Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet (c.
1730 – 21 July 1812) was a Scottish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
(Ottoman Porte)), orientalist and numismatist. He was a Member of Parliament
(MP) for the rotten borough
of Milborne Port
in Somerset
between 1796 and 1802.
Sir Robert, who was born either in 1729, or most probably in 1730, is described as having resided in the earlier part of his life at Bordeaux
, 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
.
,’ 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.’ Sir Robert Ainslie left England in May, 1776, for Constantinople
, where he arrived in November following. Sir Robert Ainslie had the reputation while in Turkey of being a great favourite and boon companion of the Sultan Abdu-l Ahmed (Ahmed IV). He returned to England in 1791.
, Somerset
. At the general election of 1802, his seat in parliament was transferred to Hugh Leycester. Sir Robert on 13 October 1804 (London Gazette) was created a baronet
, with remainder, in default of issue male, to his nephew, Robert Sharpe Ainslie, son of General Ainslie of the 13th Regiment of Foot, Lieutenant Governor of The Scilly Islands (1783) and aide-de-camp
to George III . The Gentleman's Magazine for December 1796 records the death of his son on December 20, 1796 from a violent fever.
Sir Robert Ainslie died after a long illness aged 83 at Bath, England, on 21 July 1812.
, Asia Minor
, and the north of Africa. The most characteristic were described by Abate Domenico Sestini, who dedicated to Sir Robert 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
in 1794, and four others, referring to particular collections, were published at Berlin
in 1804–6. 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, June 5, 1795,’ to the British Museum
. Another volume of Sestini's is entitled Descriptio Numorum Veterum ex Museis Ainslie, Bellini, Bondacca, Borgia, Leipzig, 1796. Sir Robert 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.
and before departing Turkey travelled with him along the coast. He commissioned Mayer to produce drawings of many landmarks enroute include the former settlements of ancient Lycia
, such as The Harbor At Cacamo and ancient Telmessus
(Fethiye
). Mayer also drew other places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans for Ainslie and in his time visited Wallonia, the Ionian Islands
and Egypt
, 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.
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1730 – 21 July 1812) was a Scottish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(Ottoman Porte)), orientalist and numismatist. He was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for the rotten borough
Rotten borough
A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....
of Milborne Port
Milborne Port (UK Parliament constituency)
Milborne Port is a former parliamentary borough located in Somerset. It elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons between 1298 and 1307 and again from 1628, but was disenfranchised in the Reform Act 1832 as a rotten borough.- MPs 1640–1832 :...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
between 1796 and 1802.
Early life and family
He was the third and youngest son of George Ainslie, Esq., the representative of the ancient Scottish family of Ainslie of Dolphington, chief of the name, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Philip Anstruther of Anstrutherfield, and died in 1733. The issue of the marriage of George Ainslie was a family of seven children, and included four daughters, three of whom were married and established in France. The elder brothers of Sir Robert were Sir Philip Ainslie, 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, who died on 7 July 1804.Sir Robert, who was born either in 1729, or most probably in 1730, is described as having resided in the earlier part of his life at Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, 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
Pilton
Pilton may refer to:* East Pilton* Pilton, Devon* Pilton, Edinburgh* Pilton, Northamptonshire* Pilton, Queensland* Pilton, Rutland* Pilton, Somerset* West Pilton...
, in the county of Midlothian
Midlothian
Midlothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....
.
Ambassador to Turkey
Robert Ainslie is first noticed in the ‘London GazetteLondon Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
,’ 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.’ Sir Robert Ainslie left England in May, 1776, for Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, where he arrived in November following. Sir Robert Ainslie had the reputation while in Turkey of being a great favourite and boon companion of the Sultan Abdu-l Ahmed (Ahmed IV). He returned to England in 1791.
MP
On 8 September 1796, Sir Robert 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 PortMilborne Port
Milborne Port is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, east of Sherborne, and in the South Somerset district. It has a population of 2,735...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. At the general election of 1802, his seat in parliament was transferred to Hugh Leycester. Sir Robert on 13 October 1804 (London Gazette) was created a baronet
Ainslie Baronets
- Ainslie of Great Torrington, Lincs :*Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet.*Sir Robert Sharpe Ainslie, 2nd Baronet....
, with remainder, in default of issue male, to his nephew, Robert Sharpe Ainslie, son of General Ainslie of the 13th Regiment of Foot, Lieutenant Governor of The Scilly Islands (1783) and aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to George III . The Gentleman's Magazine for December 1796 records the death of his son on December 20, 1796 from a violent fever.
Sir Robert Ainslie died after a long illness aged 83 at Bath, England, on 21 July 1812.
Numismatics
Sir Robert Ainslie took advantage of his position at Constantinople to amass a collection of ancient coins from Eastern EuropeEastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, and the north of Africa. The most characteristic were described by Abate Domenico Sestini, who dedicated to Sir Robert 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
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1794, and four others, referring to particular collections, were published at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1804–6. 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, June 5, 1795,’ to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Another volume of Sestini's is entitled Descriptio Numorum Veterum ex Museis Ainslie, Bellini, Bondacca, Borgia, Leipzig, 1796. Sir Robert 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
Sir Robert 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 MayerLuigi Mayer
Luigi Mayer was an Italian-German artist and one of the earliest and most important late 18th century European painters of the Ottoman Empire. He was a close friend of Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet, a British ambassador to Turkey between 1776 and 1792, and the bulk of his paintings and drawings...
and before departing Turkey travelled with him along the coast. He commissioned Mayer to produce drawings of many landmarks enroute include the former settlements of ancient Lycia
Lycia
Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire...
, such as The Harbor At Cacamo and ancient Telmessus
Telmessus
Telmessos or Telmessus , later Anastasiopolis, then Makri or Macre, was the largest city in Lycia, near the Carian border, and is sometimes confused with Telmessos in Caria...
(Fethiye
Fethiye
Fethiye is a city and district of Muğla Province in the Aegean region of Turkey with about 68,000 inhabitants .-History:...
). Mayer also drew other places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans for Ainslie and in his time visited Wallonia, the Ionian Islands
Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i.e...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, 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.