Sarah Cowper

Nicole Garret (Adelphi University)

Ed. by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

Born 1644
Died 1720

Places

Active in England

Activities

Primary

Letter-writer/ Diarist

Resources

Cowper's Works

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Sarah Cowper, née Holled, was an English diarist, noblewoman, and the matriarch of a family of high-ranking politicians who rose to power during the early eighteenth century. Sarah was the only child of Anne and Samuel Holled. She became Lady Sarah Cowper upon her marriage to Sir William Cowper of Ratling Court (1639-1706). As the wife of a member of parliament and the mother of two prominent Whig politicians, Lady Sarah forged connections among the highest levels of late Stuart and early Hanoverian society, and she has become the subject of scholarly interest as a result of her diaries chronicling political matters and her own domestic struggles over a sixteen-year period (1700-1716).

Lady Sarah Cowper was born in 1644, her childhood extending through the Interregnum and Restoration of

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1510 words

Citation: Garret, Nicole. "Sarah Cowper". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14012, accessed 24 November 2024.]