(1698 - 1731), o. s. of 1st M. of Wharton; sty. Vct. Winchendon 1706 - 15 when suc. fa. as 2nd M.; in Switzerland and France 1716; cr. D. of Northumberland [J] 1716 and D. of Wharton 1718; m. 1 1715 Martha Holmes (d. 1726), 2 1726 Theresa O'Beirne; min.plen.[J] Vienna Aug. 1725, env. [J] Madrid 1725 - 6; KG [J] 1726; forfeited his English honours and estates 1729.
1719 Padua (by 26 Aug. - Sep.)
1726 Rome (by 5 Mar.) [Spain] Rome (by 26 Oct.)
1728 Genoa (by 1 May), Milan, Parma (by 14 May)
The high-spirited and intemperate Duke of Wharton appears to have paid four brief visits to Italy, each closely bound up with his Jacobite activities. On 26 August 1719 he was at Padua where, a week later, he was reported to be recovering from fever.1 His portrait by Rosalba Carriera (Windsor) probably dates from this time. Wharton was next in Rome on 5 March 1726 when he was invested by the Pretender with the Order of the Garter. He returned to Spain where he became a Catholic and married a maid of honour to the Spanish Queen. Shortly afterwards he returned with her to Rome, where on 26 October 1726 he resigned his title of Duke of Wharton. As he continued to behave in an excessive manner, the Pope requested him to leave, and he duly returned to Spain.2 In 1728, after he had fought with the Spanish army at the siege of Gibraltar, he visited the Pretender at Parma and was with him near Turin (see William Freeman), seeking a permanent place at the Jacobite court. He and his wife were in Genoa on 1 May 1728 proceeding to Milan and were in Parma on 14 May,3 but Wharton was not offered employment.
1. Brown 1632. SP 99/62, f.332 (Cunningham, 1 Sep. 1719). 2. See L. Melville, Philip Duke of Wharton, 23 - 67, 172. 3. SP 98/30 (Colman, 19 May 1728).