John Montagu Biography, Life, Interesting Facts Early Life & Family. John Montagu was born in the district of Chiswick, England, on November 13, 1718. His father was Edward Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and his mother was Elizabeth Popham. He had two sisters, named Mary and Elizabeth. He had two brothers, named Edward and William. The sandwich as we know it was popularized in England in 1762 by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. Legend has it, and most food historians agree, that Montagu had a substantial gambling.

John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), played an important role in the history of the Royal Navy from 1744 to 1782, which included the American War of Independence and the discovery of Australia and islands of the Pacific Ocean. He supported Captain Cook's exploratory voyages and, in return, Cook named the Sandwich Islands for him. Montagu worked extremely long hours in his various government posts and often ate salted beef between toast at his desk, thus giving birth to the sandwich.

Born into a position of nobility, John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich was not handed an ideal life. He was born on November 13, 1718, to Edward Richard Montagu, viscount Hinchinbroke and Elizabeth Popham Montagu. His father died when he was four years old. His grandfather, the third earl, was feebleminded and eventually confined to the Yorkshire home of his uncle, Wortley Montagu, to whom he had mortgaged his estates. His mother appears to have abandoned John and sent him to Eton at the age of seven. She remarried when he was nine and he and his brother William became wards of the Court of Chancery. His grandfather died just before his eleventh birthday. He became the fourth Earl of Sandwich at age ten but had little money to back up the title. His younger brother William was sent to sea at the age of eleven. His grandmother, the countess, had gone to Paris to support the exiled Stuart dynasty and taken what was left of the family's money. His grandmother threatened to disinherit him if he supported King George II, and his friends were suspicious of him because of his connections to the exiled Stuarts.

Schooling and Travel

John Montague Poems

Public schools in the eighteenth century were not bastions of learning. Montagu proved to be the exception. He had a first class mind and emerged as head of the fifth form in 1732. When he left Eton he had a thorough knowledge of Latin and a working knowledge of Greek. He attributed his success to his tutor Dr. Summer. In April 1735 Montagu entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained for two years. He left without a degree and began a grand tour of Europe. He spent a year in France and then proceeded to Italy, Greece, the Greek islands, Turkey, Smyrna, Egypt, Malta, Spain, and Gibraltar. This journey was quite impressive, as most English nobles did not venture much beyond France and Italy at that time. Seven years after his death a book which may have been his journal was published under the title A Voyage Performed by the LateEarl of Sandwich Round the Mediterranean in the Years 1738 and 1739.

Montagu met Dorothy Fane while he was in Florence, Italy, in 1737 through her brother the Honorable Charles Fane, the British minister at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. They were married on March 3, 1741, in St. Margaret's, Westminster. Friends and acquaintances declared that they were an admirable pair who lived modestly and avoided the temptations of the fashionable world. The couple had five children. Their eldest child, John, was born in 1742 and died soon afterward. His second son and heir, also John, was born in 1744, Edward was born in June 1745, Mary in February 1748, and William Agustus in February 1752. After this Lady Sandwich's mind began to decline and ultimately the two separated in 1755. She was declared insane by the Court of Chancery and became a ward of the court.

Joined House of Lords

Montagu joined the House of Lords in 1739 upon his return to England from his European travels and threw himself into party politics. He became a friend of the Duke of Bedford who appointed him a lord commissioner of the admiralty. In August of 1745 Montagu was sent to Holland on a mission, and soon was appointed captain in the Duke of Bedford's regiment. He became an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Bedford on September 27 and a colonel in the army on October 4, all in the same year. He also became a second colonel in the Duke of Montagu's foot regiment on November 22, 1745. By the time of his death he was a senior general on the list. It is probable that his military service was nominal as he was frequently absent from England on diplomatic missions and was involved with the admiralty. He had a capacity for hard work and ran the admiralty with efficiency in the absence of the Duke of Bedford. In July 1746 Montagu was nominated plenipotentiary at the conferences at Breda and continued in that post until 1748 when the treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle was completed. The French thought they could take advantage of him because of his youth, but he was smart and represented his country well.

When the Duke of Bedford was promoted to the post of secretary of state, Montagu became first lord of the admiralty. He delegated his duties to Lord George Anson who proceeded to clean up the dockyards and naval establishments. Anson also regulated the discipline of the navy with the support of Montagu. His career at the admiralty was derailed when Bedford got into a political fight with the Duke of Newcastle. King George II notified Montagu that his services were no longer needed and he returned to his home on June 12, 1751, and was out of political life until 1755 when he was appointed joint vice-treasurer of Ireland, along with two others. He held this office until 1763.

Invented the Sandwich

After Montagu separated from his mentally ill wife, his reputation was sullied. A story was spread in Grosley's Tour of London that a minister of state gambled for twenty-four hours with only a piece of beef between two slices of toasted bread. The new dish was named after the minister who invented it. There is no evidence that Montagu engaged in heavy gambling. He did bet on cricket and a few other sports, but there is no record anywhere of excessive betting. The truth is that he was extremely fond of salt beef. He worked long hours when he was a cabinet minister in 1765 and often missed dinner, which at that time was served at 4:00 p.m., but there is no doubt that he did invent the sandwich.

John Wilkes also attempted to destroy Montagu's reputation with lies and half truths about a club that they belonged to called the Medmenham along with the Earl of March, Sir Francis Dashwood, and others. Apparently the men engaged in some scandalous behavior involving women, offensive poetry, and blasphemy. Wilkes was eventually prosecuted and convicted of blasphemy, but Montagu's name never quite recovered from the scandal. He was even immortalized in the play The Beggar's Opera as Jemmy Twitcher. He was considered sinful, greedy, ambitious, and vain. This depiction of his character did not seem to bother Montagu in the least. He continued to live his life as he pleased. The men who counted were pleased with his defense against Wilkes and welcomed him back into politics after an absence of twelve years.

A more balanced picture of Montagu may have been given by an old friend of his, Lady Mary Fitzgerald. According to her, Montagu needed ambition and vanity in order to succeed. He had a penetrating intelligence, a good understanding of character, and the ability to work with thosearound him. He had excellent judgment and the ability to foresee difficulties. He liked to be flattered but understood it for what it was. He tended to be either too formal or too familiar. He was happiest when his head ruled his heart. Physically, as shown in the famous Gainsborough painting, Montagu was a big tall man who was somewhat awkward. He had a reputation for breaking china and had a shambling gait that made it appear that he was walking down both sides of the road at once.

Montagu loved classical music, especially Handel, and played the drums in the Hinchingbrooke Orchestra. He founded the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club, a group that promoted the writing of cannons, catches, and rounds and which continues to exist. He was considered the most important and influential amateur musician of eighteenth-century England. Through his interest in music, he met his longtime mistress, Martha Ray, when she was a seventeen-year-old milliner's apprentice. She had an excellent voice that he proceeded to have trained by the best teachers of the day. She sang most of the female solos in his orchestra. She also bore him five children. Divorce was not allowed in the eighteenth century except by a private act of parliament, and Montagu did not have the money and was concerned about public opinion. The two lived together for seventeen years as man and wife and Montagu's life was happy and stable. However, Martha Ray wanted Montagu to make a settlement on her and her children so that they would be protected if he died. He did not have the money, so she may have had an affair with James Hackman, who wanted to marry her. She refused and he shot her in the head on the steps of Covent Garden in 1779. Montagu was devastated and did not appear at social events for a long time.

Returned to the Admiralty

Under the Duke of Grafton, Montagu accepted the office of postmaster-general in January 1768 where he served alternate months with Lord de Spencer. Between them they increased the efficiency of the post office. In December 1770 he became one of Lord North's secretary of states. On January 12, 1771, Montagu returned to the admiralty as first lord where he remained for eleven years. He returned to an admiralty in chaos. The dockyards were in disrepair, the ships were suffering from dry rot, and there was not enough English wood to make repairs. The English were embarking on the American war at this time and did not have enough good ships to fight America and her European allies. The most important decision Montagu made in his career in the admiralty was to hire Captain Charles Middleton to reform the navy. During Montagu's tenure at the admiralty a great deal of bribery and stealing apparently occurred, but modern research has proved that Montagu was not personally involved and probably had little knowledge of these events. The American War for Independence was lost partly due to an inefficient navy under his watch, but it is also true that Canada, India, and the West Indies would not have remained in the English sphere without Montagu's work in rebuilding the English fleet.

Supported Captain Cook's Explorations

During Montagu's tenure at the admiralty, England became interested in all things below the equator. Montagu was especially interested in the Pacific voyages of Captain James Cook. When Cook proposed a voyage to discover whether Terra Australis existed, Montagu supported him and helped get his ships outfitted in 1778. Cook named the Sandwich Islands after him.

After the fall of North as prime minister, Montagu returned to private life. He continued to promote ancient music and entertain at Hinchingbrooke. Lack of money and bills to pay followed him until his death in 1792. His lasting contribution to England was the reform of naval administration which enabled England to rule the seas for the next hundred years.

Books

The Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, Oxford University Press, 1960.

Rodger, N. A. M., Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich 1717-1792, W.W. Norton and Company, 1993.

1719-95. He was the fourth born son of ten children to James Montagu of Lackham, Wiltshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Eyles of Southbroom, Bishop’s Canning, Wiltshire. His father was a cousin of the Earl of Sandwich, and Montagu was the father of Admiral Sir George Montagu and Captain James Montagu, being predeceased by the latter. A third son, Edward Montagu, 1755-99, died serving with the Army at the Siege of Seringapatam.

Montagu entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in August 1733 and then served in home waters aboard the Yarmouth 70, Captain James Poole, the Dreadnought 60, Captain Henry Medley, the Chatham guardship Dragon 60, Captain Curtis Barnett, which later went out to the Mediterranean, and the Dolphin 20, Captain Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, which was also employed on that station.

John Montague Baseball

On 22 December 1740 he was commissioned lieutenant, and he was present at the Battle of Toulon on 11 February 1744 aboard the Buckingham 70, Captain John Towry. During the court martial into the conduct of Vice-Admiral Richard Lestock, Montagu was prominent amongst those who condemned his senior officer, and under interrogation from Lestock was accused of speaking on the instruction of the Buckingham’s captain. Montagu’s response was that ‘I never ask any man’s opinion but my own. I always considered Vice-Admiral Lestock’s conduct on that day unlike an officer’s and always said so.’ He subsequently served aboard the Namur 90, Captain William Dilke, the flagship of Admiral Thomas Mathews.

On 2 March 1745 he was promoted commander, commissioning the new sloop Hinchingbrooke 10 for service in the Downs, and serving in a squadron under the orders of Vice-Admiral William Martin in the Channel which put into Plymouth in August with several prizes.

The controversial execution of Admiral John Byng was supervised by Captain Montagu

On 15 January 1746 Montagu was posted captain of the Rose 20 which he commanded until August, and in October his new command, the Ambuscade 40, brought the Calais privateer St. Nicholas 10 into Plymouth after capturing her off the Eddystone. In January 1747, when putting out of Plymouth Sound to join Vice-Admiral George Anson’s fleet, the Ambuscade sprung her mainmast and was thrust ashore where she remained for five hours before being carried off in a swell and returned to dock for repairs. He then commanded this vessel under Anson at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on 3 May 1747, leaving her shortly afterwards.

Following the cessation of hostilities Montagu was employed in commissioning the new Greenwich 50 in the spring of 1748. In April he transferred to the Bristol 50 in succession to his namesake, Captain Hon. William Montague, and he retained this vessel until she was paid off in September after returning to Portsmouth from Lisbon with specie.

In July 1749 the guardship Kent 64 was ordered to be manned and act as a guardship at Portsmouth under Montagu’s orders, but in the same month he moved to the new Mermaid 20, sailing to Boston that August with silver coin to indemnify the colonies for expenses incurred in the reduction of Cape Breton. In October he arrived at Lisbon, and in January 1750 reached Portsmouth from the Portuguese capital and Cadiz, having brought home a great deal of money. Shortly afterwards he exchanged with Captain John Campbell back into the Kent at Portsmouth where he remained until the end of 1752. In January 1753 he recommissioned the Port Mahon 20, going out to Newfoundland and New York and leaving her in January 1754

In February 1755 Montagu recommissioned the Elizabeth 64 at Portsmouth, being attached to Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hawke’s Grand Fleet in the summer, and serving with Vice-Admiral Hon. Edward Boscawen for most of 1756 in the Bay of Biscay. At the end of the year the Elizabeth came under orders for the East Indies, whereupon Montagu resigned the command in favour of Captain Richard Kempenfelt.

He was next appointed to the French-built Monarch 74 at Portsmouth in January 1757, and one of his first duties was the appalling one of having to supervise the confinement and execution of Vice-Admiral Hon John Byng aboard the Monarch on 14 March. His command then went out to the Mediterranean in May, and on 28 February 1758, when in company with the Montagu 60, Captain Joshua Rowley, she drove the Oriflamme 50 ashore at the Battle of Cartagena, with only Spanish neutrality preventing them from finishing the French vessel off. The Monarch returned to Spithead from Gibraltar with a convoy on 21 July after a thirty-one-day passage, and after taking a further convoy around to the Downs in August he left her shortly afterwards.

In February 1759 Montagu commissioned the French prize Raisonnable 64 for the Navy, going out to the Leeward Islands in April to join Commodore John Moore’s squadron. He exchanged with Captain Molyneux Shuldham into the Panther 60 in July and departed Barbados that month with a convoy and several other men-of-war to arrive at St. Helens in early October, prior to being succeeded by Captain Philip Affleck in December. An immediate appointment to the Terrible 74 was prematurely curtailed when she was ordered around to Chatham to be broken up.

He thereafter had the Newark 80 in the Grand Fleet from April 1760, going out of Portsmouth on 7 June to join Admiral Hon. Edward Boscawen in Quiberon Bay for what was a very uneventful couple of months, and returning to Portsmouth from that station via Plymouth where she had deposited a prize in September. Shortly afterwards she was ordered into dock for an expeditious refit, in the course of which some of her crew took up cutlasses and fought over several evenings on Gosport Beach with men from the Deptford 60, Captain John Hollwall, and the recently paid-off Marlborough 80. Such was the level of violence, despite the attempted interventions of the officers, that several men lost hands or arms, and over twenty were hospitalised. At the beginning of November the Newark sailed around to the Downs where she acted as a guardship over the winter and into the following spring.

From April 1761 Montagu commanded the Princess Amelia 80, in which he attempted to sail from St. Helens in May but was forced back several times by foul winds before finally getting away to Plymouth at the end of the month. She then joined the fleet off Brest where the French showed little inclination of wanting to come out, and was later with Admiral Sir Edward Hawke in the Bay of Biscay. Whilst on this station in late 1761 a change in wind direction saved her from possible destruction by a fireship attack in the Basque Roads.

In June 1762 he exchanged into the Magnanime 74, which had formerly been commanded so brilliantly by Captain Lord Howe, and he joined the fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke that sailed for Lisbon on the 25th of that month. At the end of September he joined a small squadron that was sent out from St. Helens under the orders of the Duke of York in search of five French ships that were known to be returning from Cap François, and he then joined Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Hardy’s fleet in the Bay of Biscay which entered Plymouth at the end of October before putting out again. On 19 December the Magnanime sailed from Portsmouth for Plymouth and she was paid off in January 1763

In May 1763, with the Seven Years War coming to an end, Montagu recommissioned the Dragon 74 at Portsmouth as a guardship, retaining her for three years, and after a period of unemployment he was appointed to her sister ship and Portsmouth guardship Bellona 74 in July 1769.

Having been promoted rear-admiral on 18 October 1770, Montagu kissed hands with the King in the following January on being appointed commander-in-chief in the Downs, where it was intended that he would fly his flag aboard the Sandwich 90, Captain Thomas Symonds. However, within the month he was appointed the commander-in-chief in North America in succession to Commodore James Gambier, and with several other men-of-war in company he departed England in June aboard the Captain 70, Captain Symonds, reaching Madeira on the last day of the month, and arriving at Boston on 12 August. During this voyage he suffered so severely from gout of the stomach that there was some concern for his life, but providentially the gout sunk to his feet and he was preserved.

Montagu played a leading role in the court-martial of Admiral Keppel in 1779 and his perceptive questioning contributed greatly to his friend’s acquittal.

In 1772 he had to send home the disagreeable news of the burning of the schooner Gaspee at Providence, Rhode Island, whilst such was his suppression of the smuggling trade there that the residents would allow no officers ashore. Remaining on the North American station until returning to Spithead from Halifax in July 1774 with his flag still aboard the Captain 70, Captain Symonds, Montagu’s tenure allowed him to dramatically advance the careers of his young sons.

He was further promoted a vice-admiral on 3 February 1776, and was appointed commander-in-chief and lieutenant-governor at Newfoundland in March, this being of some concern to Vice-Admiral Lord Howe, three months his junior in terms of seniority, who had been appointed to the more important North American station. Sailing from St. Helens in early April with his flag aboard the Romney 50, Captain Elliott Salter, Montagu chose to supplement the force relieving Quebec at some risk to Newfoundland, and on returning to London in November he made plain his concern at the affect that American privateers supported by the French was having on his station’s trade.

During 1777 Montagu’s flagship Romney, in which he sailed for Newfoundland in April, was commanded by his son George. Prior to his return to Newfoundland in 1778 he briefly flew his flag aboard the Europa 64, Captain Francis Parry, in order to attend the King’s review of the fleet at Spithead in May. He then sailed later that month in the same vessel for Newfoundland, where after eventually arriving at St. John’s on 25 July he re-joined his son aboard the Romney. As soon as he learned that Britain was at war with France Montagu detached Commodore John Evans to take the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon on 14 September, and he returned to Portsmouth aboard the Europa on 20 November.

In January 1779 he sat on the court martial of Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel which considered that officer’s conduct at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, and his keen inquisitiveness saw him took a leading part in the proceedings which resulted in the popular admiral being acquitted. Following the trial he attended a ball hosted by Keppel’s supporters where his daughter opened the country dance with the Duke of Cumberland, and in April he welcomed the admiral to his residence near Portsmouth at Fareham.

At the end of 1779 it was reported that Montagu had refused the offer of a command by the Admiralty, but with the change of government in March 1782 he attended a levee and was promoted admiral on 8 April.

In April 1783 he raised his flag aboard the Triumph 74, Captain Philip Affleck, as the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth following his appointment by the new first lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Keppel, transferring it in the following month to the Queen 98, Captain John Wainwright. He struck his flag for the last time on 22 April 1786 and thereafter retired to his house at Fareham where he died on 7 September 1795.

On 2 December 1748 Montagu married Sophia Wroughton of Wilcot, Wiltshire and in addition to his three sons mentioned above had one daughter and an elder son, John, who became a fellow of All Souls at Oxford and died in 1818. Until 1749 he spelt his name as Mountagu. He greatly enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Sandwich, and in 1747 he deputised for that nobleman’s brother-in-law at his election for Huntingdon prior to being elected for the borough himself in March 1748. He retained the seat until 1754 when on Sandwich’s advice he declined to stand for re-election.

He was regarded as being of great integrity and benevolent, as in January 1771 when he gifted a bullock and bread to the poor of Cosham in Portsmouth, but could also be intemperate, foul-mouthed and base, being prone to complaining somewhat irreverently of his wife’s bulk.