Sir Edward Wortley-Montagu was British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, husband of the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and father of the writer and traveller Edward Wortley Montagu.
Background
Son of Sidney Wortley Montagu and grandson of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, a Cambridge graduate and lawyer, Wortley Montagu was educated at Westminster School, Trinity College, Cambridge (1693) and trained in the law at the Middle Temple (1693), was called to the bar in 1699 and entered the Inner Temple in 1706.
Career
He was best known for his correspondence with, seduction of, and elopement with the aristocratic writer, Mary, daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull. He succeeded his father in 1727, inheriting Wortley Hall. Montagu himself was a prominent Whig politician, and was Member of Parliament for Huntingdon before eventually becoming a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1714 to 1715.
He was elected by the Levant Company on the king"s nomination on 10 May 1716.
He arrived at Adrianople on 13 March 1717. He was not Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte in Constantinople before he was recalled in October 1717.
As Ambassador, he was charged with pursuing the ongoing negotiations between the Ottomans and the Habsburg Empire. He left Turkey on 15 July 1718.
Mary married the future Prime Minister, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute.
Membership
1st Parliament of Great Britain. 2nd Parliament of Great Britain. 11th Parliament of Great Britain.
3rd Parliament of Great Britain.
6th Parliament of Great Britain. 7th Parliament of Great Britain.
8th Parliament of Great Britain. 9th Parliament of Great Britain.
10th Parliament of Great Britain.
5th Parliament of Great Britain]
Upon his return from Constantinople, he fell out with the Whig hierarchy but remained a Member of Parliament for Huntingdon (1722–1734) and Peterborough (1734 until his death in 1761).