Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, and linguist.

Nicolas Carter, perpetual curate of Deal,[5] and his first wife, Margaret (died c. 1728), who was the only daughter and heir of John Swayne of Bere Regis, Dorset.

His eldest daughter was so slow to understand her lessons that he almost despaired of ever making her a scholar, and would have given up but for her resolute perseverance as a child, in which she struggled incessantly against all obstacles.

[9] To assist her in acquiring French, her father sent her to board for a year with the family of M. Le Seur, a refugee minister in Canterbury, where she learnt to understand it and speak it fluently.

[5] Being naturally heavy, and resolved to stay awake as long as possible in pursuit of her studies, she had recourse to use snuff, and never broke herself of the habit.

She drew tolerably well, was acquainted with household economy, loved gardening and growing flowers, and occupied her leisure or social hours with needlework.

She spent much of her childhood there and was early attracted by sympathy of feeling and similarity of pursuits to a contemporary neighbour, Elizabeth Carter.

In 1742, Robinson married Edward Montagu, grandson of the second Earl Of Sandwich; subsequently Carter often visited her at her country seat at Sandleford and her house in London.

Carter's letters were noted for correct, perspicuous and appropriate language, soundness of judgment, moderation of spirit, deep sincerity and pervading piety.

She was influenced by Hester Chapone and wrote apologia of the Christian faith, asserting the authority of the Bible over human matters.

[3] Carter appeared in the engraved (1777) and painted (1778) versions of Richard Samuel's The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (1779), but the figures were so idealised that she complained she could not identify herself or anyone else in the work.

[20] Fanny Burney is quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson as saying in 1780 she thought Carter "a really noble-looking woman; I never saw age so graceful in the female sex yet; her whole face seems to beam with goodness, piety, and philanthropy."

[12] Her translations were approved and her verses applauded by Burke, Dr Johnson, Savage, and Baratier, and she found herself courted by many members of learned society.

[12] In 1782, at the desire of a friend, Sir W. J. Pulteney, she accompanied his daughter to Paris, but returned home in 16 days and confined her later journeys to British soil.

The Queen, long accustomed to ask her opinion upon books via ladies of the court, in 1791 commanded her attendance at Cremorne House, where as translator of Epictetus she was formally presented and received with the highest favour.

In the summer of 1764, Lord Bath died; and as he made no mention of Elizabeth Carter in his will, the ultimate heir to his property, Sir William Johnson Pulteney, spontaneously settled upon her an annuity of £100, which he soon afterwards increased to £150.

[6] Elizabeth Gaskell, the 19th-century novelist, refers to Carter as an epistolatory model, bracketing her in Cranford with Hester Chapone, a self-taught Bluestocking.

[26] Virginia Woolf saw her as a feminist precursor – urging "homage to the robust shade of Eliza Carter – the valiant old woman who tied a bell to her bedstead in order that she might wake early and learn Greek.