Elizabeth Robinson Montagu (1718–1800)

Elizabeth Robinson Montagu was born in York, the elder sister of future novelist Sarah Scott. She was educated at home and read widely. While young, Elizabeth became a friend of the wealthy Lady Margaret Harley, later Duchess of Portland. She spent time with Lady Margaret in London and through her met many of the celebrated figures of the 1730s. In 1742, she married Edward Montagu, grandson of the 1st Earl of Sandwich, more than 25 years her senior, with whom she had one son who died young. She became a popular hostess and established her own salons in Mayfair, London and in Bath. Elizabeth Montagu was best known for cultivating a circle of intellectual and literary women popularly known as as "bluestockings," and thus earned the nickname "‘Queen of the Blues." She also befriended Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Horace Walpole, and many other prominent political and artistic figures of her day, and was a patron of many younger writers. In her well-known Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear (1769), she defended Shakespeare against Voltaire and proclaimed Shakespeare to be the greatest English writer. Her extensive correspondence was published after her death.