Vol 3 - Lackham Countryside Centre

The Manor of Lackham Vol 3 : The Montagu family
mind is indescribable 454
George Montagu was never a man for ceremony and
preferred to live a secluded life spending his days beating
through think brushwood to identify the song of a woodwren
or collecting sea worms from the mud at Kingsbridge or
dredging in Tor Bay 455
George Montagu died of lockjaw on 28 th August 1815 after stepping on a
rusty nail.
His son George C C Montagu, who actually inherited Lackham from his
uncle James V, was a spendthrift and
even in 1797 he had already started to sign promissory notes
for ready cash, and by 1799 he was living in the north of
England and elsewhere under an assumed name (sometimes
more than one!) in an effort to dodge his creditors.
Thereafter he spent some time, on and off, living under Kings
Bench Rules and thus came the gradual sale of the estate 456
One of these assumed names was “William Thompson ”; in 1803 (when he
was 27 years old) he was living in Liverpool under this name. It was here
that he “paid his addresses” to Margaret Green Wilson, who was 10
years his junior and “in the month of December 1803 457 they went
together to Gretna Green in Scotland and were there lawfully married in
their own proper names” 458
454 handwritten transcription in Kite, E (undated B) ibid vol II Probably local paper;
although it reads like Gents. Mag it was not found in the relevant volume.
455 Cunnington, W (1852) Memoir of George Montagu WAM III p 91
456 Lacock inscriptions ibid
457 “On or about 29 December” W&SHC 44/1 - Judge’s declaration and
pronouncement
458 W&SHC 44/1 ibid Libel section 1
112