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Sarah Fielding

Sarah Fielding

Sarah Fielding was born in 1710 in East Stour, Dorset to Sarah and Edmund Fielding. Her father was a senior army officer and son of aristocracy. She had five siblings, three sisters and two brothers. She was close to her brother, Henry, who became a writing associate, playwright, novelist and magistrate. When her mother died in 1718, her father married Anna Rapha, who brought six stepbrothers into the family. This development caused their maternal grandmother, Lady Gould, to sue for custody of the children; she won, and raise the children until her death in 1733.

While under Lady Gould’s care, Sarah attending a Salusbary boarding school, where she learned English literature, European literature, French and Italian. After Lady Gould’s death, the family was left impoverished, and, with no dowry to be given, the girls never married. She became involved in writing as a method to advocate for gender equality. She also studied theories of education, especially for girls.

To make ends meet, Sarah turned to writing. She advocated for gender equality and proper education of young women through her words. She became a member of the first generation Bluestocking circle. Sarah’s association and writing circle included Ralph Allen, Elizabeth Carter, David Garrick, James Harris, Lady Barbara Montagu, Samuel Richardson, Sarah Scott, Frances Sheridan and Joseph Wharton.

As a writer, Sarah was widely published and translated. Her pieces were mainly fictions that concerned ethical dilemmas faced by men and women. Her first novel was The Adventures of David Simple in Search of a Faithful Friend (1744), which was very popular, and would spawn several sequel pieces. Sarah also published The Governess, or, the Little Female Academy in 1749, which was the first full-length children’s fiction in England. Her other works generally tackled the problems that women faced in their lives regarding the regulations of patriarchal society (The History of the Countess of Dellwyn in 1759, The History of Ophelia in 1760).

Sarah died in 1768. A tablet erected in her memory read:

Her unaffected Manners, candid Mind
Her Heart benevolent, and soul resign’d
Were more her Praise than all she knew or thought,
Though Athens’ wisdom to her sex she taught