I extracted here some categories of people from the database to give an idea of the width and variety of the project. It’s still pretty much a work in progress.
N.B. The people listed here are not necessarily from Livorno/Leghorn; they are part of the larger network.
Scientists (not yet)
East India Co. Merchants / Directors
Entrepreneurs (not yet)
Diplomats (not yet)
Leghorn Merchant Networks 
Dear Mr Wentworth-Stanley,
I am writing to you with regards to your post concerning the life of Montagu Wilkinson. Did you discover any more about his time in Livorno? I believe that Montagu Wilkinson married Ann Catherin Hobart (daughter of Hon. Henry Hobart) and later changed his name to Montagu Montagu (according to his will, located in the National Archives). From the research I have undertaken he was born in Little Bookham, Surrey and his last known address in England was White Waltham, Hampshire.
I am interested to know anything about his children or decedents; I believe he had five boys –Montagu, Henry (who married Maria Long, daughter of Beeston Long), Willoughby, Horace and Leopold. If you have any additional information you can share with me I would be most grateful.
Thank you.
Sophie Symth
I will be very happy to share information with you. Please contact me through Matteo Giunti.
Christopher Wentworth-Stanley
My interest in Livorno stems from my research into a certain Montagu Wilkinson (1744-1797) who left England for Italy with his wife, Ann, and three young children in August 1789. They remained there until November 1796. He died in Vienna in June 1797.
I have collected extensive but unfortunately fragmentary material concerning Wilkinson and am trying to piece together an account of his activities in Italy. In England he had been Chief Clerk at the Signet Office at Somerset House (a lucrative sinecure which he held until his death) and a Regimental Agent. What he was doing in Italy is as yet unclear, though his purchasing busts from the sculptor Luigi Acquisti is documented and a prolonged stay in Munich in 1794, and his going on business to Saxony at that time, leads me to think that he might possibly have been dealing in statuary. He was closely acquainted with Sir William Hamilton.
The family seem to have settled first in Livorno. Their fourth child, Leopold Sheffield, was apparently born in Livorno on 13 March 1790 and was baptised there (or possibly in Pisa) on 11 April, with John, Lord Sheffield (Gibbon’s friend) and the Grand Duke Leopold acting as Godparents (the Grand Duke by proxy of course, as he had already returned to Vienna to take the Throne following the death of his brother, Emperor Joseph II). By December 1791 they had settled in Rome but it would appear that Wilkinson maintained business connections in Livorno: this is suggested in a document written by him in Rome in Feb. 1796 where he refers to papers of his “relative to my Personals in England and at Leghorn”.
I would be very grateful for any further information about Montagu Wilkinson.
Christopher Wentworth-Stanley