Byng, Pattee
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- Byng, Pattee
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(1699 - 1747), 1st surv. s. of Adml. Sir George Byng; army officer, cornet, R. Hse.Gds. 1715, capt. 1716 - 18; treas. of the navy 1724 - 34; MP 1721 - 33; m. 1724 Ldy. Charlotte Montagu, dau. of 1st D. of Manchester; suc. fa. 1733 as 2nd Vct. Torrington.
1710 - 15? Florence (by 28 Dec. 1710), Rome (by 20 May 1711), Venice (by 26 Jun.) [Holland] Florence (Dec. 1714), Rome (early 1715), Naples (by 5 Mar.)
1718 - 20 [dep. Portsmouth 4 Jun. 1718] Naples (20 Jul. - 27 Aug.) [London Sep. - Oct.] Florence (5 - 6 Oct.), Naples (9 Oct. 1718 - 5 Feb. 1719), Rome (Feb.), Naples (24 Mar. - 23 Aug.), Genoa (7 Sep. - 4 Oct.), Sicily, Naples (Nov. 1719 - 15 Feb. 1720) [Vienna] Florence (22 Apr.), Rome (26 Apr.), Naples (30 Apr. - 17 Jul.), Leghorn (by 13 Aug.), Florence, Bologna, Verona [Greenwich 11 Nov.]
In 1710 Pattee Byng, aged twelve, accompanied his younger brother Matthew (1700 - 14) to Italy. They dined with the British envoy Henry Newton in Florence on 28 December 1710, and were in Rome on 20 May 1711.1 By the end of June they were in Venice, intending to set out for Frankfurt and Holland the next week.2 Their subsequent movements are unclear, but Matthew died in Florence in December 1714, and was buried at Leghorn. Pattee was probably with him when he died, since he is recorded in Naples on 5 March 1715, having travelled from Rome with a Mr Plummer [Walter Plummer?] and several other Englishmen.3 He had spent a winter and spring in Rome in 1715, as he recorded in his Journal (which goes on to describe his subsequent Italian experiences).4
In 1718 - 20 Pattee was in Italy with his father, Admiral Sir George Byng, for whom he acted as interpreter and special diplomatic emissary, making use of his fluent Italian and his acquaintance with the best families of Rome and Naples. On 27 August 1718 he was sent back to England bearing news of his father's defeat of the Spanish at Cape Passero; leaving Naples on 27 August, he crossed Mont Cenis on 3 September. He returned from London immediately, crossing Mont Cenis on 1 October and visiting the Grand Duke of Tuscany on 5 October. He attended the opera in Florence, before proceeding rapidly to Naples where he arrived on 9 October. On 5 February 1719 he left Naples to visit Rome (recording in his diary, 'I had been at Rome in the year 1711, and again in the year 1715 I passed the winter there, and part of the spring'). He witnessed the Carnival, 'the men appearing in Cavalacade, represent Heathen Gods, Indian Emperors, and other oriental or Moorish monarchs ... the women appear in open, triumphal Gilded Chariots, representing Venus, Juno, and the several Goddesses', and he was intrigued 'at the sudden transition, from rioting thus in all the wantoness of heart in the last days of the Carnival, to the solemn scenes of sanctity and superstitious worship the very next day, which is the first of Lent'. On 24 March he returned to Naples, where he shared an enthusiasm for antiquities with consul Fleetwood, but most of his time was spent in his father's service. In September 1719 he accompanied him to Genoa (where Pattee's ability as an interpreter attracted comment), and spent much time afloat round Sicily and Malta, before he was allowed to settle in Naples in November 1719 acting as his father's secretary. On 15 February 1720 his father sent him on a mission to Vienna, from which he returned on 30 April. On the return journey he visited the Laurentian Library in Florence on 22 April and four days later saw the Pretender and his Princess in the Villa Borghese gardens. In May he rejoined his father in Sicily, which he described as lawless - 'the churches and mountains are sufficient sanctuary till time and opportunities bring them again into the society of mankind'. He finally left Naples with his father and his younger brother Robert on 17 July; they sailed to Leghorn (where they experienced quarantine difficulties) and then went overland, through Florence (where they attended the Grand Duke's seventy-eighth anniversary celebration), Bologna and Verona, to reach the mountains of the Tyrol on 19 August.
1. Waters jnl.MSS. 2. SP 99/59 (Cole, 26 Jun. 1711). 3. SP 93/4 (Fleetwood, 5 Mar. 1715). 4. See J.L. Cranmer-Byng ed., Pattee Byng's Jnl.1718 - 20.