Sarah Fielding was born on 8 November 1710 at East Stour, a village in Dorset in the South of England. She was the fourth of seven Fielding children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Her father Edmund was a glamorous figure, a senior army officer and younger son of a younger son of the aristocracy; her mother was the daughter of Sir Henry Gould, one of England's most senior law officers. The siblings were and remained close: in adulthood Sarah lived for some time with her three sisters, and her elder brother Henry, the playwright, novelist and magistrate, was a mentor and friend to her until his death in 1754.

Part of the reason for the siblings'closeness was that when Sarah was seven years old her mother died, and within a

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First published 22 March 2003

Citation: Bree, Linda. "Sarah Fielding". The Literary Encyclopedia. 22 March 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1526, accessed 9 February 2010.]