Sarah Scott

Sarah Scott (née Robinson) (21 September 1723 – 3 November 1795) was an English novelist, translator, social reformer, and member of the . Her most famous work was her utopian novel A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent, followed closely by the sequel The History of Sir George Ellison.

Sarah's father, Matthew Robinson, and her mother, Elizabeth Drake, were both from distinguished families, and Sarah was the youngest of nine children. Although born in Yorkshire, she spent much time with her siblings in Cambridge, England, where her grandmother, Sarah Morris Drake, lived with her stepgrandfather, Dr. Conyers Middleton, a famous scholar at Cambridge University. All but one of her brothers would go on to a highly accomplished career, yet her elder sister, who would later become the writer and social activist Elizabeth Montagu, became the most accomplished, earning fame in literary circles as a critic of Shakespeare and founder of the , of which Sarah also became a member. The sisters were emotionally close in their early years. Although Elizabeth was much more acclaimed as an author, Elizabeth often considered Sarah to be "superior in certain respects, particularly intellectual and literary interests, in which she encouraged her." The two regularly corresponded with each other in letters which have been preserved, along with other letters Sarah wrote throughout her life, discussing such matters as "French and English literature and histories, writing, translation, and politics." Sarah's letters also revealed an early love of literature, especially the works of Spenser, Sidney, Milton, Swift, and Voltaire.

Sarah contracted smallpox in 1741, a disease that would often leave its victims scarred and disfigured, "lowering [their] value in the marriage market." Scholars have traced the impact that smallpox left on Scott literary output: "Scott's pronounced concern [with deformity...] was motivated by her own experience of being left marked by a severe bout of smallpox [...], a trauma which had played a key role in redirecting her away from emulating the social success of her equally beautiful sister Elizabeth (Robinson), towards a life dedicated to writing, domestic female friendship and Christian philanthropy." Sarah would later create a fictional character in Millenium Hall who had the telltale marks of smallpox that diminished her complexion but not her character.

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