(1744 - 76), 1st s. of 1st B. Milton [I] (cr. E. of Dorchester 1792); educ. Eton and Trin. Camb. 1762; m. 1767 Anne Seymour Conway; MP 1768 - 74; declined election to the Dilettanti 1768; took his own life.
1750 see Joseph Damer
1764 - 5 Lucca (Sep. 1764), Florence, Naples (by 22 Jan. 1765), Rome (by Mar.), Siena, Venice [England mid-May]
The brothers John and George Damer travelled in Italy without a tutor in 1764 - 5. They are said to have travelled with Thomas Lyttelton,1 but his name is not otherwise mentioned with theirs in Italy. The Damers were in Lucca in September 17642 and later in the year one of the brothers and a Captain Howe 'two trueborn Englishmen, were in the great gallery at Florence. They submitted quietly to be shewn a few of the pictures. But seeing the gallery so immensely long, their impatience burst forth, and they tried for a bett who should hop first to the end of it'.3 The brothers were in Naples by 22 January 1765,4 and were in Rome by March when George and Sir Thomas Gascoigne were involved in a drunken brawl in which George was said to have wounded a coachman who died (see Gascoigne); aided by Piccolomini, the Governor of Rome, the brothers absconded, first to Siena, then back to Ronciglione and finally 'towards Venice'.5 George also found time to sit to Batoni (priv. coll.).6 By mid-May they were in England.7 Both joined Gibbon's Roman Club.8
1. Commons 2, 3:76. 2. Gibbon Journey, 211, 225. 3. C. Rogers, Boswelliana, 239. 4. SP 93/21 (Hamilton, 22 Jan. 1765). 5. Wal.Corr., 22:286 - 7. 6. F. Russell, Burl.Mag., 136[1994]:440 - 1. 7. Wal.Corr., 22:300. 8. Gibbon, Misc.Works, 1:200.