Crawford was born to Ann Courtenay (d. 1816) and
George Montagu (1753 - 1815) of Lackham House, in
Wiltshire. Montagu was an English army officer and
naturalist, known for his pioneering
Ornithological Dictionary of 1802 and for species such as
Montagu's harrier, named for him. Crawford was related to nobility on both sides of her family; her mother was the niece of
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and her father was the son of
Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester. In 1798, Montagu left his family and moved to
Kingsbridge in
Devon to live with his mistress Elizabeth Dorville, wife of John Dorville and daughter of
Georg Wolff, with whom he had four more children. In 1822, Crawford married Matthew Crawford of Middle Temple, a
barrister. After her marriage she first began to earn an income through song-writing and poetry. She was quite prolific and a collection of her papers in the archives at the
University of Edinburgh contains a few hundred handwritten poems and songs, although she received little recognition in her lifetime. Much of her work appeared, often anonymously, in magazines and journals, was sold to music publishers, and was set to music by composers
Samuel Wesley,
Sydney Nelson, and others. == "Kathleen Mavourneen" ==