John Mottley

He was the son of Colonel Thomas Mottley, a Jacobite adherent of James II in his exile, who entered the service of Louis XIV, and was killed at the battle of Turin in 1706; his mother was Dionisia, daughter of John Guise of Ablode Court, Gloucestershire.

John was born in London, was educated at Archbishop Thomas Tenison's grammar school in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and obtained a clerkship in the excise office in 1708.

[1] He made his debut as a dramatic author with a tragedy in the pseudo-classic style, entitled The Imperial Captives, the scene of which is laid at Carthage, in the time of Genseric, who with the Empress Eudoxia and her daughter plays a principal part.

In a humorous vein are his dramatic opera, Penelope, in which he was assisted by Thomas Cooke (1703–1756), a satire on Alexander Pope's Odyssey, and his farce The Craftsman, or Weekly Journalist (both performed at the Haymarket, and printed in 1728 and 1729 respectively).

[1] Mottley is also the author of two historical works: The History of the Life of Peter I, Emperor of Russia, London, 1739, 2 vols.