(c.1702 - 49), e. s. of Ralph Freeman of Hamells, Herts; Magd. Oxf. 1719; DCL 1747.
1728 - 9 Susa, Turin, Genoa, Lucca (four months), Pisa Florence (six months), Siena, Rome (by 9 Dec. 1728), Naples, Rome ( - 15 Mar. 1729), Loreto, Ferrara, Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Modena, Parma, Milan
William Freeman went abroad with a brother (probably Catesby Freeman, apparently his twin). They left England in May 1727 and passed through France and Switzerland to Italy. His journal (Freeman jnl.MSS), written in Italian with some notes in English at the end, tends to be an objective description of places. At an inn outside Susa they met the Pretender, Hay [Col.John Hay?] and the Duke of Wharton, 'but did not know it till we arrived at Turin'. After ten months in Tuscany, (four at Lucca and six in Florence), they came to Rome, where Stosch noticed them on 9 December 1728.1 In the spring of 1729 they made an expedition to Naples; they left Rome on 15 March, for Loreto and Venice.2 After touring the Veneto and Lombardy, they recrossed Mont Cenis to travel in Savoy and Provence.
1. SP 85/16, ff.479, 480 (Walton, 9, 16 Dec. 1728). 2. Ibid., 19 Mar. 1729.