Basil Montagu (1770-1851) is the natural son of the fourth Earl of Sandwich by the singer Martha Ray.
He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1791, he married. He writes: from that moment my father never spoke to me. I lived in lodgings in Cambridge and supported myself by taking pupils... In 1793 my wife died in childbed, two years later I settled in Lincoln's Inn Chambers (London). My child was with me, entrusted to my protection when I was little able to protect myself. By an accident I became acquainted with Wm Wordsworth. We spent some months together. He saw me, with great industry, perplexed and misled by passions wild and strong.
He is falling into alcoholism, and generally not coping well with life. He asserts regarding Wordsworth: In the wreck of my happiness, he saw the probable ruin of my infant. He unremittingly, and to me imperceptibly, endeavoured to eradicate my faults and encourage my good dispositions. (from an unpublished autobiography by Montagu in the Wordsworth Museum, quoted by M.Moorman, William Wordsworth, p261)