Matthew Lewis was born in London in 1775. A diplomat for a brief period and later an MP, he was best-known for The Monk, a Gothic novel in the style of Ann Radcliffe, although far more sexually explicit. In 1812 he inherited the family estate in Jamaica, which he visited twice, writing the Journal of a Residence Among the Negroes (published posthumously). On his second visit he caught yellow fever and died on the way back to England in 1818 and was buried at sea.