Elizabeth Sarah Gooch

27 June 1757 - 07 June 1807

ESG 's writing career began in the later eighteenth century with a sizeable pamphlet justifying her role in the quarrel with her estranged husband which had landed her in debtors' prison. From this she moved on to further life-writing (courtesan autobiography), published poetry, further works which blend autobiography with fiction and essay-type material, and finally to sentimental novels. Self-vindication and the need for money were her chief motives, but she has a real gift for expressing both mood and argument. Reviewers gradually shifted over the course of her career from sympathy to contempt.

BirthName: Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real
Married: Gooch
Pseudonym: Mrs Jackson
Indexed: Real
Various sources including the International Genealogical Index give her father's name in the form Real.
; Mrs Gooch; Goortz
Contemporary theatre records sometimes spell her married surname this way.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1973–1993.
6: 249
; Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real Gooch

Milestones

27 June 1757

Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real (later ESG ) was born at her father's estate of Edwinstow or Edwinstowe in Nottinghamshire.

The Feminist Companion dates her birth as 1755.

“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. The Life of Mrs Gooch. Printed for the authoress and sold by C. and G. Kearsley, 1792, 3 vols.

1: 16

1 January 1788

ESG , in the Fleet Prison , dated the preface to An Appeal to the Public, to which she signed her full name: Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real Gooch.

English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

Probably late 1804

ESG published with her name a translation from Charlotte Bournon-Malarmé : Can We Doubt It?; or, The Genuine History of Two Families of Norwich.

Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.

3d ser. 4 (1805): 446

Early June 1807

ESG died at Plymouth in Devon. Her burial there there on 14 June was recorded by the Ipswich Journal as that of Eliz[abe]th Sarah Villa Real Cooch.

Ashfield, Andrew. Emails to Isobel Grundy about Elizabeth Sarah Villa Real Gooch. 26 Jan. 2016.

Major, Joanne, and Sarah Murden. “Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real—Mrs Gooch”. All Things Georgian, 1 May 2014.

Biography

Birth and Family