A Measure of Power: The Personal Charity of Elizabeth Montagu

A M easu re o f P ow er: T h e P erson al C h arity o fnmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA E lizabeth M on tag u QPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA E D ITH SE D G W IC K LA R SO N Elizabeth Robinson Montagu (1720-1800) is too often perceived in terms of stale images conjured up by Samuel Johnson's sobriquet for her, "Queen of the Blue-Stockings."1 Disparaging connotations of pre­ tentious self-interest sometimes associated with the bluestockings have made it easy to dismiss her and her friends as women largely superfluous in terms of wielding any real humanitarian power. Curi­ osity, prolonged acquaintance, and a fresh perspective are all needed to separate Elizabeth Montagu from the hackneyed two-dimensional stereotype evoked by old labels. Happily, her manuscript letters at the Huntington Library can provide such a new perspective and reveal a practical, assertive, humanistic, but financially oriented woman who skillfully wielded considerable power when female dependence was the norm. When reading these letters, I have looked for the letter or phrase which seemed marked by the spontaneity of honesty rather than that which seemed composed with an eye on reputation. I have looked for the unguarded expression and the unconscious pattern. The pattern I will discuss here reveals that Elizabeth Montagu's power was demonstrated principally through her financial charity. In this paper I will explore some of the ways she dispensed charity and comment on some of the individuals who sought shelter under the umbrella of her influence. In particular, I will focus on individual 197 198 / LARSONnmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA instances not mentioned in published editions of her letters:2 on rela­ tives, including those distantly related; on needy women; and on ser­ vants, in whom she took a matriarchal interest. Besides the signifi­ cance of the breadth of the social spectrum encompassed by Elizabeth Montagu's charity, from servants to literary figures like Sarah Field­ ing, from relatives and friends to strangers like the workers in her husband's coal mines, two important points stand out. First, she saw herself as responsible for approaching the other members of her fam­ ily, the majority of whom were men, and persuading them to contrib­ ute to needy relatives, and second, it was on issues of financial re­ sponsibility that she challenged and tested the power of the male heads of her family: her father, her eldest brother, and her husband. Elizabeth Montagu's self-confidence and assertiveness were encour­ aged when she was a girl by her grandmother's second husband, Dr. Conyers Middleton, a professor of classical languages at Cam­ bridge.3 She and her sister Sarah were brought up as members of the landed gentry in the Kentish countryside. Elizabeth Robinson was born at York, October 2, 1720. She was the fourth child and first daughter of Matthew Robinson and his wife, Elizabeth Drake Robin­ son. Sarah Robinson, the only other girl among the nine children who lived to grow up, was born September 21, 1723. When they were very young, their mother inherited an impressive ancestral estate, Mount Morris, from her brother. Although Elizabeth's father had attended Trinity College, Cambridge, he had no profession. His large family and lack of fortune forced him to take advantage of his wife's inheri­ tance and settle in the country. One learns from the correspondence in the manuscripts of the Montagu Collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Califor­ nia, that living in the country cast a pall over Mr. Robinson's spirits. Furthermore, one learns that Elizabeth's father was always impatient and ill-tempered when confronted with financial transactions. It was Mrs. Robinson who oversaw the management of the estate and the family's records, and who at her death in 1745 left financial matters organized so that her husband had only to follow the pattern she had established. In being a good business manager she set a valuable precedent for her daughters, both of whom were to spend a substan­ tial amount of time worrying about, making, and dispensing money as adults. Initially, I approached the Montagu Collection, which numbers al­ most 7,000 pieces, searching for financial information regarding Eliza­ beth's...