Ellis came from a Quaker family. She was born in Holderness, Yorkshire and was the youngest of five children of William and Esther (née Richardson) Stickney. She considered the loss of her mother when she was four as having had the most profound influence on her later life, particularly her writings on the importance of a mother's role within the middle-class family. Her father remarried in 1808 and had four more children. Ellis attended the Quaker school at Ackworth between 1813-6, but was mainly educated at home. As a young girl, she performed practical housewifery duties, but also read widely in literature, rode and trained her own horses, and became proficient in drawing and painting, taking lessons from John Sell Cotman. W…
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Citation: Simpson, Vicky. "Sarah Ellis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 March 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1418, accessed 26 November 2024.]
