, a learned and ingenious English lady, was the daughter of Matthew
, a learned and ingenious English lady, was the daughter of Matthew Robinson, esq. of West Layton, in Yorkshire, of Coveney, Cambridgeshire, and of Mount Morris in Kent, by Elizabeth daughter and heiress of Robert Drake, esq. She was born at York, Oct. 2, 1720, but lived, for some of her early years, with her parents at Cambridge, where she derived great assistance in her education from Dr. Conyers Middleton, whom her grandmother had taken as a second husband. Her uncommon sensibility and acuteness of understanding, as well as her extraordinary beauty as a child, rendered her an object of great notice and admiration in the university, and Dr. Middleton was in the habit of requiring from her an account of the learned conversations at which, in his society, she was frequently present: not admitting of the excuse of her tender age as a disqualification, but insisting, that although at the present time she could but imperfectly understand their meaning, she would in future derive great benefit from the habit of attention inculcated by this practice. Her father, a man of considerable intellectual powers, and taste, was proud of the distinguished notice bestowed on his daughter, and contributed to increase in her the vivacity of wit with which she naturally abounded. In her early education, however, Mrs. Montague did not receive those strong impressions of the truth of divine revelation which she acquired at a later period, from her intimacy with Gilbert West and lord Lyttelton. It was reserved for the influence of the steady principles of Christianity, to correct the exuberant spirit of her genius, and to give the last touches of improvement to her character.