Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet

Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet, KB ( * 1701, † November 6, 1786 in Florence) was the longtime British Ambassador in Florence.

Life

Horace Mann was the son of a successful London businessman Robert Mann (1677-1752), attended Eton College and studied briefly (since it was not related to his health to the best ) at the University of Cambridge (Clare College) and then undertook in the 1730s, a Grand Tour through Europe. In 1737 he was first secretary of the British Ambassador to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Charles Fane. Later, he was himself in Florence as a diplomat, first in 1738 as an associate Chargé d'affaires, from 1740 to 1764 as an ambassador and then from 1767 Envoy.

In Florence he was talking in his villa in the Fondaccio Santo Spirito an open house for visitors from his home (especially for English traveler who completed their Grand Tour ) and Europe and is now best known for his extensive correspondence with Horace Walpole, whom he met in 1739. He was also a protégé of the music of George Frideric Handel, whose oratorios he had perform in Florence from 1768, in cooperation with Lord George Cowper ( 1738-1789 ), who also lived in Florence. He was also an art collector with connections to many fine artists such as Raphael Mengs in Rome or the British painter Thomas Patch (1725-1782), who lived in Florence and with whom he was a close friend.

As Britain had no official ambassador to the Pope in Rome, were also reports from Rome and especially the activities of the Jacobites ( Old Pretendenter James Francis Edward Stuart and Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart ) to his duties.

1755 he was appointed a baronet in 1768 and a Knight of the Bath Order.

He never married. After his elder brother Edward 's death in 1775 he inherited the family home in Linton in Kent. He handed over the family home in Linton but already in 1775 against an annual payment to his nephew and heir Horatio ( Horace ) Mann, 2nd Baronet, the son of his brother Galfridus, who died in 1756. This was the death of his uncle in Florence, he visited almost every year there, and after a few months of British charge d' affaires. With him went the baronetcy, as it only had three daughters and no son.

It should not be confused with the US-based educators Horace Mann.