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

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the midlands region with 14,607 inhabitants at the 2016 census. The town retained ...

, Ireland.

Biography

His father was Major George Warburton, Inspector General of the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

for Aughrim, County Galway. His mother was Anne Maria Acton of Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow. He was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, 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 The ''Dublin University Magazine'' was an independent literary cultural and political magazine published in Dublin from 1833 to 1882. It started out as a magazine of political commentary but increasingly became devoted to literature. The magazine ...

'', where the editor,

Charles Lever Charles James Lever (31 August 1806 – 1 June 1872) was an Irish novelist and raconteur, whose novels, according to Anthony Trollope, were just like his conversation. Biography Early life Lever was born in Amiens Street, Dublin, the second ...

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 The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

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 ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine ...

RIA A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...

, Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2008 He was planning to write a history of the poor, and on his last visit to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

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 George Drought Warburton (1816–1857) was an Irish soldier, politician and writer on Canada. Life The third son of George Warburton of Aughrim, County Galway, and younger brother of Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton, known as Eliot, he was ...

(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

* * (with George Warburton) * * * (posthumous; with George Warburton)

References

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External links

* {{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