Christopher Smart was born on April 11, 1722 in Shipbourne, Kent, He was educated at Maidstone Grammar School and then, after the death of his father, in Durham, where his mother moved to help deal with debts. He studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in classics and philosophy and became a Fellow in 1743. On graduating he became a writer, contributing a wide variety of work to John Newbery's magazines. In 1752 Smart married Anna Maria Carnan, the daughter by a former husband of Newbery's wife Mary, and this meant forfeiting his Cambridge Fellowship, since dons had to remain unmarried. He published prolifically in these years, but the strain became too much for him and he had a 'fit', which in the terminology of the time probably means a severe bout of fever. He made a recovery, which he attributed to God's healing, and this in turn led to a powerful religious conversion. He became unstable, however, and in 1757 he was admitted to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in Shoreditch. Later he was transferred to another asylum, where he remained until 1763.