Nathaniel William Wraxall
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Life
He was born in Queen SquareQueen Square, Bristol
Queen Square is a garden square in the centre of Bristol, England. It was originally a fashionable residential address, but now most of the buildings are in office use....
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, the son of a Bristol merchant, Nathaniel Wraxall, and his wife Anne, great niece of Sir James Thornhill
James Thornhill
Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...
the painter. He entered the employment of the East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
in 1769, and served as judge-advocate and paymaster during the expeditions against Gujarat and Baroche in 1771. In the following year he left the service of the company and returned to Europe.
He visited Portugal and was presented to the court, of which he gives a curious account in his Historical Memoirs; and in the north of Europe he made the acquaintance of several Danish nobles who had been exiled for their support of the deposed Queen Caroline Matilda
Caroline Matilda of Wales
Caroline Matilda of Great Britain was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1766 to 1772 and a member of the British Royal Family.-Early life:...
, sister of George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
.
Wraxall at their suggestion undertook to endeavour to persuade the king to act on her behalf. He was able to secure an interview with her at Zell
Zell
-Austria:*Zell am See, in Salzburg state*Zell am Ziller, in Tyrol*Zell, Carinthia, in Carinthia*in Upper Austria:**Bad Zell**Zell am Moos**Zell an der Pram**Zell am Pettenfirst-Germany:...
in September 1774. His exertions are told in his Posthumous Memoirs. As the queen died on 11 May 1775, his schemes came to nothing and he complained that he was out-of-pocket
Out-of-pocket expenses
Out-of-pocket expenses are direct outlays of cash which may or may not be later reimbursed.In operating a vehicle, gasoline, parking fees and tolls are considered out-of-pocket expenses for the trip...
, but George III took no notice of him for some time.
In 1775 he published his first book, Cursory Remarks made in a Tour through some of the Northern Parts of Europe, which reached its fourth edition by 1807, when it was renamed A Tour Round the Baltic. In 1777 he travelled again in Germany and Italy. As he had by this time secured the patronage of important people, he obtained a complimentary lieutenant's commission from the king on the application of Lord Robert Manners, which gave him the right to wear uniform though he never performed any military service.
In this year he published his Memoirs of the Kings of France of the Race of Valois, to which he appended an account of his tour in the Western, Southern and Interior Provinces of France. In 1778 he went again on his travels to Germany and Italy, and accumulated materials for his Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw and Vienna (1799).
In 1780 he entered Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...
and sat till 1794 for Hindon
Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)
Hindon was a parliamentary borough consisting of the village of Hindon in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1448 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, Ludgershall
Ludgershall (UK Parliament constituency)
Ludgershall was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.- 1295–1640 :- 1640–1832 :- Sources :...
and Wallingford
Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)
Wallingford was a constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It was a parliamentary borough created in 1295, centred on the market town Wallingford in Berkshire . It used to return two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons; this was cut to one in 1832, and...
, in succession. He published in 1795 the beginning of a History of France from the Accession of Henry III to the Death of Louis XIV, which was never completed.
Little is known of his later years except that he was made a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
by the prince regent in 1813. His Historical Memoirs appeared in 1815. Both they and the Posthumous Memoirs (1836) are very readable and have real historical value. Wraxall believed that the Government of the day, furious at his truthfulness, was behind a libel action which sent him to prison for three months in 1816. Hence the posthumous publication of the later memoirs. He died suddenly at Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
on 7 November 1831, whilst travelling to Naples.