(1714 - 74) of Uppark, Sx., e. s. of Matthew Fetherstonhaugh; m. 1746 Sarah Lethieullier (1722 - 88); suc. 1746 to estates in Essex, Herts, Mx. and the City of London; bt. Uppark 1747; MP 1755 - 74; cr. Bt. 1747; FRS 1752.
1750 - 1 Florence (by 9 Oct. 1750 - ), Rome (by Jan. 1751), Naples (Feb.), Venice (by 8 Jul.)
Sir Matthew travelled with his wife Sarah, and was occasionally joined by a number of relatives - his wife's brother Benjamin Lethieullier and her half-brother Lascelles Raymond Iremonger, and his own brother, Utrick Fetherstonhaugh with his future wife Katherine Durnford, see Iremonger. Sir Matthew ('another sick husband') first visited Horace Mann in Florence on 9 October 1750.1 In January 1751 the party was in Rome, where Lady Fetherstonhaugh held conversazioni for 'all ye English of our side [of] ye Question'.2 All the party sat to Batoni (Sir Matthew, his wife and Iremonger sitting twice), resulting in a unique set of nine portraits, with two additional subject pieces by Batoni, Meekness and Purity of Heart (Clark/Bowron 154 - 63, 167 - 8). Sir Matthew (and Iremonger) also appeared in Reynolds's Parody of the School of Athens (NGI) painted in Rome in 1751.3 In April 1751 he commissioned four paintings from Vernet, and two more the following year (through Lethieullier).4 From Rome the party went to Naples, where Sir Matthew evidently acquired a set of five Neapolitan views by Tomaso Ruiz. Lady Fetherstonhaugh recorded a visit to Herculaneum in February. By July 1751 the party was in Venice,5 where Sir Matthew met Joseph Smith who was to send him between 1753 and 1755 tables, china and pictures,6 including eight 'Canalettos' (versions of paintings owned by Smith) and paintings by Zuccarelli, Orizzonte and a set of six Giordanos.
On his return home Sir Matthew told Horace Mann that he had 'acquired Reputation' by his purchases in Italy and 'those Pictures particularly I bought at Naples are much esteem'd'; the 'Bianco Nero tables, [though] still in there [sic] Cases ... are admir'd as the finest things of their kind in England'.7 In the same letter he asked Mann to 'inquire of the Monk [presumably Belloni] whether he has not done the two tables I bespoke of him ... they were inlaid tables, of wch kind Mr [Joseph] Leeson had one done'. Sir Matthew's purchases remain for the most part at Uppark.
1. Wal.Corr., 20:194. 2. Thomas letters MSS, f.33 (6 Jan. 1751). Extracts from her corr. and continental travel jnls. 1748 - 53 in Adml. Ld. Gambier, Memorials, [1861], 1:16 - 70. 3. Sutton 1956, 113 - 15. O'Connor 1983, 13. 4. Lagrange, 335, 336, 438. 5. Constable, Wilson, 22. 6. A. Coleridge, Apollo, 83[1966]:186. 7. SP 105/310, f.161.