To return to the Robinsons, they settled at their property of West
Layton Hall, derived from Lucy Layton, first wife of Sir Leonard
Robinson, and Edgeley in Wensleydale for the summer, and spent the
winter in York; most country families at that period repairing to
London or their nearest county town for convenience and society during
the winter. To this young couple were born twelve children, of whom
seven sons and two daughters lived to grow up--
1. Matthew, born April 6, 1713; afterwards 2nd Baron Rokeby. Educated
at Trinity Hall, Cambridge; became a Fellow. Died November 30, 1800,
ætat 87.
2. Thomas, born 1714, died in 1746–7. Barrister-at-law.
3. Morris, born 1715, died 1777; of the Six Clerks’ Office.
4. _Elizabeth, born at York, October 2, 1720, died August 25, 1800._
5. Robert, Captain, E.I.C.S. Died in China, 1756.
6. Sarah, born September 21, 1723, died 1795.
7. William, born 1726, died 1803.
8. John, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
9. Charles, born 1733, died 1807.
[Page heading: DR. CONYERS MIDDLETON]
Elizabeth, the subject of this book, was about seven years old when,
by the death of her uncle, Morris Drake Morris, her mother inherited,
as his heir, the important property of East Horton, and Mount Morris
in Kent. The family then left Yorkshire for residence at Mount Morris.
But before and after their inheritance of the Kentish property
much time was spent with the Conyers Middletons both at Coveney,
Cambridgeshire, a property Mrs. Conyers Middleton had inherited from
her first husband, Councillor Drake; the advowson of the living being
hers, she bestowed it on her second husband, Dr. Conyers Middleton,[7]
whom she had married in 1710; also at Cambridge, where was their usual
residence, and where several of the little Robinsons were born in their
grandmother’s house, as we learn from a letter of Dr. Middleton’s.
Elizabeth Robinson was naturally much with her grandmother, with whom
and Conyers Middleton she was a great favourite. Her nephew and adopted
son, in his volumes of her letters[8] that he published in 1810,
states--
“Her uncommon sensibility and acuteness of understanding, as well
as extraordinary beauty as a child, rendered her an object of
great notice 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.”
[7] Conyers Middleton, D.D., born 1683, died 1750. Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, etc., etc. Wrote the “Life of Cicero,” etc.,
etc.
[8] “The Letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu,” by her nephew, Matthew
Montagu, afterwards 4th Baron Rokeby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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