(d. 1757), diplomat; sec. Modena, Parma, Genoa, Florence 1715 - 23; min.plen. at Madrid 1739; d. Lisbon.
c.1715 - 23 Florence (1715 - 16, 1717, 1720, 1722), Modena (1715 and presumably 1717, 1720 and 1722), Parma (1715, 1717, 1722), Genoa (c.1716 - 22), Rome (by Easter 1722), Padua (12 Jan. 1723)
Castres was secretary to Henry Davenant, the British envoy at Florence, Modena, Parma and Genoa; in 1721 - 2 he acted as charg? d'affaires at Genoa during the envoy's absence.1 At Easter 1722 Davenant and Castres were staying in Rome,2 and in September Davenant and his secretary 'Mr de Castro' were setting out from Florence for Leghorn.3 On 12 January 1723 they were in Padua, evidently on their return to England.4
Castres subsequently published Ways and Means for suppressing Beggary, and Relieving the Poor, by erecting General Hospitals, and Charitable Corporations [1726], which he had translated from an Italian treatise of 1717 and dedicated to Robert Walpole. The proposals had been followed in Piedmont and Savoy, and then Genoa, so that 'that State was thereby freed at once from all its Beggars. This I was Witness to, while I had the Honour of being Mr D'Avenant's secretary in Italy'. His translation had carefully omitted 'all that might give Offence in Point of Religion, or was not proper in a Protestant Country, or inconsistent with this Constitution'.
1. Horn, 1:74, 76, 77, 79. 2. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 3. Rawlinson jnl.MSS (11 Sep. 1722). 4. Brown 1724.