John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu

John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, KG, GMB, PC (1690 – 5 July 1749), styled Viscount Monthermer until 1705 and Marquess of Monthermer between 1705 and 1709, was a British peer.


The Duke of Montagu

KG, GMB, PC
The 2nd Duke of Montagu, Godfrey Kneller, 1709
Duke of Montagu
Reign
1709 – 5 July 1749
PredecessorRalph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu
SuccessorExtinct
Born1690
Died(1749-07-05)5 July 1749
Spouse(s)Lady Mary Churchill
Issue
FatherRalph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu
MotherElizabeth Wriothesley
Coat of arms of John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, KG, GMB, PC

Life

Montagu was a son of Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, by his first wife Elizabeth Wriothesley. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton and Lady Elizabeth Leigh.[1]

Montagu went on the grand tour with Pierre Sylvestre. On 17 March 1705, John was married to Lady Mary Churchill, daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.[2]

On 23 October 1717, Montagu was admitted a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.[1] He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1719, and was made Order of the Bath, a fellow of the Royal Society in 1725, and a Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England.

On 22 June 1722, George I appointed Montagu governor of the islands of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent in the West Indies. He in turn appointed Nathaniel Uring, a merchant sea captain and adventurer, as deputy-governor. Uring went to the islands with a group of seven ships, and established settlement at Petit Carenage. Unable to get enough support from British warships, he and the new colonists were quickly run off by the French.[3]

In 1739, the country's first home for abandoned children, the Foundling Hospital was created in London. Montagu was a supporter of this effort and was one of the charity's founding governors. He also financed the education of two notable Black British figures of the age, Ignatius Sancho (a butler at his Blackheath home, Montagu House) and Francis Williams, allegedly sending the latter to Cambridge University (the university has no record of him having studied there).[2]

In 1745, Montagu raised a cavalry regiment known as Montagu's Carabineers, which, however, was disbanded after the Battle of Culloden.[1]

Montagu was a notorious practical joker, his mother-in-law writing of him that "All his talents lie in things only natural in boys of fifteen years old, and he is about two and fifty; to get people into his garden and wet them with squirts, and to invite people to his country houses and put things in beds to make them itch, and twenty such pretty fancies as these."[4]

Montagu is said to have once dunked the political philosopher Montesquieu in a tub of cold water as a joke.[5]

Montagu's country place, Boughton House, Northamptonshire, was laid out by him as a miniature Versailles, and now belonging to the Buccleuch family. After his death, his town residence, Montagu House, Bloomsbury, on the present site of the British Museum, received and for many years held the national collections, which under the name of the British Museum were first opened to the public in 1759.[1]

Children

Montagu and his wife, Lady Mary Churchill, were parents to five children:

Succession

As none of Montagu's sons survived him, his titles became extinct upon his death in 1749. His estates were inherited by his daughter Mary, whose husband, George Brudenell, 4th Earl of Cardigan assumed the name and arms of Montagu, and in 1766 was created 1st Duke of Montagu (second creation). In 1790 this second creation dukedom of Montagu also became extinct; his only son (who had been created Baron Montagu of Boughton) having predeceased him. His daughter Elizabeth married Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, 5th Duke of Queensberry who thus acquired all the unentailed property of the Dukes of Montagu.

Notes

  1. Chichester 1894.
  2. Metzger 2004.
  3. Chichester 1894 Uring, Nathaniel (1725). A relation of the late intended settlement of the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent in America: in right of the Duke of Montagu, and under His Grace's direction and orders, in the year 1722. London [England]: Printed for J. Peele, at Locke's Head in Pater-noster Row.
  4. quoted in Martin C. Battestin's "General Introduction" to Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews. Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1967: xxvin. Montagu is believed by some literary critics to be the model for Fielding's "roasting squire," the vicious squire who plays practical jokes.
  5. Battestin, xxivn.

Attribution

References

Political offices
Preceded by
The Earl of Burlington
Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners
1734–1740
Succeeded by
The Duke of Bolton
Court offices
Preceded by
The Duke of Montagu
Master of the Great Wardrobe
1709–1749
Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Robinson
Military offices
Preceded by
The Lord Ashburnham
Captain and Colonel of
His Majesty's Own Troop of Horse Guards

1715–1721
Succeeded by
Lord Herbert
Preceded by
The Earl of Westmorland
Captain and Colonel of
His Majesty's Own Troop of Horse Guards

1737
Succeeded by
The Lord De La Warr
Preceded by
The 2nd Duke of Argyll
Master-General of the Ordnance
1740–1742
Succeeded by
The 2nd Duke of Argyll
Preceded by
William Evans
Colonel of The Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards
1740–1749
Succeeded by
Sir John Ligonier
Preceded by
The 2nd Duke of Argyll
Master-General of the Ordnance
1742–1749
Vacant
Title next held by
The Duke of Marlborough
Masonic offices
Preceded by
George Payne
Grand Master of the Premier
Grand Lodge of England

1721–1723
Succeeded by
The Duke of Wharton
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Peterborough
Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire
1715–1749
Succeeded by
The Earl of Halifax
Preceded by
The Earl of Northampton
Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire
1715–1749
Succeeded by
The Earl Brooke
New title Great Master of the Order of the Bath
1725–1749
Vacant
Title next held by
Prince Frederick,
Duke of York and Albany
Preceded by
The Earl of Macclesfield
Custos Rotulorum of Warwickshire
1728–1749
Succeeded by
The Earl Brooke
Preceded by
The Earl of Westmorland
Custos Rotulorum of Northamptonshire
1735–1749
Succeeded by
The Earl of Halifax
Preceded by
The Duke of Bolton
Governor of the Isle of Wight
1733–1734
Succeeded by
John Wallop, 1st Earl of Portsmouth
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Ralph Montagu
Duke of Montagu
1st creation
1709–1749
Extinct
Baron Montagu of Boughton
1st creation
1709–1749

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