Sarah, Lady Pennington, née Moore (c.1720,

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

– August 1783,

Fulmer Fulmer is a village and civil parish in south Buckinghamshire, England. The village has along most of its northern border a narrow green buffer from Gerrards Cross and is heavily wooded adjoining neighbouring villages of Iver Heath and Wexham. ...

),Sarah, Lady Pennington
at the Orlando Project, Cambridge University Press was an Englishwoman who wrote a widely read and much reprinted book on conduct for young women.

Biography

Born Sarah Moore, she was married to Sir Joseph Pennington (ca. 1718–1793), 4th

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, of Warter Hall in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, who was a commissioner of customs. Their marriage deteriorated, and after a dozen years their private disagreements turned into a public scandal when the couple separated. At this period divorce was very difficult to obtain in England, requiring a costly

private Act of Parliament Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

, and even mutually agreed separations were highly stigmatized. Lady Pennington moved to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, leaving her children with their father, who appears to have entirely cut her off from any further contact with them. Although she had received no formal education, she wrote a popular manual of conduct for young women, ''An Unfortunate Mother's Advice to Her Absent Daughters; in a Letter to Miss Pennington'' (1761). Its first sentence offers her rationale for writing the book: "My Dear Jenny: Was there any Probability that a Letter from me would be permitted to reach your Hand alone, I should not have chosen this least eligible Method of writing to you." Most unusually, Lady Pennington combined the traditional form of the social conduct manual with a defense of her decision to leave her marriage. While it is clear that she considered her husband greatly to blame, she took responsibility for her own actions and argued that in such situations a woman's right to follow her conscience is more important than blind obedience to marriage vows. She succeeded in escaping the censure usually leveled at women in broken marriages and became instead an object of public sympathy; for example, an obituary in the ''

Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'' referred to her "severe and uncommon afflictions". Her book was frequently reprinted, going through three editions in the first year alone, and it continued to appear in various editions and in anthologies well into the 19th century. Lady Pennington published two other pieces of writing, ''Letters on Different Subjects'' (1766) and ''The Child's Conductor'' (1777).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennington, Lady Sarah 1783 deaths 18th-century British women writers 18th-century English non-fiction writers English women non-fiction writers English non-fiction writers Wives of baronets 18th-century English women 18th-century English people