ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute to new trends in Bluestocking Studies by taking a fresh look at the two pamphlets of Sarah Kirkham Chapone: The Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives and Remarks on Mrs Muilman's Letter, both published anonymously. Sarah Chapone, ne Kirkham, was grand-daughter, daughter, and niece of Anglican clergymen, as well as the sister, mother-in-law and grandmother of clergymen. Her father Lionel Kirkham was rector of tiny parish of Stanton, Gloucestershire, approximately 40 miles from Oxford. The Granville sisters first met Sarah Kirkham when they came to Buckland village, the other side of Stanton to Stanway. Sarah Chapone was sometimes Sappho, the legendary Greek poetess and learned woman, sometimes Deborah, the Biblical female judge, while her Italianate name was Varanese. In fact the theological framework is essential for understanding Chapone's feminism. She considered that the undermining of Christian belief by Deism was making women more vulnerable to the legal restrictions integral to English marriage.
