Elizabeth Robinson, née Drake, mother of Elizabeth Montagu, was born in around 1693 to Robert Drake (d.c.1711), Councillor and Recorder of Cambridge, and Sarah Drake, née Morris (1674-1731). She is probably the Elizabeth Drake who was baptised at St. Michael's Cambridge on 25 April 1793, father Robert and mother Sarah. Following her father's death in the early 1710s, her mother married (1711) Conyers Middleton (1683-1750), Church of England clergyman and author, who would go on to become godfather to Elizabeth Montagu, and was a strong early intellectual influence on her. Elizabeth Drake married (1712) Matthew Robinson (1694-1778) and they had nine children, including: Matthew Robinson Morris, 2nd Baron Rokeby (1713-1800), Morris Robinson (1716-1777), Elizabeth Robinson Montagu (1718-1800), Sarah Robinson Scott (1720-1795) and Charles Robinson (1733-1807). Elizabeth Montagu's correspodence with her mother spans the period of 1737-1745, from her earliest extant letters to her mother's death, and consists of 25 extant letters to her and 40 letters from her, being written solely during periods of separation, such as Elizabeth Montagu's residence with the Duchess of Portland at Bullstrode in the second half of 1740, and the final years of Elizabeth Drake Robinson's life, after Montagu moved to Sandleford in 1743. She inherited the Mount Morris estate in Kent from her brother, Morris Drake Morris, on his death in 1732.