Lady Montagu
Mary Wortley Montagu
An English aristocrat and woman of letters of the 18th century, Mary Wortley Montagu accompanied her husband, an ambassador, to Constantinople. There she discovered variolation and introduced it to Western Europe, saving countless lives before Jenner's development of the vaccine.
Famous Quotes
« I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England. »
« Turkish women are perhaps the only free women in the universe. »
Key Facts
- 1689: born in London into an aristocratic family
- 1716–1718: resided in Constantinople as the wife of the British ambassador
- 1718: had her son Edward inoculated against smallpox using the Ottoman practice
- 1721: had her daughter inoculated in England, helping to spread variolation across Europe
- 1762: died in London, leaving behind a major body of epistolary writing on the East
Works & Achievements
A collection of letters describing her diplomatic stay in the Ottoman Empire, including the first detailed Western account of variolation. A major literary work, considered a forerunner of travel literature and critical orientalist studies.
A foundational medical and epistolary document in which Mary precisely describes the Ottoman inoculation technique. This letter circulated among European physicians and directly contributed to the spread of the practice in the West.
A collection of satirical poems written in collaboration with Pope and Gay, parodying London high society. A testament to Mary's literary talent and her participation in the literary circles of her time.
An extensive correspondence spanning over twenty years, rich in reflections on women's education, old age, society, and philosophy. An invaluable source on Mary's intellectual and personal life abroad.
A satirical journal Mary wrote anonymously to defend the Walpole government against its critics. A testament to her political engagement and her ability to wield irony and public argumentation.
Anecdotes
In 1715, Mary Wortley Montagu contracted smallpox, a disease that disfigured and killed thousands of Europeans every year. She survived, but lost her famously beautiful complexion and her eyelashes. This personal ordeal made her especially attentive, two years later in Constantinople, when she discovered that Ottoman women practiced a method to protect against it.
In Istanbul in 1717, Mary observed the practice of variolation: 'old women' would collect pus from patients with a mild form of smallpox and inoculate healthy children through a small incision. Fascinated, she had her own five-year-old son inoculated by the embassy surgeon, Charles Maitland — a bold and unprecedented decision for a European.
Back in England in 1721, during a smallpox epidemic in London, Mary persuaded surgeon Maitland to inoculate her four-year-old daughter in front of physicians from the Royal College of Surgeons. The little girl came through perfectly, and this public demonstration helped legitimize the practice in Western Europe. The Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, subsequently had her own children inoculated.
Mary Wortley Montagu is also celebrated for her Letters from the East, written during her diplomatic stay between 1716 and 1718. In them, she describes Ottoman society, Turkish baths, and the status of women with rare precision and empathy — challenging the orientalist clichés of her era. The letters were published posthumously in 1763 and remain an exceptional historical document.
A woman of remarkable independence of mind for her time, Mary maintained a long correspondence with the French writer Madame de Tencin and traveled alone across Europe after her de facto separation from her husband. She lived for several years in Italy and France, moving in Enlightenment intellectual circles, and did not return to England until her husband's death in 1761.
Primary Sources
The small operation, which I am about to describe to you, is so universal here that no one trembles at seeing it performed... They make a small opening in the vein and introduce as much virus as can be contained on the head of a pin.
I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it if I knew any one of them that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind.
I have since had the curiosity to examine this practice more carefully since my arrival here, and I am well convinced that it is perfectly safe as it is performed.
The only solid consolations of old age are a mind exercised in all its faculties and a conscience that has nothing to reproach itself with.
Key Places
Mary's diplomatic residence from 1716 to 1718, where she discovered variolation and had her son inoculated. Her descriptions of the city, Turkish baths, and harems provide a unique Western account of early 18th-century Ottoman society.
Mary's birthplace and eventual home, where in 1721 she organized the first public demonstration of variolation in Europe before the Royal College of Surgeons.
A stop on the diplomatic journey where Mary wrote one of her most detailed letters on variolation, addressed to her friend Sarah Chiswell. This letter is the first written Western account of the practice.
One of the cities where Mary lived during her voluntary exile on the European continent after 1736. There she moved in Italian intellectual circles and continued her literary correspondence.
The aristocratic residential neighborhood where the Wortley Montagu family lived in London. These Georgian townhouses reflect the elevated social milieu in which Mary moved.
Gallery
Porträt der Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Charles Jervas
Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Jonathan Richardson the younger
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with her son, Edward Wortley Montagu, and attendants title QS:P1476,en:"Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with her son, Edward Wortley Montagu, and attendants "label QS:Len,"Lady Ma
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Jean Baptiste Vanmour
PORTRAIT OF LADY MARY CHURCHILL, DUCHESS OF MONTAGU
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Charles Jervas
Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 6th Bt (1737-1763) (by Robert Edge Pine)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Robert Edge Pine
Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montague
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 — Inconnu
Twickenham, Garfield Road Park, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu library bench
Wikimedia Commons, CC0 — AndyScott
An epitome of the history of medicine
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Park, Roswell, 1852-1914 Royal College of Physicians of London
An epitome of the history of medicine
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Park, Roswell, 1852-1914
Vaccination, its natural history and pathology
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Copeman, S. Monckton (Sydney Monckton), b. 1862