against the Wahabee pirates of the Persian Gulf, which destroyed their stronghold of Ras-el-Khymeh. He was present with the Persians during the war with Turkey, which was ended by the visitation of Asiatic cholera in 1821. He was then employed to ascertain the boundary between Persia and Turkey.
In 1826 the threatened storm from the north broke, and in the unsuccessful operations of the Persians against the Russians Monteith was present at the Persian headquarters. Peace was signed between Russia and Persia on 21 Feb. 1828, and Monteith was appointed commissioner for the payment of the indemnity of 400,000l. exacted from Persia by Russia, part of which was conveyed by him personally into the Russian camp. He was thus brought into contact with the Russian commander, Prince Paskiewitch, which led to his presence at the Russian headquarters at Tiflis during the war between the Russians and Turks in 1828. He was ordered to remain in Persia until the settlement of the Russo-Persian boundary. He left Persia in October 1829, and on his way home was present with the French army at the capture of Algiers in July 1830. Monteith married on 23 March 1831. He returned to India in July 1832, and was appointed chief engineer at Madras, but in January 1834 was superseded by the arrival of Colonel Gurnard, who was ten years his senior. Monteith then became superintending engineer at the presidency, but on Gurnard's death, 2 Sept. 1836, he again became chief engineer, and, ex afficio, a member of the military board, a position he held to 18 July 1842. He became a major-general on 23 Nov. 1841, retired from the service in 1847, and attained the honorary rank of lieutenant-general in 1854. He died at his residence, Upper Wigmore Street, London, on 18 April 1864, aged 73.
Monteith wrote: 'Ears and Erzeroum, with the Campaign of Prince Paskiewitch,' London, 1856, 8vo; translated ' The Diplomatists of Europe 'from the French of Cape-figue, London, 1845, 8vo; and edited 'Narrative of the Conquest of Finland by the Russians in 1808-9,' London, 1854, 8vo. He was also author of the following geographical works: 1. 'Mémoire pour servir a la Descript. Geogr. de la Perse,' in 'Soc. Geogr. Bulletin,' 1826, vi. 35-41. 2. 'Account of the Ragery Hills, near Madras,' 'Geogr. Soc. Journal,' 1835, p. 404. 3. 'Account of the Operations for widening the Pamban Passage in the Gulf of Manaar,' 'Madras Journal,' 1836, vi. 111-36. 4. 'Journal of a Tour through Azerdbijan and the Shores of the Caspian,' 'Geogr. Soc. Journal,' 1838, iii. 1-58. 5. 'Notes on the Routes from Bushire to Shiraz,' 'Geogr. Soc. Journal,' 1857, xxvii. 108-19. Monteith was F.R.S. and F.R.G.S. London, a member of various foreign learned societies, and a knight of the Persian order of the Lion and Sun.
[Information supplied by the India Office; Vibart's Hist. of the Madras Sappers and Miners, London, 1884, ii. 113-31; Brit. Museum Catalogues, and Cat. of Scient. Papers; Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 378.]
MONTEZ, LOLA (1818–1861), dancer and adventuress. [See Gilbert, Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna.]
MONTFICHET, RICHARD de (d. 1268), justiciar, was son of Richard de Montfichet, whom Henry II made forester of Essex. Richard the elder was son of Gilbert and grandson of William de Montfichet, founder of the abbey of Stratford-Langton Essex; he was with Richard I in Normandy in 1195, was sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1202, and died next year, leaving one son by his wife Milisent. The young Richard was then about ten years old, and was at first a ward of Roger de Lacy [q. v.] He appears as witnessing several charters in 1214, and on 21 June 1215 received charge of the forests of Essex as his by hereditary right. He had nevertheless acted previously with the baronial party, and been present at the meeting at Stamford in March. He was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Charta, and as a prominent member of the party was ex-communicated by the pope in 1216. He supported Louis of France both before and after John's death, and fighting at Lincoln against William Marshal on 20 May 1217 was then taken prisoner. He returned to loyalty, and recovered his lands in the following October (Cal. Rot. Claus, i. 327). In 1223 his lands were again for a time seized by the king in consequence of his presence at a prohibited tournament at Blythe. In 1225 he was a justice-itinerant for Essex and Hertfordshire (ib. ii. 76), and in the same year was a witness to the confirmation of Magna Charta. In 1234 he was admitted to sit as a baron of the exchequer, and in 1236 again witnessed the confirmation of the charter. He was justice of the forest for nineteen counties in 1237, and from 1242 to 1246 sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, the counties in which his estates lay. Montfichet was one of the baronial representatives on the committee to consider the king's demand for a subsidy in 1244, and probably therefore had a share in drafting the remarkable scheme of reform of that year (Matt. Paris, iv. 362-8). He died
