William Lithgow (traveller and author)

William Lithgow (born around 1585 at Lanark, Scotland; died perhaps in 1645), traveler, writer and alleged spy. He claimed at the end of his various peregrinations to have tramped 36,000 miles on foot.

Life and Adventures

William Lithgow was the oldest son of the merchant James Lithgow and Alison Graham.

Prior to 1610 he had visited Shetland, Switzerland, and Bohemia. In that year he set out from Paris for Rome on the 7 March, where he remained for four weeks before moving on to other parts of Italy: Naples, Ancona, before moving on to Athens, Constantinople, and others. After a three-month stay in Constantinople, he sailed to other Grecian localities and then on to Palestine, arriving in Jerusalemon Palm Sunday 1612, and later on to Egypt.

His next journey, 1614–16, was in Tunis and Fez; but his last, 1619–21, to Spain, ended unfortunately in his apprehension at Malaga and torture as a spy.

He also visited Crete.^[1]

Bibliography

• Rare Adventures and Paineful Peregrinations, an account of his travels
• The Siege of Breda,
• The Siege of Newcastle,
• Poems.
• Lithgow, William (1643), "The present surveigh of London and England's state", in Somers, J. Somers, A collection of scarce and valuable tracts..., 4, pp. 534–545 

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 
• Martin Garrett, 'William Lithgow' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.

Further reading

• Reid, Thomas (10 April 1911), "Notes on the life of William Lithgow, Traveller" (PDF), Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: 403–415 

External links

•  "Lithgow, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 
• Significant Scots – William Lithgow