundy). It was around this time that she became friends with people like Alexander Pope and John Gay. They shared manuscripts of their satirical poems about life at court (called “court eclogues”) and this caused trouble for Lady Mary when she fell ill with smallpox in December 1715 (Grundy).
The court eclogues were pirated and published by Edmund Curll under the title Court Poems when Lady Mary was ill (Birch). The authorship of the poems included in the court eclogues is a matter of contention but Halsband provides evidence of Lady Mary having written “The Drawing Room” (243). This poem caused scandal and controversy because it satirized Princess Caroline of Wales. Halsband describes the poem:
The court eclogues were pirated and published by Edmund Curll under the title Court Poems when Lady Mary was ill (Birch). The authorship of the poems included in the court eclogues is a matter of contention but Halsband provides evidence of Lady Mary having written “The Drawing Room” (243). This poem caused scandal and controversy because it satirized Princess Caroline of Wales. Halsband describes the poem:
It is a long querulous complaint… The Princes, who is flattered in perfunctory fashion, is in effect criticized for encouraging the immoral tone and pastimes at her court. As satire it was a daring, even dangerous poem… the court circles in which Lady Mary… moved knew its true author. (Halsband, 243)
Grundy also references the court eclogues: "One of these was read as an attack on Princess Caroline (a reading which disregards the fact that the ‘attack’ is voiced by a character who is heavily satirized)." Thus, Lady Mary’s disgrace at court may have tipped the scales in the balance for her decision to travel with her husband who, by 1716, had ceased being Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and become an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. They left London in August 1716, travelled across Europe and “reached Turkey in spring 1717” (Grundy). Lady Mary begins writing her Turkish Embassy Letters and when the Wortley Montagus return to England the following year, she “seems not to have taken up her court career with the same seriousness as before” and her friendship with Pope also turned sour in the years following her return (Grundy). The cause of the rift is unclear but some scholars point towards a letter by Lady Louisa Stuart (Lady Mary’s granddaughter) which suggests Pope’s romantic advances eliciting scorn from Lady Mary. Lady Mary’s contempt is said to have ignited the rivalry between the two (see this paper for more on the trajectory of their conflict).
However, the most noteworthy aspect of Lady Mary’s return was her introduction of the Turkish practice of inoculation to England. Inoculation was a new and controversial concept to the English and Lady Mary worked with Charles Maitland to inoculate her kids during the smallpox epidemic. The practice gained popularity and by 1721, she had acquired the interest and permission of Princess Caroline to test the treatment (Grundy). This prompted outrage against Lady Mary whose actions were opposed by the general public (partially influenced by the clergy). People were opposed towards a practice which they deemed came “from an unnatural mother who had risked the lives of her own children” (Symonds, 304). Ecclesiastical figures had also opposed Lady Mary for her “impiety” at attempting to try and change preordained events (Symonds, 304). Although appreciation came far after the fact, Lady Mary was able to triumph because in 1722 she convinced the King to inoculate the heir to the throne (Frederick the Prince of Wales) (Potter, Jan. 9).
From the late 1720s to the 1730s Lady Mary’s personal and social life took many turns. Pope’s attacks on her character continued and, in an ironic twist of fate, Lady Mary had to deal with her niece’s elopement. These years are sparsely documented but we know of Lady Mary’s difficulties in dealing with hostility from her son and the fact that her daughter’s suitor was not what Lord Montagu wanted (Grundy). In 1736, her daughter married Lord Bute and Lady Mary fell in love with a Venetian count, Francesco Algarotti. From then on (until she left England in pursuit of Algarotti (1739) she continued writing. One of her works for this period is the anonymous periodical the Nonsense of Common-Sense (1737-8) (Birch). This was a work in opposition to the “anti-government journal Common Sense” (Grundy) and in it she addresses topics “in women’s writing, such as industrial wages, interest rates, and censorship” (Grundy).
Lady Mary spent the last few years of her life living in France and Italy before returning to England (1761). She wrote many letters to Algarotti and left for Italy trying to pursue him but her plans never came to fruition. Lady Mary held a weekly salon in Venice and became ingrained in Venetian society. Lady Mary moved to different places within Europe (mainly within France and Italy) as wars broke out in the later half of the 18th century. She was unable to return to England and wrote many letters to her daughter on topics such as female education and her life amongst the inhabitants of the areas she lived in (Grundy). 1762 finally saw Lady Mary’s return to England. At this point in life, Lady Mary was suffering from advanced breast cancer which was the only thing that kept her from going back to Italy. She died on 21 August 1762 (Grundy).
From the late 1720s to the 1730s Lady Mary’s personal and social life took many turns. Pope’s attacks on her character continued and, in an ironic twist of fate, Lady Mary had to deal with her niece’s elopement. These years are sparsely documented but we know of Lady Mary’s difficulties in dealing with hostility from her son and the fact that her daughter’s suitor was not what Lord Montagu wanted (Grundy). In 1736, her daughter married Lord Bute and Lady Mary fell in love with a Venetian count, Francesco Algarotti. From then on (until she left England in pursuit of Algarotti (1739) she continued writing. One of her works for this period is the anonymous periodical the Nonsense of Common-Sense (1737-8) (Birch). This was a work in opposition to the “anti-government journal Common Sense” (Grundy) and in it she addresses topics “in women’s writing, such as industrial wages, interest rates, and censorship” (Grundy).
Lady Mary spent the last few years of her life living in France and Italy before returning to England (1761). She wrote many letters to Algarotti and left for Italy trying to pursue him but her plans never came to fruition. Lady Mary held a weekly salon in Venice and became ingrained in Venetian society. Lady Mary moved to different places within Europe (mainly within France and Italy) as wars broke out in the later half of the 18th century. She was unable to return to England and wrote many letters to her daughter on topics such as female education and her life amongst the inhabitants of the areas she lived in (Grundy). 1762 finally saw Lady Mary’s return to England. At this point in life, Lady Mary was suffering from advanced breast cancer which was the only thing that kept her from going back to Italy. She died on 21 August 1762 (Grundy).