Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson (1779–1831)

There is little information available on the early life and education of Sarah Wilkinson. She was chosen as a reader for Lady Charlotte Finch, governess to the children of King George III, who had lost her sight. In 1803, Sarah began publishing Gothic tales in Tell-Tale Magazine, a periodical specializing in short works that were also sold as chapbooks or bluebooks. The number of stories she placed in Tell-Tale suggests to scholars that she may have been the editor of the magazine. Between 1803 and 1806, she published at least 16 Gothic stories including Horatio and Camilla: Or, the Nuns of St. Mary (1804) and The Water Spectre, or, An Bratach (1805). She also published at least nine chapbooks/bluebooks with five other publishers. However, her work was not limited to Gothic fiction. In 1806, she published The Thatched Cottage; or, Sorrows of Eugenia, a novel that sold well by subscription. Its success enabled her to open her own lending library-bookstore. She gave birth to a daughter named Amelia Scadgell, though it is unclear whether or not she was married to Mr. Scadgell. About this time, her name began to appear on publications as Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson (sic). Subsequent novels including The Fugitive Countess; or, the Convent of St. Ursula (1807), The Child of Mystery (1808), and the Convent of the Grey Penitents; or, the Apostate Nun (1810). Although her books met with modest success, the bookstore failed sometime after 1811. Sarah Wilkinson had to take in lodgers for some years, until she returned to writing as a freelancer for periodicals and worked as a teacher at the White Chapel Free School and as mistress of the Free School at Bray in Berkshire. She had to resign from her post due to ill health -- she was diagnosed with breast cancer -- and wrote further works, including a number of children’s books, while living in extreme poverty. Sometime after April 1830, she entered St. Margaret’s Workhouse in Westminster. She died a year later, at age 52.