Eliot Warburton

Bartholomew Eliot George Warburton (1810–1852), usually known as Eliot Warburton, was an Irish traveller and novelist, born near Tullamore, Ireland.

Biography

His father was Major George Warburton, Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary for Aughrim, County Galway. His mother was Anne Maria Acton of Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1837. He contracted lasting friendships with Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) and AW Kinglake, author of ''Eothen'', which he admired. He decided to give up his practice as a barrister for travel and literature.

His first travel articles were published in the ''Dublin University Magazine'', where the editor, Charles Lever persuaded him to make them into a book. This became his first book, ''The Crescent and the Cross'', an account of his travels in 1843 in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and which fairly divided public attention with Kinglake's ''Eothen'', which appeared in the same year, 1844. Interest in England was centred in the East at the time, and Warburton had popular sympathy with Kinglake in his advocacy of the annexation of Egypt. But, apart from this consideration, the spirited narrative of Warburton's adventures and the picturesque sketches of Eastern life and character were more than sufficient to justify the success of the book. It was a huge success and went into 18 editions.

In 1847 Warburton wrote ''Zoë: an episode of the Greek War'', derived from a story he had heard while visiting the Greek islands. He donated the proceeds of the book to Irish famine relief. His most substantial work was a ''Memoir of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers'' (1849), enriched with original documents, and written with eloquent partiality for the subject. This was followed in 1850 by ''Reginald Hastings'', a novel, the scenes of which were laid in the same period of civil war, and, in 1851, by another historical novel, ''Darien, or The Merchant Prince''. He was also for a time the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine.RIA, Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2008

He was planning to write a history of the poor, and on his last visit to Dublin visited slums and poor areas of the city. However, in 1852 he was sent by the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company to explore the isthmus of Darién and to negotiate friendly relations between the company and the local Indian tribes. He sailed on this mission aboard the steamship , and died along with about 110 other passengers and crew when the ''Amazon'' caught fire and sank on 4 January 1852 in the Bay of Biscay.

Family

On 11 January 1848 he married Matilda Jane, second daughter of Edward Grove, of Shenstone Park, Staffordshire. They had two sons, George and Piers.

His brother, Major George Drought Warburton (1816–1857, named after his uncle George Drought of Glencarrig, County Wicklow), collaborated with him on ''Hochelaga, or England in the New World'' (1847), and ''The Conquest of Canada'' (1849). Another brother, Thomas, studied law at Trinity College, Dublin, while a sister, Sidney, was also a writer.

Bibliography

Fiction

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Nonfiction

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References

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Warburton, Eliot
1810 births
1852 deaths
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Deaths due to ship fires
People who died at sea
Irish travel writers
19th-century travel writers
People from County Offaly
Irish male novelists
19th-century Irish novelists
19th-century male writers