Worsley, Sir Richard, 7th Bt
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- Worsley, Sir Richard, 7th Bt
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(1751 - 1805) of Appuldercombe, Isle of Wight, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Worsley; educ. Winchester and Corpus Oxf. 1768; suc. fa. 1768 as 7th Bt.; MP 1774 - 79, 1780 - 4, 1790 - 3, 1796 - 1801; m. 1775 Seymour Dorothy Fleming (div. 1782); Dilettanti 1778; res. Venice 1793 - 7.
1765 - 7 see Sir Thomas Worsley of Appuldercombe
1769 [dep. London 22 Apr. 1769] Genoa (20 Oct. 1769), Voltaggio (29 Oct.), Alessandria, Turin ( - 3 Nov.), Rivoli
1783 - 8 [dep. Falmouth 27 Apr. 1783; Portugal, Spain, Paris] Genoa (8 Oct. 1784), Lerici, Viareggio, Pisa, Leghorn, Siena (23 Oct.), Rome (28 Oct. 1784 - 12 Feb. 1785), to Taranto (see Reveley) [Malta, Crete, Asia Minor] Rome (4 Apr. 1787 - 25 May 1788 - )
1793 - 7 Venice (29 Nov. 1793 - 15 May 1797)
As a boy Richard Worsley had spent nearly two years at Naples with his parents in 1765 - 7, and the 'short account' he then wrote anticipated the traveller he was to become. He returned on his own grand tour at the age of eighteen in 1769, with Edward Gibbon's friend D'Eyverdun as his tutor. They were only briefly in Italy. They arrived at Genoa on 20 October 1769 and went through Voltaggio and Alessandria to Turin which they left on 3 November, Sir Richard observing in his 'Cursory Account' that the Piedmontese were 'a very cunning and Polite People'. Thereafter he spent eight months in Lausanne.1 At the end of his tour Edward Gibbon, a close family friend, saw 'many alterations, and little improvement': Worsley spoke 'in short sentences, quotes Montaigne, seldom smiles, never laughs, drinks only Water, professes to command his passions, and intends to marry in five Months'.2
In 1783, the year after his celebrated divorce, Worsley again set out for the Continent, his prime purpose being to visit Greece and Asia Minor. Having spent time in Portugal, Spain and France he came to Genoa in October 1784. He passed quickly to Rome where he spent nearly four months, until February 1785. He visited many artists, including Carlo Labruzzi, Jacob More, Alexander Day, Angelica Kauffman and Philipp Hackert. From John Deare he commissioned a Marine Venus and he chose Reveley to accompany him on his 'intended tour through Greece & Egypt', to make 'drawings of Architecture, & the most interesting ruins'.3 For their journey through southern Italy to Taranto, see Reveley.
Worsley spent two years in the East, mainly in Greece and on the Greek islands, but also visiting Constantinople and Cairo; he acquired at considerable expense an outstanding collection of ancient Greek sculpture, subsequently known and most elegantly published as the Museum Worsleianum [2 vols. 1794 - 1803].4 He returned to Rome on 4 April 1787 (although Reveley was apparently back in Rome by 10 September 1786). Between May and August he called several times on Vincenzo Pacetti from whom he bought further antiquities.5 On 30 September Worsley accepted election as an honorary member of the Accademia di S.Luca, his letter of acceptance written Dalla Villa Negroni.6 On 31 March 1788 he exported from Rome a number of ancient marbles, several specified as being from Athens.7 A letter from Flaxman, dated Rome 25 May 1788, suggests that Worsley was then still in Rome.8
In 1793 Worsley was appointed British resident at Venice. He arrived on 29 November and stayed in post until the collapse of the republic, leaving on 15 May 1797.9 Letters to him from Thomas Jenkins and Gavin Hamilton in Rome in May 1794 make it clear that he continued to collect.(10) In May 1796 J.B.S. Morritt dined with Worsley, who 'showed us some very fine things in the way of sculpture and painting' and gave free access to his 'cabinet, which is very well worth seeing, and particularly rich in cameos and antique stones'.(11) Lady Berwick, who was in Venice in December 1795, besides admiring Worsley's pictures and drawings, heard that he kept 'one very bad woman' with him.(12)
1. 'A Cursory Account of my Voyage thro France, Italy, &c for the second Time during the Years 1769, 1770'; Worsley MSS, 39. 2. Gibbon Letters, 1:313 (21 Mar. 1772). 3. Worsley MSS, 53, 23 (MS jnl. of a tour 1783 - 7). 4. See Michaelis, 115 - 17, 226 - 40. 5. Pacetti giornale (15 May, 1, 20 Jun., 12 Jul., 1 Aug., 25 Nov., 8 Dec. 1787; 31 Mar. 1788). 6 See L. Pirotta, L'Urbe, 5[1960]:12. 7. ASR ABA 13, f.295. 8. Constable, Flaxman, 34. 9. Horn, 2:193. 10. Worsley MSS, 55 (Jenkins, 10 May, and Hamilton, 2 May 1794). 11. Morritt Letters, 305 - 6. An inventory of his coll. at Venice is Worsley MSS, 42. 12. Attingham MSS (23 Dec. 1795).