Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet ( – 21 July 1812)
was a
British ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
(
Ottoman Porte
The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire.
History
The nam ...
), orientalist and
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
. He was a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for the
rotten borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...
of
Milborne Port
Milborne Port is a village, electoral ward and civil parish in Somerset, England, east of Sherborne, and in the South Somerset district. It has a population of 2,802. The parish includes the hamlets of Milborne Wick and Kingsbury Regis.
The vil ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
between 1796 and 1802.
Biography
Early life and family
He was the third and youngest son of George Ainslie, Esq., from a
Lasswade
Lasswade is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk, nine miles (14.5 kilometres) south of Edinburgh city centre, contiguous with Bonnyrigg and between Dalkeith to the east and Loanhead to the west. Melville C ...
family, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Philip Anstruther of Anstrutherfield, and died in 1773. The issue of the marriage of George Ainslie was a family of eight children, and included five daughters, four of whom were married and established in France. The elder brothers of Ainslie were Sir
Philip Ainslie
Colonel Sir Philip Ainslie of Pilton (1728–1802) was a Scottish landowner. He was regimental Colonel of the 7th Dragoons.
Life
He was born in 1728 in Pilton, Edinburgh, the second son of George Ainslie (d.1773), a merchant who made a fortu ...
, knight, who was born in 1728, and died on 19 June 1802; and
George Ainslie, a general in the army, colonel of the 13th regiment of foot, and lieutenant-governor of the
Scilly Islands
The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...
, who died on 1804 and was buried in Highgate cemetery.
Ainslie, who was born about 1730, is described as having resided in the earlier part of his life at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, where his father had been for some time settled as a merchant.
He is said to have returned to Scotland in 1727, and to have purchased the estate of
Pilton, in the county of
Midlothian
Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...
.
Ambassador to Turkey
Ainslie is first noticed in the ''
London Gazette
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
'' on 20 September 1775: "The king has been pleased to appoint Robert Ainslie, Esq., to be his majesty's ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, in the room of John Murray, Esq., deceased; and his majesty was pleased this day to confer upon him the honour of knighthood, upon which occasion he had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand."
He left England in May 1776 for
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, where he arrived on 2 October following. Ainslie had the reputation while in Turkey of being a great favourite and boon companion of the
Sultan Abdul Hamid I.
He returned to England in 1791. He was given leave to return home on 22 September 1793 and left Turkey sometime in 1794.
MP
On 8 September 1796, Ainslie received a grant of a pension of £1,000 on the civil list, to be held 'during the joint lives of his majesty and himself'; and was elected a member of the parliament which met on the 27th of the same month, with
Lord Paget as his colleague, for the close borough of
Milborne Port
Milborne Port is a village, electoral ward and civil parish in Somerset, England, east of Sherborne, and in the South Somerset district. It has a population of 2,802. The parish includes the hamlets of Milborne Wick and Kingsbury Regis.
The vil ...
,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
. At the general election of 1802, his seat in parliament was transferred to Hugh Leycester.
He was created a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, of
Great Torrington
Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same region) is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to ...
in the
County of Lincoln
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, on 13 October 1804, with remainder, in default of issue male, to his nephew, Robert Sharpe Ainslie, son of General George Ainslie. 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'' ...
'' for December 1796 records the death of his son on 20 December 1796 from a violent fever. His great-nephew was
Thomas Corbett (Lincolnshire MP)
Thomas George Corbett (1796 - 1868) was an English Member of Parliament, and High Sherriff of Lincolnshire in 1840.
Background
Thomas Corbett was the son of William Corbett (died 1832) of Darnhall and his wife Jane Eleanor, daughter of George A ...
.
Ainslie died after a long illness aged 83 at
Bath, England
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the ceremonial counties of England, county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 1 ...
, on 21 July 1812.
Numismatics
Ainslie took advantage of his position at Constantinople to amass a collection of ancient coins from
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
,
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, and the north of Africa.
The most characteristic were described by
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
Domenico Sestini, who dedicated to Ainslie a work which has gone through several editions, entitled ''Lettere e Dissertazioni Numismatiche sopra alcune Medaglie rare della Collezione Ainslieana'', 4 vols. 4to, Leghorn, 1789–90,
a fifth volume of which, with the enlarged title ''e di altri Musei,'' appeared at
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1794, and four others, referring to particular collections, were published at
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in 1804–06.
Sestini continued his exposition of the Ainslie collection in a smaller work, and more special in its scope, entitled ''Dissertazione sopra alcune Monete Armene del Principi Rupinensi della Collezione Ainslieana'', 4to, Leghorn, 1790. This work is at present bound up with a copy of the first four volumes of the ''Lettere e Dissertazioni,'' which, according to an inscription, probably autographic, on the fly-leaf, was "presented from Sr Robt Ainslie, 5 June 1795", to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
Another of Sestini's volumes is entitled ''Descriptio Numorum Veterum ex Museis Ainslie, Bellini, Bondacca, Borgia,'' Leipzig, 1796. Ainslie had been the 'Mæcenas' of Sestini's dedication of the ''Lettere e Dissertazioni'' of 1789; seven years later, in the preface to the ''Descriptio,'' he was a malignant speculator and trader in antiquities.
Research and commissions
Ainslie's researches embraced antiquities of various kinds, objects of natural history, and illustrations of the East and its current life. Ainslie was a friend of important German orientalist artist
Luigi Mayer
is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...
and before departing Turkey travelled with him along the coast. He commissioned Mayer to produce drawings of many landmarks en route include the former settlements of ancient
Lycia
Lycia (Lycian language, Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; el, Λυκία, ; tr, Likya) was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean ...
, such as ''The Harbor at Cacamo'' and ancient
Telmessus
Telmessos or Telmessus ( Hittite: 𒆪𒉿𒆷𒉺𒀸𒊭 ''Kuwalapašša'', Lycian: 𐊗𐊁𐊍𐊁𐊂𐊁𐊛𐊆 ''Telebehi'', grc, Τελμησσός), also Telmissus ( grc, Τελμισσός), later Anastasiopolis ( grc, Αναστ ...
(
Fethiye
Fethiye () is a city and district of Muğla Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. It is one of the prominent tourist destinations in the Turkish Riviera. In 2019 its population was 162,686.
History
Fethiye was formerly known as Makri (). ...
).
Mayer also drew other places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans for Ainslie and in his time visited
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
, the
Ionian Islands and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, all documented in his paintings. Three volumes of drawings were published, in the words of the dedication, 'under his auspices.' The first of these is entitled ''Views in Egypt, from the original drawings in possession of Sir Robert Ainslie, taken during his Embassy to Constantinople by Luigi Mayer; engraved by and under the direction of Thomas Milton; with historical Observations and incidental Illustrations of the Manners and Customs of the Natives of that Country,'' eleph. fol. London, 1801.
This was followed by two bilingual volumes, English and French, entitled ''Views in the Ottoman Empire, chiefly in Caramania'', &c., 1803; and ''Views in Palestine,'' &c., 1804. The coloured plates in these volumes are ninety-six in number; and fifty-four were afterwards given in the first edition, and seventy-one in the second edition, of ''Views in Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia'', London, 1810.
A selection from all these appeared in 1833 as a group of engravings, uncoloured and of smaller size, with the title of ''A Series of Twenty-four Views illustrative of the Holy Scriptures''.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ainslie, Rob
Scottish numismatists
Ambassadors of Great Britain to the Ottoman Empire
Scottish orientalists
1730 births
1812 deaths
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1796–1800
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
UK MPs 1801–1802
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Knights Bachelor