He was born in Great Portland Street, London, on 31 December 1799, at the house of his maternal grandmother, Mrs Fendall; he was the eldest son of George Moultrie, rector of Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, by his wife Harriet (died 1867).
He composed with great facility in Latin, but was indifferent to school studies, distinguishing himself as a cricketer, actor, and wit.
[1] In October 1819 Moultrie entered, as a commoner, Trinity College, Cambridge,[2] where he became intimate with Thomas Babington Macaulay, Charles Austin, and others of their set.
He played first-class cricket for Cambridge: he is recorded in one match in 1820, totalling 6 runs with a highest score of 6 not out and taking 1 wicket.
Writing to Derwent Coleridge, Moultrie's close friend Bonamy Price described the reciprocal influence of these two men.
[1] At school he wrote for the College Magazine, edited the subsequent Horæ Otiosæ, and after leaving Eton contributed verses to the Etonian during 1820–1.
Among its contents is the 'Three Minstrels,' giving an account of Moultrie's meetings, on different occasions, with Wordsworth, Coleridge and Tennyson.