(1686 - 1763) of Bretton, Yorks, e. s. of Sir Mathew Wentworth; suc. fa. 1706 as 4th Bt.; m. 1720 Diana Blackett; MP 1731 - 41.
1709 - 10 Venice (by 20 Dec. 1709), Padua (19 Mar. 1710), Rome (by 17 Apr. - 22 Aug.) [England by spring 1712]
1719 Florence, Genoa (autumn)
Wentworth was in Italy with his tutor Aaron Hill, just after his kinsman, the diplomat Thomas, Lord Raby, had left.1 Raby advised him on his tour, warning him to take care of his health 'for Italy is a dangerous country and had like to make an end of me' (Dec. 1709), and recommending that he should take rooms in Rome with Charles Brown and be advised by Trench concerning pictures (25 Feb. 1710).2 Raby also assisted him financially in May 1710, through the bankers Williams & Smith in Venice.3
Wentworth was in Venice in December 1709,4 and in Padua on 19 March 1710.5 On 17 April 1710 he told Raby from Rome of the 'great many English' there,6 one of whom, the young English painter William Kent, Wentworth chose to sponsor for a period of seven years. Wentworth left Rome on 22 August and returned to England in the spring of 1712 after spending a year in Geneva and some time in Utrecht.7 Kent sent him 'a picture & drawings' from Rome on 17 April 1712,8 and was commissioned to undertake further work in 1714.9 But Wentworth appears to have been a lukewarm collector, having no money for the fine arts and, he told Raby, 'I shall be well content with the walls of Bretton just as they are so that I have but a good glass of Ale and Bear'.1
In 1719 Wentworth returned to Italy, travelling from Florence to Genoa with Kent in the autumn.(10)
1. J.J. Cartwright ed., Wentworth Papers 1705 - 39, 26. 2. M.I. Wilson, Kent, 13, 23 - 4, 29. 3. F. Vivian, Il Console Smith, 7. 4. SP 99/58, f.56 (Broughton, 20 Dec. 1709). 5. Brown 1365. 6. Wilson (at n2), 13. 7. Ibid., 6. 8. Bodl. MS Eng. Misc.C.114. 9. Kent letters MSS (24 Nov. 1714). 10. Ibid. (15 Nov. 1719). Wilson (at n2), 36.