William Lithgow (traveller and author)

William Lithgow (c. 1582 – c. 1645) was a Scottish traveller, writer, poet and alleged spy.

A family tradition had it that William was discovered in the company of a certain Miss Lockhart, and her four brothers cut off his ears, earning him the nickname "lugless Willie".

In that year he set out from Paris for Rome but on his way had allegedly been apprehended by a band of robbers but instead they took pity on him and gave him money instead.he arrived in Rome on the 7th of March, where he remained for four weeks before moving on to other parts of Italy: Naples, Ancona, before moving on to Athens, Constantinople, it was on a voyage to Constantinople from Italy he claims to have been in a shipwreck and narrowly escaped with his life.

After a three-month stay in Constantinople, he sailed to other Greek localities and then on to Palestine, arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 1612, and later on to Egypt.

His next journey, 1614–1616, was in Tunis and Fez; but his last, 1619–1621, to Spain, ended in his apprehension at Malaga and torture under the Inquisition as a spy.