Mary Robinson, née Richardson, was born in 1726 to Adam Richardson, in Kensington, London. She married (1760) Rev. William Robinson (1727-1803), curate of Kensington and Elizabeth Montagu's brother. They had four children: Matthew William (1761-1761), Matthew (1767-1827), Sarah Elizabeth (1763-1834), who married Samuel Truman, and Mary (1769-1844), who married Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges. Mary Robinson maintained an extensive correspondence with both Elizabeth Montagu and Sarah Scott, from shortly after her marriage to their brother. Montagu's extant 42 letters to Robinson between 1762 and 1789 combine family news with political gossip and journalistic reports of her tours in Scotland.