Her father and maybe an aunt, Isabella, performed on tightropes and her mother also acted and helped.

Three of her elder siblings, George, Frederick and Caroline, appeared at Sadler's Wells, before she was born, playing musical glasses and showing balancing skills.

[2] She was trained for the theatre by Charles Dibdin but this resulted in only minor roles initially.

She played Madame Hazard in Mount Parnassus or Fairy World at the Surrey Theatre.

By this time "Mrs Mountain" had returned to the theatre after a relatively brief argument with the Covent Garden management from 1792 to 1793.