Author: Wilkinson, Sarah
Biography:
WILKINSON, Sarah (1779-1831: Potter)
Information about her birth, parents, and death is from Potter; no records have been located. She was born in St. Margaret’s parish, Westminster, on 14 Dec. 1779 to William and Hannah Wilkinson. She was well-educated but from an early age was required to earn a living. To this end, she began writing gothic chapbooks which were issued by different publishers through a long and prolific career beginning in about 1803. Potter estimates that she wrote over one hundred chapbooks, many of them condensed versions of popular novels by well-known authors. She worked at speed: Walter Scott’s (q.v.) Pirate was published in London on 25 Dec. 1821 and on 28 Jan. 1822 her chapbook,The Pirate; or, The Sisters of Burgh Westra, was published. In about 1807 she had a daughter, Amelia Scudgell; no record of a marriage has been located but Sarah Wilkinson later added Scudgell to her name. She first wrote to the RLF in 1818 and the Fund paid her frequent small amounts until 1830. Her letters to the RLF document her attempts to secure permanent employment or to make a living by any means other than by writing. She was hampered in her efforts by ill-health and lasted just nine months as a schoolmistress at Bray, Berkshire, because of a cancerous tumour which later required several surgeries in London. In 1821 she began writing for the Ladies Monthly Museum, published by Dean and Munday which also published some of her works; she was paid between one half and one guinea a week before the discontinuation of the magazine in 1828. She died at St. Margaret’s workhouse on 19 Mar. 1831. Her daughter became a housekeeper and died in 1876. (ancestry.co.uk 28 Dec. 2021; Franz Potter, Gothic Chapbooks, Bluebooks, and Shilling Shockers, 1797-1830 [2021]; RLF file 375; ODNB 28 Dec. 2021)
Other Names:
- Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson