author
Basil Montagu
1770–1851
A lawyer, reformer, and man of letters, this 18th-century British writer moved between the worlds of law, philanthropy, and Romantic literature. He is especially remembered for work on bankruptcy law and for the circle of major writers around him, including Wordsworth and Coleridge.
1 Audiobook
Female affection
by Basil Montagu
About the author
Born on April 24, 1770, and educated at Charterhouse and Christ's College, Cambridge, he went on to become a barrister, jurist, writer, and philanthropist. He was the son of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and Martha Ray, and later built a career that joined legal practice with public-minded reform.
Much of his reputation rests on his efforts to improve British bankruptcy law. He served as Accountant-General in Bankruptcy from 1835 to 1846, and his legal writing was closely tied to questions of reform, fairness, and administration.
He also had strong literary connections. Montagu was a friend of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and he is often noted for his admiration of Francis Bacon, whose works he edited. That mix of law, literature, and philanthropy gives his work a distinctive place in early 19th-century British culture.