(1727 - 96), diplomat, s. and h. of 6th Vct. Stormont [S]; educ. Westminster and Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1744; suc. fa. 1748 as 7th Vct.; env extra. Dresden 1756 - 63; amb. extra. Vienna 1763 - 72, Paris 1772 - 8; KT 1768; m. 1 1759 Henrietta de Bunau (d. 1766), wid. of M. de Berargaard, 2 1776 Hon. Louisa Cathcart, dau. of 9th Ld. Cathcart [S]; suc. uncle 1793 as 2nd E. of Mansfield.
1751 - 2 Turin (by 15 Sep. 1751), Milan, Parma, Modena, Florence (by 10 Dec. 1751 - 8 Jan. 1752), Rome (Jan.)
1767 - 8 Naples (by 1 Dec. 1767 - 12 Feb. 1768), Rome (by 20 Feb. - Apr.), Florence (by 23 Apr. - 10 May), Milan, Genoa (11 Jun.), Milan (Jun.), Venice ( - Jul.) [Vienna by 14 Jul.]
Stormont wrote from Turin on 15 September 1751 that he lived 'constantly' with Lord and Lady Rochford; he was planning to set out for Genoa and then go by Milan, Florence, Parma and Modena.1 On 10 December he was writing from Florence,1 where Horace Mann thought him 'a most agreeable and sensible young man',2 and he was daily expected in Rome on 12 January 1752.3 He travelled to Rome with Henry Seymour Conway and they lodged together, their time 'totally employed in virtu'. Mann had introduced them to Cardinal Albani 'who has promised to be mighty civil to them, but I believe', wrote Mann, 'they will dispense with all civilities that would make them lose any time'.4 Conway (who was home in mid-March 1752) probably left Stormont in Rome, but the remainder of Stormont's itinerary is unclear.
Stormont returned to Italy in 1767 soon after the death of his first wife. His health had since been poor and he told the Abb? Grant that he came to Italy to recover.5 He spent the winter at Naples, where he was presented at Court on 1 December,6 and he wrote to Mann on 3 December saying he was in Naples for his health, but hoped to see him at Florence in the spring [of 1768].7 He left Naples on 12 February,8 and was evidently in Rome by the 20th.9 In Rome Stormont greatly impressed Winckelmann, who considered him to be the most learned person of his rank he had ever met.(10) He sat to Batoni (Clark/Bowron 327; Scone Palace), and on 9 April had just returned from an excursion in the Campagna.(11) Stormont was in Florence by 23 April,12 and three days later Mann described him passing some hours every day 'either in the Gallery or in the Palace Pitti where the collection of Pictures is now so well disposed that the access to them does not interfere with the Court'.(13) On 3 May Mann described Stormont's health as 'much impaired by the deep melancholy that continually hangs upon him', and on 17 May Mann reported his departure from Florence on the 10th for Genoa, intending to see Marseilles and Toulon before returning to his diplomatic post at Vienna.14 On 24 May Mann told William Hamilton that Stormont was on his tour 'en provence' and he had arrived at Genoa on the 11 June,15 having passed through Milan.16 He went on to spend a week in Venice, leaving for Vienna early in July, still with a cough.17
1. HMC Huntingdon, 3:75 - 7. 2. Wal.Corr., 20:285. 3. Jesse, Selwyn, 1:151. 4. Wal.Corr., 20:296, 298; 37:324. 5. Ailsa MSS, box 38 (Abb? Grant, 5 Mar. 1768). 6. SP 93/23 (Hamilton, 1 Dec. 1767). 7. SP 105/318, f.169. 8. SP 93/24 (Osborn, 16 Feb. 1768). 9. SP 105/318, f.57 (Albani, 20 Feb. 1768). 10. Winckelmann Briefe, 3:375 (10 Mar. 1768). 11.
SP 105/319, f.95 (Albani, 9 Apr. 1768). 12. Gazz.Tosc. Wal.Corr., 23:16. 13. Eg.2641, f.20 (26 Apr. 1768). 14. Wal. Corr., 23:18, 24. 15. Eg.2641, f.24. 16. ASM pe 53 (unsigned letter of 25 Jun. 1768). 17. SP 105/319, f.151 (Wright, 6 Jul. 1768).