John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu

John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, KG, KB, PC (1690 - 5 July, 1749), in 1745 raised a cavalry regiment known as Montagu's Carabineers, which, however, was disbanded after the Battle of Culloden.

He was a son of Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu and his first wife Elizabeth Wriothesley. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton and his first wife Rachel de Massue.

On 17 March, 1705, John was married to Lady Mary Churchill, daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.

He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1719, and was a fellow of the Royal Society and a Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. In 1739 the country's first home for abandoned children, the Foundling Hospital was created in London. Montagu was a supporter of this effort and was one of the charity's founding governors. He also financed the education of two notable Black British figures of the age, Ignatius Sancho and Francis Williams, sending the latter to Cambridge University.

He was a notorious practical joker, his mother-in-law writing of him that "All his talents lie in things only natural in boys of fifteen years old, and he is about two and fifty; to get people into his garden and wet them with squirts, and to invite people to his country houses and put things in beds to make them itch, and twenty such pretty fancies as these."quoted in Martin C. Battestin's "General Introduction" to Henry Fielding's "Joseph Andrews." Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1967: xxvi"n". Montagu is believed by some literary critics to be the model for Fielding's "roasting squire," the vicious squire who plays practical jokes.]

He is said to have once dunked the political philosopher Montesquieu in a tub of cold water as a joke.Battestin, xxiv"n".]

Children

Montagu and his wife Lady Mary Churchill were parents to six children

*John Montagu. Died young.
*George Montagu. Died young.
*Edward Churchill Montagu. Died young.
*Eleanor Montagu.
*Mary Montagu (c. 1711 - 1 May, 1775). Married George Brudenell, 4th Earl of Cardigan.
*Isabella Montagu, Countess of Beaulieu (d. 20 December, 1786). Married first William Montagu, 2nd Duke of Manchester and secondly Edward Hussey-Montagu, 1st Earl of Beaulieu.

uccession

As none of his three sons survived Montagu himself, the title became extinct at his death in 1749. But his eldest living daughter Mary was married to George Brudenell, 4th Earl of Cardigan (1712-1790), who on his father-in-law's death assumed the name and arms of Montagu, and in 1766 was created Duke of Montagu.

On his death, in 1790, this second dukedom of Montagu also became extinct; his only son, who had been created Baron Montagu of Boughton, having predeceased him. His daughter Elizabeth married Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, 5th Duke of Queensberry who thus acquired all the unentailed property of the dukes of Montagu, the entailed portion passing to the earls of Cardigan.

References

*1911

External links

* [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/anderson/frontispiece.html John Montague, 2nd Duke of Montagu presenting the Roll of Constitutions and the compasses to Philip, Duke of Wharton]