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Sarah Robinson Scott


(b. Sept. 21, 1720, Hutton Magna, County Durham, England – d. Nov. 3, 1795, Catton, Norfolk )

Gender: F

Sarah Robinson (1721-1795) spent her early years at her father’s property of West Layton Hall in north Yorkshire, with extensive visits to the Cambridge home of her maternal grandmother, who had married the scholar Dr Conyers Middleton. In 1736 the family moved to the estate of Mount Morris at Monks Horton in Kent which her mother had inherited from her brother, Morris Drake Morris.

In April 1741 Sarah suffered an attack of smallpox which damaged her looks and was considered to have ruined her chances of making a good marriage. After her mother’s death in 1746 her father moved to London and she seems to have been effectively homeless: she spent periods of time with her sister Elizabeth, who had married Edward Montagu in 1742, and also with her cousin Lydia Botham and her friend Caroline Scott Best. In December 1747 she met Lady Barbara Montagu and they became close friends, combining their limited incomes in order to live together in Bath.

She accepted an offer of marriage from George Lewis Scott (1708-1780), brother of her friend Caroline, who was twelve years her senior. In 1750 he was named sub-preceptor to the Prince of Wales, and they married on 15th June 1751 and set up house in London. The marriage lasted only nine months, being brought to an end when her father and brothers forcibly removed her from her husband’s house and negotiated a settlement whereby George Scott repaid half her dowry and granted Sarah an annuity of £100 per year. The reason for this dramatic separation has never been definitively explained.

Scott returned with Lady Barbara to Bath, where they created a circle of close female friends, including the novelist Sarah Fielding, Elizabeth Cutts, and Mary Arnold, natural daughter of her brother Morris Robinson. They later moved to the village of Batheaston to be closer to her friends Margaret Mary Ravaud and Margaret Riggs.

In 1750, Scott published her first work, The History of Cornelia (London: Andrew Millar), a sentimental novel. In 1754, she published Agreeable Ugliness, a translation of a French novel by Pierre de la Place. This was followed in the same year by an original novel: A Journey Through Every Stage of Life, which adopted a similarly high moral tone. In 1760 and 1761 respectively she published The History of Gustavus Ericson, King of Sweden and The History of Mecklenburg, from the First Settlement of the Vandals in that Country to the Present Time. In 1762 she published her most successful work, A Description of Millenium Hall (London: Newbery), which described a female community that succeeded perfectly well without men, and in April 1766 brought out The History of Sir George Ellison (London: Millar), a novel with a high-minded Christian hero. Her final novel was A Test of Filial Duty (London, Carnan, 1772), and she also published a history, The Life of Theodore Agrippa d’Aubigné (London: E&C Dilly, 1772).

Scott formed a plan to set up a community of women along the lines described in Millenium Hall, and in 1767 (following the deaths of Lady Barbara Montagu and Sarah Fielding) moved into Hitcham House in Buckinghamshire with Arnold, Cutts and her widowed cousin Grace Freind, whose son owned the property. Unfortunately the project lasted only a few months: Scott had to spend four months in Bath and London for her health, while Freind introduced to the community her daughter, who had run off with a fortune-hunter who kept pressing for money.

After the failure of this scheme, Scott was forced to live with a series of friends until the death of her father in 1778 secured her an income from his estates. She moved to Catton in Norfolk in May 1785 with Cutts and Arnold, and died there at the age of seventy-four. Her executor, Mary Arnold, followed her instruction to destroy most of the letters and papers in her possession.

Also known as:

  • Sarah Scott (née  Robinson)

Authorities

Electronic Enlightenment DOIexternal link
Oxford DNB DOIexternal link
VIAF Authority File IDexternal link
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Mentioned in 126 letters

Title EMCO ID
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 134
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 135
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 137
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 140
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 141
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 143
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 147
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 150
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 156
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 157
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 167
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Anstey 171
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 175
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 176
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 177
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 181
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 293
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 339
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 342
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 351
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 354
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 389
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 390
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 392
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 403
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 404
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 406
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 407
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 410
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 412
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 414
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 419
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland 421
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Anstey 702
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Anstey 778
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Boscawen 894
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Anstey 938
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Boscawen 962
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 972
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Boscawen 978
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Boscawen 980
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 989
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 994
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 1016
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Boscawen 1053
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 1068
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 1072
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 1076
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 1077
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1144
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Messenger Monsey 1473
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 1686
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1781
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1783
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1797
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1799
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1800
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1801
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1804
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1805
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Hester Thrale Piozzi 1817
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1834
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1841
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1845
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1847
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1864
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1869
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1873
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 1879
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 1901
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 1902
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 1904
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 1905
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 1906
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 1943
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2021
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2028
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2032
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2036
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2054
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2122
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2123
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2124
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2125
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2126
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2127
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2128
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Robinson 2130
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to James Beattie 2169
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2500
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2502
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 2557
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2586
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2624
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 2625
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2660
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2663
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 2666
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 2673
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3103
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3108
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 3125
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 3127
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Morris Robinson 3133
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3265
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3266
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3268
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3363
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3402
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3538
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3539
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3540
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3541
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3543
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3548
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3552
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3557
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3562
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 3573
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Evelyn Boscawen (Glanville) 4006
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Evelyn Boscawen (Glanville) 4030
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Frances Evelyn Boscawen (Glanville) 4059
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Sarah Hougham Robinson 4198
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Sarah Hougham Robinson 4202
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter 4207
Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to John Burrows 4537

Recipient of 801 letters

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Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

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