Ann Jebb (''née'' Torkington; 1735–1812) was an English political reformer and radical writer. She was born at Ripton-Kings,

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

, to Dorothy Sherard (herself daughter of

Philip Sherard, 2nd Earl of Harborough Philip Sherard, 2nd Earl of Harborough ( – 20 July 1750), of Whissendine, Rutland, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1710 and later succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Harborough. Early ...

) and James Torkington (a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

vicar.) She grew up in Huntingdonshire and was probably educated at home. She married religious and political reformer John Jebb in 1764 and fully shared his ideals. When they were first married he was lecturing at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, and she developed a reputation in university circles.

Anne Plumptre Anne Plumptre (1760–1818) was an English writer and translator sometimes collaborating with her sister Annabella Plumptre. Life Anne was born in Norwich. She and her sister, Annabella ellPlumptre were daughters of Robert Plumptre, became a ...

was among her friends. Her writing often took the form of letters, signed with the ''nom de plume'' "Priscilla", such as the series she wrote to the ''

London Chronicle The ''London Chronicle'' was an early family newspaper of Georgian London. It was a thrice-a-week evening paper, introduced in 1756, and contained world and national news, and coverage of artistic, literary, and theatrical events in the capital ...

'' (1772–4) during the movement of 1771 to abolish university and clerical subscription to the

Thirty-nine Articles The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the ...

. Subsequently, in 1775, John Jebb resigned his church living, with the full support of Ann; John studied medicine and the couple later moved to London, where they were involved with a number of reformist causes such as the expansion of the franchise, opposition to the war with America, support for the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

, and an end to legal discrimination against Roman Catholics. After she was widowed in 1786, she remained in London and continued to be politically active. Never robust, she died in 1812 and was buried with her husband. Her writing appeared in the ''London Chronicle'', the ''

Whitehall Evening Post The ''Whitehall Evening Post'' was a London newspaper, founded in September 1718 by Daniel Defoe. The newspaper was initially published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Defoe left it in June 1720, but it continued to exist until the end of ...

'' and the ''

Monthly Repository The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, it ...

'', as well as in pamphlets and tracts. Often attacked for her politics, she has the distinction of having been mentioned by

Richard Polwhele Richard Polwhele (6 January 1760 – 12 March 1838) was a Cornish people, Cornish clergyman, poetry, poet and historian of Cornwall and Devon. Biography Richard Polwhele's ancestors long held the manor of Treworgan, 4 3/4 miles south-east of ...

in ''

The Unsex'd Females ''The Unsex'd Females, a Poem'' (1798), by Richard Polwhele, is a polemical intervention into the public debates over the role of women at the end of the 18th century. The poem is primarily concerned with what Polwhele characterizes as the encroach ...

''.

Resources

*Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. "Jebb, Ann." ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English''. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 572. *Gascoigne, John.
Jebb, John (1736–1786)
" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2005. 7 May 2007. *Hole, Robert.
Hallifax, Samuel (1733–1790)
" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 7 May 2007. *Page, Anthony. "'A Great Politicianess': Ann Jebb, rational dissent and politics in late eighteenth-century Britain", ''

Women's History Review ''Women's History Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of women's history published by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is June Purvis (University of Portsmouth) and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa is deputy editor. Abstracting and indexin ...

'', 17:5 (2008), pp. 743–765 *Page, Anthony. ''John Jebb and the Enlightenment Origins of British Radicalism''. Praeger Publishers, 2003.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jebb, Ann 18th-century British women writers 1735 births 1812 deaths Sherard family 18th-century English writers English women writers People from Huntingdonshire 18th-century English women 18th-century English people