Sarah Prince Gill (July 16, 1728 – August 5, 1771) was an American Christian prayer group leader and writer.

Life

Prince was the 4th of five children born to Deborah Denny and Thomas Prince. Thomas was the minister at Boston's

Old South Church Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, (also known as New Old South Church or Third Church) is a historic United Church of Christ congregation first organized in 1669. Its present building was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charles ...

and a part of the

Great Awakening Great Awakening refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the late ...

. Prince was educated at home. Thomas was particularly devoted to his children's education, "it was no small part of his labor and happiness to impress on his children a suitable sense of religion; and properly to form their sentiments, manners and taste." Prince was widely read and likely educated to read Latin. Prince began journaling intermittently in 1734, but her most consistent period of writing lasted from the mid-1750s to 1764. It is believed that she partially revised her journals towards the end of her life in order to polish her writing. Through her father, Prince was introduced to

Esther Edwards Burr Esther Edwards Burr (February 13, 1732 – April 7, 1758) was the mother of 3rd U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr, Jr. and the wife of Princeton University President Aaron Burr, Sr. whom she married in 1752, one year after she moved to Stockbridge ...

, daughter of Jonathan Edwards and future mother of

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...

. Sarah and Esther corresponded throughout the 1750s. Perhaps inspired by Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, the two young women exchanged journals with the goal of helping their self-improvement. They hid their correspondence from many of their acquaintances. According to historian Philip J. Greven, the two women were "as close, if not closer than, sisters." As Esther wrote to Sarah in 1754, "I esteem you one of the best, and in some respects nearer than any Sister I have." Esther Edwards Burr died on April 7, 1758. Sarah Prince was nearly inconsolable. “My whole dependance for Comfort in this World sgone,” Sarah wrote in her personal book of meditations. Esther “was dear to me as the Apple of my Eye- she knew and felt all my griefs..." Prince also corresponded with Catharine Macaulay. Although multiple men tried to court her, Prince remained singled and living with her parents throughout her twenties. By 1752, Sarah was the only surviving child in the family. After the death of both of her parents, 31 year old Sarah Prince married

Moses Gill Moses Gill (January 18, 1733 – May 20, 1800) was an American merchant and politician who served as the acting governor of Massachusetts from 1799 to 1800, when he died in office, the only acting governor to do so. A successful businessman, he ...

, a wealthy Boston merchant. She was six years his senior. Sarah Prince Gill died at the age of 43 on August 5, 1771. She had no children.

Legacy

Esther Edwards Burr's letters to Sarah Prince are the most extensive surviving literary criticism written by a colonial American woman. ''The Journal of Esther Edwards Burr, 1754-1757'' were published in 1984 by Yale University Press. In 2005, Prince's conversion narrative was published by the University of Tennessee Press as part of ''The Silent and Soft Communion: The Spiritual Narratives of Sarah Pierpont Edwards and Sarah Prince Gill,'' edited by Sue Lane McCulley and Dorothy Zayatz Baker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Sarah 1728 births 1761 deaths 18th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers American letter writers Women letter writers American diarists Women diarists 18th-century diarists