John Paget (author)

John Paget (18 April 1808 – 10 April 1892), Paget János in Hungarian, was an English agriculturist and author on Hungary.

Portrait of John Paget (Gustav Morelli, 1893)

Life and works

Paget was born in Loughborough.[1] He was educated at the Unitarian Manchester College at York, and then read medicine. He travelled extensively in Europe. He married the Hungarian Baroness Polyxena Wesselenyi Banffy (née de Hadad), divorced wife of Baron Ladislaus Banffy, on 15 November 1836. He lived on his wife's estate in Transylvania, developing the farming there with an "improved" breed of cow, and campaigning for improvements to agriculture. His diary,[2] in six volumes, was in Hungary's National Museum (and today it is in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest). Volumes 1-5 contain observations on natural history around Europe. Volume 6 records Hungary's 1849 war of independence, in which Paget took part.[3]

He is known for his 1839 book Hungary and Transylvania.[4]

In 1878 after the World Exhibition in Paris he was given the cross of the Legion of Honour.[5]

He died in Ghiriş (then called Gyéres) and is buried in the Hajongard Cemetery in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.[3]

References
  1. Sources stating Thorpe Satchville are wrong; his family moved there only in 1821; cf: Kovács Sándor (2008). "Kétszáz éve született John Paget, Erdély magyar honpolgára" (PDF). Keresztény Magvető. 114 (2): 205–206.
  2. Madden, Henry Miller (1939–1940). "The Diary of John Paget". The Slavonic and East European Review. 19 (53/54): 237–264. JSTOR 4203595.
  3. "Paget Family". Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  4. Volume 1 & Volume 2
  5. Kovács Sándor (2008). "Kétszáz éve született John Paget, Erdély magyar honpolgára" (PDF). Keresztény Magvető. 114 (2): 208.
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