Author: Pugh, Sarah Sophia
Biography:
PUGH, Sarah Sophia (1776-1833: ancestry.co.uk)
She was baptised on 4 Sept. 1776 at Hedingham-Sible, Essex, one of at least four children of the rector, Rev. Baldwin Pugh, and his wife Mary Steare, who had married in 1773. Her brother James Henry was baptised at the same time although he was born in 1774 and would appear to be the eldest child. It is possible she was born in 1775. Nothing is known of her education but her father was educated at Oxford and her brothers at Cambridge and all of them entered the established church. The attribution to her of Poems Addressed to Various Literary Characters. By S.S.P. is confirmed by her will, which left her books and a collection of shells to her nephews (see “To Mr. Duncan with a Box of Shells,” “Lines Sent to a Friend with a Collection of Shells, Fossils, Minerals and Medals”). Other topographical poems establish her connections to Essex and Dorset. She seems to have been friends with Jane West and Hester Piozzi (qq.v.) and wrote several poems to them, but the exact nature of their relationship is as yet unknown. Two late poems record her ill health (“Written when confined to my Bedroom” and “Composed during a violent attack of Spasms and Palpitations of the Heart”). She never married and died on 5 Dec. 1833 at 2 Augusta Place, Weymouth, aged 57, and was buried at Melcombe Regis a week later. (ancestry.co.uk 20 May 2023; findmypast.co.uk 20 May 2023; CCEd 20 May 2023; Dorset County Chronicle 12 Dec. 1833) AA
Other Names:
- S. S. P.