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Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott was born in 1723 in
York, Yorkshire to Elizabeth
and Matthew Robinson. Her family was made of 12
children, including older sister and Bluestocking
Elizabeth Montagu. Scott was educated at home,
studying French and English fiction, by her stepgrandfather,
Conyers Middleton. Conyers was a classics professor
at Cambridge who was also primarily responsible
for educating her sister Elizabeth.
Sarah had a strong relationship
with her sister Elizabeth
until Elizabeth’s marriage in 1742. Sarah
always played second to Elizabeth, and felt that
she was entitled to less than her older sister.
She was less sociable and did not attend as many
meetings as other members. One of her closest
friends was Lady Barbara Montagu, who she lived
with on and off.
Like other Bluestockings, Sarah
followed politics closely and participated in
many philanthropic activities. She utilized her
position as a writer to advocate for women’s
rights and to assist the poor and uneducated.
Sarah was the leading fiction writer of the first
generation Bluestocking circle, as well as one
of the most prolific. Unlike other Bluestockings,
Sarah wrote to sustain herself. Her publication
career began in 1750 with The History of Cornelia,
a novel depicting female virtues in distress.
Other publications of hers included A Journey
Through Every Stage of Life (1754) and Agreeable
Ugliness, or, the Triumph of the Graces (1754).
One of her major ventures was an
attempt to create a utopian living area based
on one of her successful published works, Millenium
Hall (1762). This was the most reprinted
work of Sarah’s, which presented a manifesto
for Bluestocking feminism. In the novel, Sarah
advocated a feminist community as the background
for a series of inset stories. Millenium Hall
presented an idealized form of gentry estate,
that ran on Christian principles and functioned
to equalize women’s roles in society. Sarah
attempted to make this fantasy a reality, but
was prevented due to ill health.
Sarah died in 1795 at Catton.
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