Family and Education

b. ?1687, 1st s. of Hon. Charles Montagu, M.P., of Durham by his 1st w. Elizabeth, da and coh. of Francis Forster of Belford;1 bro. of Edward and John Montagu. educ. Trinity, Camb. 28 June 1702, aged 14. m. (1) Mary, s.p.; (2) lic. 5 Apr. 1736,2 Penelope, da. of George Hewett of Stretton and Great Glen, Leics., wid. of Sir William Chester, 5th Bt., of Chicheley, Bucks., s.p. suc. fa. 1721; gt.-uncle Nathaniel, Baron Crew of Stene, bp. of Durham, at Newbold Verdon 1721.

Offices Held

Biography

A Whig under Queen Anne, Montagu was associated with his uncle Sidney Wortley in the cartel controlling the Tyneside coal trade in the early eighteenth century.3 Returned for Camelford in 1715, he voted with the Administration except on the peerage bill in 1719, which he opposed. Unsuccessful for Durham in 1722, and growing deaf, he spent the major part of his time at Newbold Verdon, where he made great improvements to the house and grounds. In 1726 he sold the Belford estate, inherited from his mother, for £12,000. He died during a visit to London 30 Oct. 1748,4 leaving Newbold Verdon to his cousin, Edward Wortley.5

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. New Hist. Northumb. i. 229.
• 2. Foster, London Marriage Licences.
• 3. E. Hughes, N. Country Life in 18th Cent. 167-8, 233.
• 4. New Hist. Northumb, i. 392; e. J. Climenson, Elizabeth Montagu, i. 262; Letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu (1809), ii. 303-4.
• 5. PCC 336 Strahan.