Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

15 May 1689 – 21 August 1762

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was an English aristocrat, poet, and letter writer, best known for her Turkish Embassy Letters describing life in the Ottoman Empire. Having observed smallpox inoculation in Constantinople, she pioneered its introduction to Britain by having her own children variolated, decades before Jenner's vaccine.

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Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Life events

Born in London
15 May 1689

Mary Pierrepont was born on 15 May 1689, eldest child of Evelyn Pierrepont, later Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Self-educated in her father's library at Thoresby Hall
c. 1700

She taught herself Latin and read widely in her father's library, an unusual education for a girl of her era.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Eloped with and married Edward Wortley Montagu
August 1712

Defying her father's choice of suitor, she eloped with Edward Wortley Montagu in August 1712.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Survived smallpox
December 1715

She contracted smallpox in 1715, which scarred her face; her brother had died of the disease two years earlier.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Traveled to Constantinople as wife of the British ambassador
August 1716 – 1718

She accompanied her husband on his embassy to the Ottoman Empire, recording her observations in the letters later published as the Turkish Embassy Letters.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Had her son inoculated against smallpox in Constantinople
March 1718

In March 1718 she had her young son variolated by the embassy surgeon Charles Maitland, after observing the Ottoman practice.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Other ✓
Championed smallpox inoculation in England
April 1721

During the 1721 epidemic she had her daughter publicly inoculated in London, helping introduce variolation to Britain.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Left England to live on the Continent
July 1739 – 1762

In 1739 she left England, initially in pursuit of Francesco Algarotti, and lived for over two decades in Italy and France.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Returned to London
January 1762

After her husband's death she returned to England in January 1762, already ill with breast cancer.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Died in London
21 August 1762

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu died of breast cancer on 21 August 1762; her Turkish Embassy Letters were published the following year.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓