Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/246

 Causes of Earthquakes,' which, if it ever existed, has disappeared. His manuscripts were sold in 1787.

 MONTAGU,. ELIZABETH (1720–1800), authoress and leader of society, born at York 2 Oct. 1720, was elder daughter of Matthew Robinson (1694–1778) of West Layton, Yorkshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Drake, recorder of Cambridge. Both the father and mother were rich and well connected. In 1777 Richard Robinson, her father's cousin (of an elder branch of the family), was created Baron Rokeby of Armagh in the Irish peerage, with remainder to her father and her brothers. Her eldest brother, Matthew (1713–1800), accordingly succeeded to the title in 1794. Meanwhile her mother had inherited, on the death of her only brother, Morris Drake Morris [q. v.], the large property of her maternal grand-father, Thomas Morris of Mount Morris in the parish of Horton, near Hythe, Kent. Elizabeth's only sister, Sarah (d. 1795), was wife of George Lewis Scott [q. v,], and Zachary Grey [q. v.] claimed relationship with her.

Elizabeth's earliest youth was spent with her family at Coveney, Cambridgeshire, an estate belonging to her mother. She was a frequent visitor in Cambridge at the house of Dr.Conyers Middleton [q. v.], who was second husband of her grandmother (Mrs. Drake). Under Dr. Middleton's influence, she developed a precocious interest in literature, and before she was eight had copied out the whole of Addison's 'Spectator.' From her twelfth year she corresponded with a girl five years her senior, Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, daughter of the last Earl of Oxford Prior's 'lovely little Peggy' who married in 1734 William Bentinck, second duke of Portland. The correspondence continued for nearly half a century till the duchess's death in 1785. High-spirited, restless, and fond of dancing, Elizabeth acquired in youth the sobriquet of 'Fidget,' but was always 'a most entertaining creature,' 'handsome, fat, and merry' (, Autob. ii. 95, 134). When in London in 1738 she delighted in visits to Marylebone Gardens or Vauxhall, and George, first lord Lyttelton [q. v.], whom she met at court, then showed her attentions, which led to a long friendship. On 5 Aug. 1742 she married Edward Montagu, second son by a second wife of Charles Montagu, fifth son of the first Earl of Sandwich. His wife's senior by many years, Montagu was a serious-minded man of wealth, with coal mines at Denton, Northumberland, and estates in Yorkshire and Berkshire. He interested himself in agriculture and mathematics, and from 1734 till his retirement in 1768 sat in parliament as member for Huntingdon in the whig interest. In 1748 he acquired new wealth on succeeding to the property of his elder brother James at Newbold Verdon, Leicestershire (, Lit. Anecdotes, iv. 645 sq. ix. 593-4). The early months of their married life were spent at Montagu's country houses at Allerthorpe, Yorkshire, or at Sandleford, Berkshire. Mrs. Montagu's vivacity charmed her husband's relatives, and his cousin, Edward Wortley Montagu [q. v.], declared she was 'the most accomplished lady he ever saw' and an 'honour to her sex, country, and family.' Early in 1744 she gave birth to a son, her only child, who died in September following. This bereavement was 