MONTAGU, Matthew (1762-1831), of Manchester Sq., London

Montagu was returned for Bossiney by Lord Mount Edgcumbe. Pitt had intended to recommend Henry Lawes Luttrell, but Mount Edgcumbe was ‘loudly called upon to name a candidate’ and not having heard from Pitt named Montagu.Mount Edgcumbe to Pitt, 26 Apr. 1786, Chatham mss.

Yet Montagu proved a faithful follower of Pitt. On 23 Jan. 1787 he seconded the Address, and, in reference to the French commercial treaty, ended his speech with a panegyric on Pitt:Stockdale, x. 7.‘Exalted as is the glory of Lord Chatham, amidst the trophies of war, not less should be the rank of his son in the annals of peace.’ On which Wraxall comments:Mems. iv. 377-9. ‘It might have been thought that such a panegyric, when aided by time and circumstances, formed no bad foundation for an English peerage’; which was apparently Montagu’s ambition.

He died 1 Sept. 1831.