Obelisk celebrating pioneering Lady Mary Wortley Montagu given highest listing

It is a monument that celebrates the achievements of someone who, her supporters say, would be much more famous if she were a man.

But now a 300-year-old obelisk has been given one of England's highest listings for the remarkable story it tells of an overlooked medical pioneer.

Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat whose drive and daring helped save countless lives. In the early 1720s she introduced the smallpox vaccination to Britain, which saved many lives and paved the way for Edward Jenner's vaccine 75 years later.

The obelisk, known as the Sun Monument, was built in the gardens of Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire, in the early to mid-18th century, probably at the behest of William Wentworth, the second Earl of Strafford.

It has been listed as a Grade II listed building since 1968, but is now being upgraded to Grade II*. This means that it is of more than special importance: only 5.8% of monumental buildings receive this grade.

Sarah Charlesworth, listing team leader for the North, said the main aim of the new listing was to make the story of Lady Wortley Montagu – “one of the overlooked heroines in the history of medicine” – better known. to make. Like most people, Charlesworth was unaware of Wortley Montagu. “She's largely forgotten… but she did things that were really amazing. She was progressive and ahead of her time.”

The obelisk is highly unusual because it was “dedicated to a woman who was not part of the family and not royal, which was unheard of.” Self-educated Wortley Montagu was the wife of politician and diplomat Edward Wortley Montagu.

She was described by her contemporary Joseph Spence as “one of the most extraordinary characters in the world”, who was “irregular and always wandering” and shone “like a comet”.

During her lifetime, smallpox epidemics were frequent and fatal, and her 20-year-old brother died of the disease. Wortley Montagu also contracted smallpox but survived, although she was left with facial scars.

During her husband's period as British ambassador to the Ottoman royal court in Constantinople, she witnessed the local method of inoculation against smallpox, in which people were deliberately given a small dose of the disease.

The vaccination was a common practice and the reason death rates in Turkey were so much lower than in countries like Britain. After reviewing the practice with British Embassy surgeon Charles Maitland, she made the brave decision to have the procedure performed on her five-year-old son by an experienced local woman.

Back in London in 1721, another smallpox epidemic raged and Wortley Montagu persuaded Maitland to vaccinate her daughter. She then used her daughter's rapid recovery and immunity to promote the practice.

“She was really supportive of the cause, but she took a lot of flak for it,” Charlesworth said. “People were generally against it and it was seen as anti-religious. And she was a woman – people said they wouldn't listen to a woman, that kind of attitude. She really had to fight, but she managed to get the message across and as a result many people were vaccinated.”

Two of King George I's granddaughters were among those treated and historians have speculated that the Earl of Strafford may have been vaccinated as a child since his parents were neighbors of Wortley Montagu in Twickenham.

Although inoculation was generally successful, it remained controversial and posed a risk. From the end of the 18th century, Jenner's vaccination against smallpox derived from cowpox, a similar but much less virulent disease, began to replace it.

Wentworth Castle Gardens are today under the care of the National Trust. The site's general manager, Torri Crapper, said they were pleased to see the Sun Monument receiving new recognition. “It's such a striking feature in the landscape,” she said. “Wentworth Castle Gardens is home to no fewer than 26 Grade II listed buildings and monuments, each with a different story.

“Lady Mary's story is such an important part of history that deserves to be told, and that we are proud to share with our visitors.”