The Earl and His Butler in Constantinople: The Secret Diary of an English Servant Among the Ottomans

273 Pages·2008·3.07 MB·English

by  Nigel Webb

THE EARL AND HIS BUTLER IN CONSTANTINOPLE
Caroline Webb graduated in History from the University of London
and read Italian and Art History in Cambridge and Verona. She has
worked as a historical researcher and teacher.

Nigel Webb is the author and series editor of numerous educational
books. He studied at the University of Cambridge and has worked as a
teacher, both in the UK and in Tanzania. He is a direct descendant of
Samuel Medley, whose diary was one of the inspirations for this book.
The Earl and His Butler
in Constantinople
The Secret Diary of an English
Servant among the Ottomans

Nigel and Caroline Webb
Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
First published by Legini Press in 2006
Copyright © 2009, Nigel and Caroline Webb
The right of Nigel and Caroline Webb to be identified as the authors of this
work has been asserted by the authors in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any
part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
ISBN 978 1 84511 782 5
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog card: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.
Copy edited and typeset by Oxford Publishing Services, Oxford
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction and a note on dates ix
Map of Constantinople and environs xiv

1 The Earl of Kinnoull Sails for Constantinople 1
Introducing the Earl of Kinnoull 1
The journey out 9

2 Life in Constantinople in the Early Eighteenth Century 16
Topography and local population 16
Houses and ‘palaces’ 20
Health and safety 21
The weather and other natural phenomena 24
Belgrade village 25
Excursions 27
Turkish customs and habits 29
European women in Constantinople in the early
eighteenth century 32

3 The New Ambassador Makes a Start 36
Introductions 36
Diplomatic matters 42
The Petrie affair 49
Turkish affairs 54
Communications 62
The Levant Company and the embassy 67

4 Things Fall Apart 79
The Persian war 79
The war of the Polish succession 81
A Swedish sideshow 90
The dragomans Luca Chirico and Antonio Pisani 95
Louis Monier 97
CONTENTS
Further pressure 109
The new ambassador’s arrival and the eventual
departure of the old 115
Some conclusions 125

5 Samuel Medley, Butler 129
At His Excellency’s service 129
‘Madam’ and Mrs Sandys 133
Samuel Medley’s colleagues and friends 137
The Butler observes 155
Personal matters 170

Appendix 1: Biographical notes in relation to the diary and the text 195
Appendix 2: Some members of the Medley family 209
Appendix 3: Currencies and their value 214

Notes 217
Bibliography 237
Glossary 246
Index 251
vi
Acknowledgements
We feel especially indebted to Philip Mansel whose book Constantinople:
City of the World’s Desire, 1453–1924, with its excellent 22-page
bibliography, was the starting point for our background reading.
We should also like to thank, particularly, the following people for
their help, advice and encouragement:
Dr David Allen (University of St Andrew’s); Matthew Bailey (National
Portrait Gallery); Ray Barnett, who designed the first edition of this
book; John Bowden; the late John Buchanan; Duncan Bull
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Peter and Reyhan Bull; Professor John
Cairns (Edinburgh University); Dr Philip Carter (publication editor,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography); Selina Cohen; Professor
Richard Dale; Anthony Earl; Professor Bill Forster; the late Michael
Frewin; Liz Friend-Smith; Robert Frost (Yorkshire Archaeological
Society); Dr Seth Gopin; Pamela Horn; Dr Simon Hyde; Scilla Landale;
Doug McCarthy (National Maritime Museum); Sheila Mackenzie
(National Library of Scotland); Professor Giandemetrio Marangoni
(University of Padua); Christopher Medley, George Medley and Robin
Medley; Emeritus Professor David Pailin; Dr Ruth Paley (History of
Parliament); Andrew Parker of Printhaus Northampton; Andrew Peppitt
(The Devonshire Collection); Leidy Powell; Katja Robinson (National
Galleries of Scotland); Alan Samson; Dr Richard Sharp; Murray Simpson;
Eveline Sint Nicolaas (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Professor Harry
Solomon; Lucie Stericker; Michael Stevens; Liesbeth Strasser (Nationaal
Archief, The Hague); Dr Stephen Thompson; Nigel Wilkins (English
Heritage); Philip Winterbottom (Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Archives); Caroline Wittop Koning (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
We would also like to thank the staff of the Bodleian Library,
Oxford; the staff of the British Library; the staff and Syndics of
Cambridge University Library; the staff of the Hertfordshire Archives
and Local Studies, the staff of The National Archives (formerly the
Public Record Office) at Kew and of the National Archives of Scotland
in Edinburgh; the staff and Trustees of the National Library of Scotland
and the staff of Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Crown copyright material in the custody of the National Archives
(formerly the Public Record Office) is reproduced by kind permission of
the Keeper of Public Records.
viii
Introduction and a
note on dates
A Journal Begun this 16th day of October 1733 – Tuesday – Being
the Day that Compleats 4 years Since I Came on Board Mr
Addames Sloope at Wapping New Stairs and Entered Into the
Retinue of his Excellencie the Earl of Kinnoul as his Stoor keeper
& Cheife Buttler But at this time Groome of the Chambers.
So begins the journal of Mr Samuel Medley, butler to Lord Kinnoull, the
British Ambassador to Constantinople.
He seems not to have been at all a typical butler. Butlers did not
normally write diaries and Medley’s intellect, as indicated by his notes of
things he had read, seems beyond the normal expectations for such a post,
although it was not uncommon for a servant to imitate the master’s reading
habits to some extent (and in some houses to borrow his books).1 Further,
he actually joined Lord Kinnoull, at the age of 62, as ‘Groome of the
Chambers’, lowest among the male upper servants, in a role more likely to
be fulfilled by a young man in his twenties.2
However, one feels that Lord Kinnoull cannot have regretted his
decision to employ Medley, for whatever reason, because Medley comes
across, through the pages of the diary, as having all those qualities of
loyalty, humility, reliability, discretion and integrity3 that Kinnoull would
have expected of a good butler whereas, already by July 1730, Kinnoull
was writing that: ‘in six months time, I don’t believe that I shall have two
[men servants] left out of twenty, which I brought with me.’4
Medley remained with him throughout his period as ambassador and
presumably returned with him to England. Nothing definite is known of
Medley before this period but he had a grown up son5 who was married
in England during his father’s absence and it is tempting to suspect that he
was at this time a widower. It also seems highly likely that he came from
the Pontefract area to which he returned after this trip abroad.
It is a consequence of the Medley family’s pride in Samuel Medley,
ix