About 1800 a plan was started for erecting a naval temple which should record the feats of British seamen. Cartwright produced one which was considered to be far ahead of any other project. Drawings were publicly exhibited at a house in Pall Mall, and an elaborate quarto volume remains as a record of the scheme, and, indeed, as the only part of it which was ever carried out (‘The Trident, or the National Policy of Naval Celebration; describing a Hieronauticon, or Naval Temple’). In 1803–4 Cartwright renewed his representations relative to the defenceless state of the country, particularly in the eastern counties, and produced one of his more important works, under the title of ‘England's Ægis; or, the Military Energies of the Constitution.’ He contributed many papers to Cobbett's ‘ Register’ on this and other topics. He continued to publish numerous writings, of which the more important were: ‘The Comparison: in which Mock Reform, Half Reform, and Constitutional Reform are considered; or, who are the Statesmen to preserve our Laws and Liberties’ (1810); ‘Six Letters to the Marquis of Tavistock, on a Reform of the Commons House of Parliament’ ( 1812); ‘The English Constitution produced and illustrated’ (1823). He also devoted himself during the later years of his life to the cause of Spanish patriotism; and in 1821, at a time when the Greeks were making their struggle for independence, he aided the public subscriptions both in money and by his pen in ‘Hints to the Greeks’ (a study of pikes, in default of bayonets). In 1813 he was arrested in the course of a political tour, but soon released; and in 1820 was tried for sedition and fined 100l.
In 1805 Cartwright left his Lincolnshire home and came up to the metropolis, residing for some time at Enfield. In 1810 he removed to James Street, Buckingham Gate, and in 1819 to Burton Crescent, where he resided till his death on 23 Sept. 1824. A monument has been erected to his memory in the garden opposite. Cartwright was one of the most generous-minded public men of his time. He was tender to his opponents, forgiving to detractors, and always open-handed. He saved persons from drowning, at the risk of his own life, on four different occasions. His writings are excessively dry to the ordinary reader, and quite significant of the enthusiast who could be earnest without being inflammatory. ‘He was cheerful, agreeable, and full of curious anecdote. He was, however, in political matters, exceedingly troublesome, and sometimes exceedingly absurd,’ according to Mr. Place (Add. MS. 27850, fol. 108). Other testimony of his contemporaries seems to show the accuracy of this opinion. Upwards of eighty tracts or other writings, besides the above-mentioned, were published by him, a list of which is given in the biography by his niece (ii. 299–301). Those which expressed a full statement of his views are: ‘Give us our Rights: or, a letter to the present electors of Middlesex and the Metropolis, showing what those rights are,’ &c. (1782); ‘The Commonwealth in Danger: with an introduction, containing remarks on some late writings of Arthur Young’ (1795). The rest of them are mere reiterations. Cartwright married in 1780 Miss Anne Katharine Dashwood, of a Lincolnshire family, but had no issue. His wife died on 21 Dec. 1834, and was buried by her husband in the churchyard of Finchley, Middlesex.
[Add. MSS. 27850 ff. 108 et seq., 27937 ff. 76, 80, 82, 92, 30108 ff. 333, 353, 30109 ff. 61, 124, 125, 30110 f. 80, 30111 f. 8; The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright, edited by his niece, F. D. C. (1826); A Memoir of John Cartwright, the Reformer, with a Likeness of that Honest and Consistent Patriot (1831); Tait's Magazine, new ser. i. 437 (1834); Life of S. Romilly (3rd ed.), ii. 109, 218–24, 508; Times, 25 Sept. 1824; Monthly Chronicle, 24 Sept. 1824; Gent. Mag. xciv. ii. 467–9; Monthly Review, lxxiii. 287 et seq.]
CARTWRIGHT, JOSEPH (1789?–1829), marine painter, was apparently a native of Dawlish in Devonshire, and was attached to the navy in a civil capacity. When the Ionian Islands came into the possession of the English, he was appointed paymaster-general of the forces at Corfu, which post he held for some years. On his return to England he published a volume entitled ‘Views in the Ionian Islands,’ and henceforth devoted himself to art, and especially to painting marine subjects and naval engagements. He exhibited many pictures at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Society of British Artists, and obtained a great reputation in his particular line. In 1825 he was elected a member of the Society of British Artists, and in 1828 he was appointed marine painter to H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, lord high admiral of England. He died, much esteemed and regretted, at his apartments at Charing Cross, on 16 Jan. 1829, aged about forty. Among his principal pictures were ‘The Burning of L'Orient at the Battle of the Nile,’ ‘The Battle of Algiers,’ ‘The Battle of Trafalgar,’ ‘The Port of Venice at Carnival Time,’ ‘H.M.S. Greyhound and H.M.S. Harrier engaging a Dutch Squadron in the Java Seas,’ ‘Frigates becalmed in the Ionian
