Who was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu?

Lady Mary learns of inoculation

In 1716 Edward was appointed to the prestigious post of British ambassador to the Ottoman Royal Court in Constantinople (now Istanbul). It was while living here that Mary saw first-hand that the disease that had so blighted her life and threatened her loved ones was preventable. 

'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.'

- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Defining inoculation 

What we now call ‘inoculation’ to differentiate it from the modern process of vaccination, invented by Edward Jenner at the end of the 18th century, had been practised for centuries in China, India, the Middle East and Africa.  

It involved scratching the skin and introducing into the blood a tiny amount of pus taken from someone with a mild form of smallpox. When carried out carefully, it usually provoked a form of the disease which in most cases quickly passed, leaving lasting immunity.    

Lady Mary inoculates her son 

Determined to protect her five-year-old son, Lady Mary had the British embassy surgeon, Charles Maitland, organise for the procedure to be successfully carried out by a skilled local woman in March 1718.  

Other visiting Europeans had been treated in this way before and there was a lively medical debate already under way in London. However, Lady Mary would be the first person to actively demonstrate its practical application in Britain after she and Edward were recalled home later that year. 

Introduction to high society 

In the spring of 1721, another severe smallpox outbreak swept through London, killing many in high society and causing others to go into self-imposed isolation. 

By now, Lady Mary also had a young daughter and in response to this health crisis took the bold move of having the child inoculated by the same surgeon who had witnessed the procedure on her son back in Istanbul.  

This was carried out with other doctors as witnesses and so impressed them that one – who had lost other children to smallpox – immediately had his son treated. 

A trend is set 

Word quickly spread amongst high society, attracting the interest of Caroline, Princess of Wales, who was very concerned for the health of her own children.  

A series of successful (if horrifying by modern standards) experiments were carried out on condemned prisoners and orphan children before the King gave permission for two of his granddaughters to be treated in April 1722. 

This helped set a fashion which spread amongst those who could afford to find a doctor prepared to undertake the delicate procedure. 

Pockets of resistance  

As Lady Mary herself had predicted, not everyone was supportive. Some said the treatment was unnatural and defied God’s will, while others in the medical profession argued it was risky and might create new outbreaks of the disease.  

In many cases this was mixed with deep suspicion around something ‘foreign’, new and in the words of one doctor, “an experiment practised only by a few ignorant women”.  

Lady Mary actively promoted her cause, inviting people to see her daughter, talking to parents, and using her formidable literary talents to make the case anonymously via a widely read newspaper essay. 

Controversy continues  

Over the next years inoculation continued to be controversial, despite mounting statistical evidence. This is understandable if we recognise that in an age before organised public health testing and messaging, parents had to rely upon unreliable reports and word of mouth accounts. 

Some doctors added elaborate extra elements to the process (for which they could charge more), including bleeding patients first. Many feared it stood as much chance of killing a child as protecting them. 

Resistance in Lady Mary’s family 

Amongst those who refused were Lady Mary’s own sister; her eldest son would die of smallpox in 1724. The Watson-Wentworth’s of Wentworth Woodhouse also lost their eldest son to smallpox in 1734, before having their daughters and another son inoculated in the early 1740s. 

Inoculation reaches Wentworth Castle 

By contrast, Lord and Lady Strafford of Wentworth Castle, who were neighbours of Lady Mary in Twickenham, near London, appear to have been ‘early adopters’ and probably had all their four children treated. 

The youngest of these was William, who inherited the Wentworth Castle Estate as the Second Earl of Strafford in 1739.  

He clearly grew up to be a great admirer of Lady Mary and as a young man met her in Italy. Did he feel he may have owed her his life? Was this the reason he chose to dedicate a monument to her in his garden? 

An unusual dedication 

Whatever the reason, the dedication is a highly unusual and perhaps unique 18th century tribute to a woman, not for her social position or family connections, but for her personal achievement.  

Using her intellect and influence, Lady Mary was the catalyst for turning a foreign curiosity into a practical application.  It may only have reached a small section of society and was flawed enough to be superseded – and even made illegal in 1840 – but it undoubtedly saved many lives and helped advance British medical practice.