Author: Richardson, Sarah
Biography:
RICHARDSON, Sarah, formerly Fawcett (c. 1754-1823: ancestry.com)
The poet may be Sarah Fawset (sic), the daughter of John Fawset and his wife, Sarah, baptized 1 Feb 1754 at St Andrew, Holborn, Camden. In any case, on 7 July 1799 at Saint Dunstan in the West, London, she married Whig politician Joseph Richardson (q.v.). Prior to their marriage, she was already known as “Sarah Richardson,” their four children having been born out of wedlock. In his will, her husband declared himself “perfectly satisfied” that these were his “own children” and he mysteriously attributed the deferral of their marriage to “awkward circumstances.” Her husband’s debts and the 1809 burning down of Drury Lane Theatre—she owned a quarter share—created difficulties. She was rescued in part by her husband’s friend and patron the Duke of Northumberland. She entered society only after her husband died. When she did so, she cast a wide social net, mostly in Whig circles, but also among Tories. She was a woman of culture and learning who had among her friends and supporters many interesting names: Amelia Opie; Mary Champion de Crespigny; John Courtenay; Lumley Skeffington; and William Gifford (qq.v.); the philosopher Lady Mary Shepherd; artists James Northcote, John Flaxman, Thomas Baskerfield, Francis Bourgeois, and Michal Ponatowski; Admiral Nelson’s daughter, Lady Charlotte Nelson; the king’s private secretary, Sir William Knighton; the Duke of Wellington’s brother-in-law Sir Charles Culling Smith; the Tory head of the post office Francis Freeling; chairman of the EIC Captain William Fullerton-Elphinstone; and the abolitionist Granville Sharp’s son-in-law Lloyd Baker, among many others. In 1807, she published her husband’s Relics, and, in the following year, Poems for Youth on “a plan recommended by” her direct ancestor the hymnist Isaac Watts (q.v.). She also translated a French novel, The Exile of Poland or, the Vow of Celibacy (1819), and she started a serial publication, an abridged Bible in verse intended for children. She died 26 Sept., age 70, at her residence, 12 Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square and was buried on 4 Oct. in St Pancras Parish Chapel, Camden. (ancestry.com 5 Feb. 2024; PROB 11/1395; New Monthly Magazine 13 [1820], 218; Morning Post, 9 July, 17 Sept, and 29 Sept. 1823; GM 94:1 [Feb. 1824], 186; Boyle’s Court Guide [1824], 65; A. E. Bray, Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire [1838], 3:209) JC
Other Names:
- Mrs. Richardson
- Mrs. [Sarah] Richardson