(c.1701 - 43), fell. of King's Camb. 1723 - 39; d. Florence.
1736 - 43 Lucca (winter 1736), Pisa (Aug. 1737), Naples, Florence (by Nov. 1739 - Jul. 1741), Leghorn (Jul. 1741 - ), Florence (d. 31 Mar. 1743)
The period spent by Sturgis in Italy was succinctly described by the diarist Joseph Farington: Margaret, Lady Walpole (later Countess of Orford), 'in several instances solicited men. She went to the bedroom of a Mr Sturges, who had places under Sir Robert Walpole [her father-in-law, the Prime Minister]. She carried him abroad; he lost his places; she grew tired of him, and ... [he became] poor and unprovided for'.1 Horace Walpole, Lady Orford's unaffectionate nephew, told the same tale: 'having had the greatest obligations to Lord Walpole, [Sturgis] went abroad with his wife under pretence of her health; for some time was in personal intimacy with her, but at length turned off for others, only enjoyed a miserable pension from her'.2
Sturgis's affair with Lady Walpole appears to have begun in Italy in 1736 and it ended in 1741 (see Margaret, Countess of Orford). In February 1741 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu observed his face was that of a 'lover kicked out of of doors; and I pity his good heart, at the same time I despise his want of spirit',3 and though he was lodging in Lady Walpole's house in June, in July he 'was sent' from Florence to Leghorn on his own, while Lady Walpole went off to Venice.4 In July 1742 Horace Mann explained that Sturgis had been kicked out for some villanies, involving debts which Lady Walpole's new lover, the comte de Richecourt, had helped to settle.5 Sturgis remained in Italy 'in a sort of despair' until his death in Florence on 31 March 1743.6
1. Farington Diary (26 May 1796). 2. Wal.Corr., 17:71n14. 3. Montagu Letters, 2:225 (15 Feb. 1741). 4. Wal.Corr., 17:71, 95, 107. 5. Ibid., 461. 6. Ibid., 18:198n1.