Sarah Trimmer

Sarah Trimmer

Sarah Trimmer was a writer and critic of 18th-century British children’s literature. Her periodical, The Guardian of Education, helped to define the emerging genre. Trimmer’s most popular children’s book, Fabulous Histories, inspired numerous children’s animal stories. She founded several Sunday schools and charity schools in her parish.

About Sarah Trimmer in brief

Summary Sarah TrimmerSarah Trimmer was a writer and critic of 18th-century British children’s literature. Her periodical, The Guardian of Education, helped to define the emerging genre. Trimmer’s most popular children’s book, Fabulous Histories, inspired numerous children’s animal stories and remained in print for over a century. She founded several Sunday schools and charity schools in her parish. She wrote textbooks and manuals for women interested in starting their own schools. Her efforts inspired other women, such as Hannah More, to establish Sunday school programs and to write for children and the poor. She was inspired to write The Œconomy of Charity, which describes how readers, specifically women, can establish their own Sunday schools. She also became active in the Sunday school movement, founding the first Sunday school for poor children in Old Brentford in 1786. Her writings outlined the benefits of social hierarchy, arguing that each class should remain in its God-given position. While some other educational reformers of the period such as Mary Wollstonecraft argued for co-educational instruction, she was opposed to pedagogical changes. She believed in educating the sexes separately, with the aim of teaching them to read, keep clean, and comb their hair a present of a brush and combing it with a comb. Her works are dedicated to maintaining many aspects of the social and political status quo. As a high church Anglican,. she was intent on promoting the established Church of England and on teaching young children and.

the poor the doctrines of Christianity. She and her husband had 12 children in all—six boys and six girls. The Queen asked Trimmer to turn to her for advice on founding a Sunday school at Windsor, and even asked her to give her advice to Queen Charlotte on founding her own Sunday school. She died in London in 1780. She is survived by her husband, James Trimmer, and her three children, all of whom are still alive today. She leaves behind a son, William, a son-in-law, two daughters, and a grandson, Peter Trimmer. Her husband was a noted artist and served as President of the Society of Artists of Great Britain. Her father was a Clerk of the Works to the Royal Household at Kew Palace and the family moved to Kew in 1759. She had a younger brother, William; she was apparently the better writer, for she would sometimes compose his school essays for him. She met the painters William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough as well as the by-then legendaryWriter and critic Samuel Johnson. In 1759, at the urging of his former pupil the Prince of Wales, her father was made clerk of the works to the royal household. She later met the painter and critic, William Johnson, and later became a teacher at Mrs. Justiner’s boarding school in Ipswich, an experience she always remembered fondly. She always remembered her experience as a young girl, and it was the combination of her duties as a mother and a teacher that initially sparked her interest in education.