Elizabeth Montagu

Elizabeth [née Robinson] Montagu (1718-1800), author and famed ‘Bluestocking,’ married Edward Montagu in 1742, MP for Huntingdon from 1734-68. They settled in London in 1750, where she remained until her death, becoming one of the premier hostesses of London by 1760. Along with Elizabeth Vesey, Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Boscawen, Hannah More, and several other women (and men), Montagu formed a social group that became known as the ‘Bluestockings’, a term meant to describe the informal nature of the conversational parties she hosted for their gatherings. She contributed three dialogues to George, Lord Lyttelton’s Dialogues of the Dead (London, 1760), but her reputation as a writer rests on An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (London, 1769).