The History of Sir George Ellison

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 11-21-1996 The History of Sir George Ellison Sarah Scott Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Scott, Sarah, "The History of Sir George Ellison" (1996). Literature in English, British Isles. 12. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/12 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NOVELS BY WOMEN Isabel Grundy, Editor Advisory Board Paula R. Backscheider David L. Blewett Margaret A. Doody Jan Fergus J. Paul Hunter John Richetti Betty Rizzo This page intentionally left blank THE HISTORY OF SIR GEORGE ELLISON Sarah Scott BETTY RIZZO, EDITOR THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1996 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scott, Sarah, 1723–1795 The history of Sir George Ellison / Sarah Scott ; Betty Rizzo, editor. p. cm. — (Eighteenth-century novels by women) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) ISBN 0-8131-1938-3 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8131-0849-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. England—Social conditions—18th century—Fiction. 2. Social reformers—England—Fiction. 3. Feminism—Fiction. 4. Utopias— Fiction. I. Rizzo, Betty. II. Title. III. Series. PR3671.S33H577 1995 823'.6—dc20 95-30288 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-0849-0 (pbk: acid-free paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses CoNTENTS Acknowledgments vu Introduction ix Chronology xliii Note on the Text xlvii The History ofSir George Ellison 1 Notes to the Novel 223 Bibliography 233 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS sobel Grundy, the general editor of the series of which this edition is a I part, and Jan Fergus, a member of the edition's board, carefully reviewed this manuscript and made a number of valuable corrections and sugges tions. Despite the increasing helpfulness of such databases as the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue and the Readex Microprint Edition of Early American Imprints, to which I am much indebted, a number of archivists and libraries contributed to such projects as this. I particularly thank Mary L. Robertson of the Huntington Library, San Marino, and her library assistant, Ms Hoang-My Dunkle, for their substantial and timely assistance, Marie E. Lamoureux of the American Antiquarian Society, W ordester, and also the archivists of the Rare Books and Special Collections in the Firestone Library of Princeton University, the special collections of New York University's Fales Library and Union Theological Seminary, the Sterling Library of Yale University, and the W.S. Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecti cut. Sarah Wimbush of the Courtauld Institute and Mrs. Evelyn Newby of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art tried in vain to track down a portrait of Sarah Scott done by William Hoare in 1749. Thanks to Linda Bree, Diane Chardin of Trinity College Library, Cambridge, Barbara Dunlap, Peter Sabor, Beverly Schneller, Barbara Schnorrenberg, Keith Williams, and Carolyn Woodward for valuable information; and to Linda Merians, who, as always, provided sterling advice and assistance when appealed to. Professor Merians also advertised a recalcitrant quotation on e-mail, for which Jack Kolb and Greg Clingham provided an identification. This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION THE LIFE AND WORKS Sarah Robinson Scott was born to many advantages of education and up bringing that made her a writer, but if she had not needed the money, she would scarcely have turned out the nine books (at least) that made her a professional author. In 1712 her father, Matthew Robinson (1694-1778), of Edgeley and West Layton Hall in Yorkshire and of a younger branch of a respectable Yorkshire family, married Elizabeth Drake (c. 1693-1746), a Kentish heiress, daughter of Councillor Robert Drake of Cambridge. Together they produced twelve children of whom seven sons and two daughters survived. In Yorkshire were baptized Matthew (1713), Thomas (1714), probably Morris (c. 1715), Robert (1717), Elizabeth (1718), and Sarah (1721); at Cambridge were bap tized William (1727), John (1729), and Charles (1731). 1 It was a family of clever, loyal, close-knit siblings, most of whom remained intimately con nected throughout their lives. Elizabeth Drake Robinson's mother, Sarah Morris Drake, had mar ried as her second husband, Dr. Conyers Middleton, the noted Cambridge scholar. The Robinson family spent some part of each year in Cambridge, and Middleton took considerable care with the education of all the children in cluding the two clever girls. There were so many children that the family could not afford to live in London, Matthew Robinson's place of preference. Their circumstances became an additional advantage to the children, how ever, since, in order to make do in the country, their father turned the family into a club in which witty debate and contention for superiority in argument were the chief diversion. Elizabeth Drake Robinson became known, for her moderation, as "The Speaker." The capacities of the elder children flourished under these unusually X I INTRODUCTION propitious influences. Matthew, Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, and William all are noticed in the Dictionary of National Biography (Morris, John, and Charles are briefly noted under their brother Matthew's entry), and all appear to have capitalized on impressive rhetorical and writing abilities. Matthew, who in herited his mother's Kentish estate of Mount Morris, or Monk's Horton, en tered Parliament and was an author of political pamphlets; Thomas wrote a classic legal text before his early death at thirty-three; Morris studied law and became a solicitor; Robert was a sea captain for the East India Company and died in China in 1756; Elizabeth Robinson Montagu became a famous blue stocking, business magnate, and author; William, a clergyman, was a lover of literature and close friend of Thomas Gray; John by 1749 was mentally ill and seems never to have recovered; Charles went briefly to sea with Robert, then entered the Middle Temple and after being called to the bar became re corder of Canterbury in 17 63, a bankruptcy commissioner, and M.P. for Can terbury from 1780 to 1790. By the 1730s the family had removed entirely to Mount Morris. Eliza beth and Sarah, the only two girls, were each other's intimate companions. "Remember the days," Elizabeth wrote in 1749, when the sisters were no longer of one mind, "when as Hermia says, we set on one stool, work' d one sampler, &c. and you will then imagine how much the happiness of your sis ter depends on you."2 The girls were precocious, but not as precocious as has been imagined: their baptismal records show that Elizabeth was two years and Sarah three years older than had been previously recorded. In those early days their good looks and vivacity were so similar that Sarah was known as "Pea," for "peas in a pod," or as Bridget, as a complement to Elizabeth's nick name "Fidget." Yet Sarah's two nicknames, both contingent on comparison to Elizabeth as model, also suggest that she was the copy and Elizabeth the original. The distinction between them grew clearer when Elizabeth struck up a friendship with Lady Margaret Harley, daughter of the Earl of Oxford, and, after Lady Margaret's marriage in 1734 to the Duke of Portland, enjoyed London sociery as companion to her friend. Sarah, left alone in the country, wrote loving, sometimes longing letters, but Elizabeth, intent on estab lishing herself in another life, could no longer reciprocate whole-heartedly. Sarah's cry of pain at her desertion in October 1741 helps to explain a lifelong motivation for her writing: "The love of writing you see, enters into me as soon as you go out of the house; while you are with me I have all I desire, content is then my companion: but when you are gone I can't help writing in hopes you will send me some return for the affection and spirits that are gone Introduction I x1 with you, all of me that is portable you carry with you."3 Elizabeth, however, happy in her liberation, was at the same time writing to her cousin and men tor, Dean William Freind, "Her Grace has a friendship for me I can never find in any one else; nor indeed would it give me the same pleasure from any other person; because then I must be ungrateful, as it would be impossible for me to love any one as I do her. The duty and love I owe at home will make me leave her next spring, but (which is a secret) I do not propose to do it before."4 Elizabeth would subsequently regret and revise this priority of affection, but Sarah would never recover from its effects or entirely forgive. By this time Sarah could no longer have hoped to follow her brilliant sister into society.

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