(1728 - 98), 1st surv. s. of Sir Walter Bagot, 5th Bt. of Blithfield, Staffs.; educ. Westminster and Magd. Oxf. 1747; MP 1754 - 80; m. 1760 Hon. Elizabeth St John, dau. of 2nd Vct. St John; suc. fa. 1768 as 6th Bt; cr. B. Bagot 1780.
1751 - 2 Rome (19 Jan. 1751), Siena (13 Nov. 1751), Rome (10 May - Jun. 1752), Perugia, Siena (8 Jul.), Florence (28 Sep.)
William Bagot travelled with the Rev. Thomas Townson, who had been to his Oxford College and was vicar of Blithfield, the Bagot home.1 They had spent a year in France before reaching Rome in January 1751.2 In Rome Bagot was one of the sponsors of Lord Charlemont's Academy for British artists (see John Parker, d. 1765) and he was included by Joshua Reynolds in his Parody of the School of Athens (NGI). He bought a Guercino, St Paul shaking the Viper from his hand, and his son later listed further Italian 17th-century paintings said to have been bought by his father in Rome. On 6 June 1752 James Russel wrote that Charlemont and Bagot were the only English left in Rome,3 and on 22 July Lascelles Iremonger wrote that Bagot had travelled to Siena via Perugia.4
Bagot remained all his life enamoured of Italy.5 Thomas Townson made purchases for him when he was in Rome with William Drake in 1768 - 9, and in 1773 Thomas Anson bequeathed to him Anthony Lefroy's collection of medals.
1. See W. Bagot, Memorials of the Bagot Family, 89, 146, 152 - 5. GM, 22[1752]:288. 2. Itinerary from Bagot MSS, Staffs.RO, d 3260/4, ff.32, 35, 39, 40, 42 (notes by J. Cornforth). 3. Wicklow MSS. 4. Newdigate MSS, B 1778. 5. Mrs C. Bagot, Links with the Past, 193.