Obelisk to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Sun Monument)

Summary

Obelisk dedicated to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. 1730s to 1740s, probably erected by William Wentworth, Second Earl of Strafford. Restored in 2008. Sandstone ashlar.

Reasons for Designation

The Obelisk to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Sun Monument), of early-mid C18 date, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest: * for the highly unusual dedication by the second Earl of Strafford to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a woman who was not royalty or a direct family member, and which celebrates her intellectual achievement in successfully bringing the practice of inoculation against smallpox to England in 1720;

* Lady Mary's advocacy of inoculation against smallpox, though controversial at the time, saved many lives in England during the C18, before Edward Jenner’s vaccination for smallpox became common practice in the early C19.

Architectural interest: * as an impressive, ashlar stone obelisk forming a notable component of the designed landscape of Wentworth Castle gardens.

Group value: * the obelisk has an aesthetic and historic relationship with the many other listed C18 structures and pleasure buildings of the estate, including the adjacent Grade II battlemented wall including triple archway along the south side of the wilderness, and the nearby Gothick folly of the Grade II* Stainborough Castle, which together form key aspects of the Grade I designed landscape in which the Grade I Wentworth Castle stands.

History

In 1708 Thomas Wentworth (first Earl of Strafford (1672-1739) acquired the Stainborough Hall estate, renamed Wentworth Castle in 1731, and following the end of his political career after the death of Queen Anne in 1714, he began developing the house and grounds. After his death in 1739 Wentworth Castle passed to his son William, second Earl of Strafford (1722-1792). William continued to alter and embellish the gardens and parkland, as well as extending the house with a neo-Palladian range.

It is not known exactly when the obelisk now known as the Sun Monument was placed forming a terminus to the rising vistas of Broad Avenue and Lady Augusta’s Walk on the south-west side of the house, and therefore whether it was built for Thomas or William Wentworth, though William appears a more likely contender as he was responsible for the dedication: it did not appear in the perspective view by Badeslade of 1730, published in 1739, but had been erected by 1746, when mention was made of it in a dated record. The stone obelisk was topped by a sun catcher, described in an 1853 guide as “a piece of brass-work, representing the sun”. The device may have been a pun on son, either the Jacobite James Stuart (1688-1766), son of James II, or William, son of Thomas. Alternatively it may have been emblematic of the “Light of Reason” and the C18 Enlightenment, an intellectual and philosophical movement that emphasized reason and science over tradition and superstition, which would fit with the dedication, although this may have been added as a description by Dr Richard Pococke in August 1750 makes no mention of the plaque, merely referring that “This lawn is terminated at the top with an obelisk, the model that of the Porta del Popolo at Rome”.

The dedication very unusually celebrated the intellectual achievements of a woman, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), who introduced inoculation of smallpox into England from Turkey in 1720. She died in 1762 and the dedication is to her memory which is perhaps indicative that it was a posthumous dedication. The marble plaque, now badly worn, had an S, for Strafford, at the end of the inscription, a device used by William Wentworth on other monuments and structures he commissioned at both Wentworth Castle and his estate at Broughton, Northamptonshire. This indicates that the dedication was his and had occurred before 1785 when he appears to have left the estate after his wife’s death.

Born into the aristocratic Pierrepont family, Lady Mary (1689-1762) was a highly intelligent and creative woman with a keen interest in culture and politics. Her writings, poetry, and interactions with the high society of her day brought both respect and personal attacks, not least from her erstwhile friend Alexander Pope.

In 1712 Lady Mary eloped with and married Edward Wortley Montagu (1678-1761), bearing him a son in 1713. After several years of living in Yorkshire, in 1715 she moved to London and plunged into intellectual and court society. She left London in August 1716 to accompany her husband who had been appointed to the prestigious post of British ambassador to the Ottoman Royal Court in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). Whilst living in Turkey, Mary observed the local method of inoculating against smallpox. Smallpox had first appeared in Europe in the early medieval period and over time became more deadly, causing an estimated 60 million deaths between 1700 and 1800; survivors were often left scarred and with long-term health conditions, including blindness. The disease had killed several of Lady Mary’s own relatives, including her only brother, and she herself had nearly died of smallpox in December 1715. After looking carefully into the practice with Charles Maitland, the Embassy surgeon, in March 1718 she organised for the procedure to be carried out on her five-year-old son by a skilled local woman.

Inoculation (or variolation) involved scratching the skin and introducing a small amount of live virus via pus taken from someone with a mild form of smallpox to in turn provoke a mild form whilst leaving lasting immunity - while inoculation was generally successful there remained an element of risk and from the late C18 Edward Jenner’s vaccination for smallpox derived from cowpox, a similar but much less virulent disease, began to replace it. Inoculation was banned in 1840 with the government providing vaccination free of charge. Though Lady Mary was not the first Western European to have a child inoculated while resident in Turkey, she was the first to bring the practice home, declaring “The smallpox, so fatal and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless by the invention of ‘ingrating’, which is the term they give it. I am patriot enough to bring this useful invention into fashion in England”.

Back in London in spring 1721, with another epidemic raging, Lady Mary persuaded Maitland to inoculate her small daughter. He stipulated the attendance of medical witnesses and one, James Keith, who had lost several children to smallpox, immediately had his young son inoculated too. The practice of inoculating children spread rapidly amongst those who knew Lady Mary and had already been bereaved by the disease, while she herself proselytized, using her daughter’s immunity as a teaching aid, and two of the King’s granddaughters were treated in 1722. Nonetheless the practice continued to be controversial despite mounting statistical evidence, with Lady Mary’s own sister being one who refused, and whose eldest son died of smallpox in 1724.

William Wentworth had met Lady Mary in Italy as a young man and the dedication of the obelisk makes it clear that he was a great admirer. It is possible that he had been inoculated as a child as his parents were neighbours of Lady Mary in their London house in Twickenham. The dedication may also have been made after several family deaths from smallpox, or potentially had a coded political meaning (as occurred with the pro-Jacobite inscription on Queen Anne’s Obelisk at Wentworth Castle), as smallpox deaths in the Royal Family essentially led to the accession of the Hanovarians (George I and his successors), and resulted in the end of Thomas Wentworth’s political career. There was also a family connection to Lady Mary through her son-in-law, John Stuart, third Earl of Bute (1713-1792), who had been raised by William’s father-in-law, the second Duke of Argyll (dedicatee of the Argyll Monument at Wentworth Castle) and became the first Tory to hold the post of Prime Minister; a political position with which the Wentworth’s were sympathetic.

When the obelisk was listed in 1968 the finial was missing; local tradition suggests it was removed by soldiers stationed at Wentworth Castle during the Second World War. A 1992 condition report refers to a projecting metal rod at the top of the obelisk, which was formerly part of the metal structure. The second dedication plaque, bearing the inscription of the weathered and largely illegible original, is also referred to in the 1968 List entry.

In 2008 the obelisk was restored and topped by a bronze ball finial.

Details

Obelisk dedicated to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. 1730s to 1740s, probably erected by William Wentworth, Second Earl of Strafford. Restored in 2008. Sandstone ashlar.

DESCRIPTION The obelisk stands in front of the battlemented wall and closes the vistas of Broad Avenue and Lady Augusta’s Walk to the east.

It is constructed of sandstone ashlar blocks with a deep, square plinth and a square die with a moulded base and cornice above which the obelisk rises with a pyramidal cap. Set into the front face of the die are two panels. The original square, marble panel has a badly weathered inscription now largely illegible. Beneath is an inset C20 ashlar slab which records the inscription. It reads:

“TO THE MEMORY OF THE / RT HON LADY MARY / WORTLEY MONTAGU / WHO IN THE YEAR 1720 / INTRODUCED INOCULATION / OF THE SMALLPOX / INTO ENGLAND FROM TURKEY”

(sentence spacing varies from the original inscription which ends with an S [illegible] 7 [illegible])

The pyramidal cap is topped by a bronze ball finial (2008).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

333923

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Eyres, P (editor), The Wentworths. Landscapes of Treason and Virtue: the gardens of Wentworth Castle and Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire, (1991), 34, 131-168
Websites
Grundy, I, Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley [nee Lady Mary Pierrepont], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004., accessed 9 October 2023 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/19029

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