LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (age 8) at the Kit-Cat Club—­Frontispiece

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary Pierrepont

Evelyn Pierrepont, first Duke of Kingston

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1720

Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Frances, Countess of Mar

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Alexander Pope

Joseph Addison

Henrietta Louisa, Countess of Pomfret

Horace Walpole

John, Lord Hervey of Ickworth

Mary, Countess of Bute

Edward Wortley Montagu, Junior

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: 

Her Life and Letters

(1689-1762)

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD (1689-1703)

Birth of Mary Pierrepont, after Lady Mary Wortley Montagu—­Account of the Pierrepont family—­Lady Mary’s immediate ancestors—­Her father, Evelyn Pierrepont, succeeds to the Earldom of Kingston in 1690—­The extinct marquisate of Dorchester revived in his favour—­His marriage—­Issue of the marriage—­Death of his wife—­Lady Mary stays with her grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Pierrepont—­Her early taste for reading—­She learns Latin, and, presently, Italian—­Encouraged in her literary ambitions by her uncle, William Feilding, and Bishop Bumet—­Submits to the Bishop a translation of “Encheiridion” of Epictetus—­An attractve child—­A “toast” at the Kit-Cat Club—­Acts as hostess to her father.

Mary Pierrepont, afterwards Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, was born in May, 1689, and was baptised on the twenty-sixth day of that month at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden.  In the register is the entry:  “Mary, daughter of Evelyn Pierrepoint, Esquire, and Lady Mary, his wife.”

The event, it may be remarked, was not one of any considerable social interest, for the Hon. Evelyn Pierrepont was merely a younger son and remote from the succession to the Earldom of Kingston.

The Pierreponts of Holme Pierrepont were a Nottinghamshire family of considerable antiquity, though of no particular distinction.  One Robert Pierrepont, who was born in 1584, the son of Sir Henry by Frances, sister of William, first Earl of Devonshire, was the first of the family upon whom a peerage was bestowed.  He was created in 1627 Baron Pierrepont of Holme Pierrepont and Viscount Newark, and in the following year was elevated to the dignity of Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, Co.  York.  A zealous royalist, he was in 1643 appointed Lieutenant-General of the King’s forces in the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Norfolk, and soon after taking up this command was accidentally shot near Gainsborough, when being carried off in a pinnace as a prisoner to Hull by the Parliamentary Army.  He married in 1601 Gertrude, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir William Reyner, of Orton Longueville, Co.  Huntingdon.  She survived her husband six years.