Ann Jebb (''née'' Torkington; 1735–1812) was an English political reformer and radical writer who published on both political and theological topics.

Life and work

She was born at Ripton-Kings,

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...

, the eldest daughter of Dorothy Sherard (herself daughter of Philip Sherard, 2nd Earl of Harborough) and James Torkington, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

vicar. She grew up in Huntingdonshire and was probably educated at home. She married religious and political reformer John Jebb in 1764 and fully shared his ideals. When they were first married he was lecturing at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and she developed a reputation of her own in university circles where she held gatherings for reformers. Anne Plumptre was among her friends, and remained so until Jebb's death.Brown et al. Her writing often took the form of letters, signed with the ''nom de plume'' "Priscilla", such as the series she wrote to the ''

London Chronicle The ''London Chronicle'' was an early family newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background ...

'' (1772–4) during the movement of 1771 to abolish university and clerical subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. Subsequently, in 1775, John Jebb resigned his church living, with the full support of Ann; John studied medicine and the couple later moved to London, where they were involved with a number of reformist causes such as the expansion of the franchise, opposition to the war with America, support for the French Revolution,

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. ...

, and an end to legal discrimination against Roman Catholics. After she was widowed in 1786, she remained in London and continued to be politically active. Never robust, she died in 1812 after twenty years as an invalid and was buried with her husband.

Writing and critical reception

Her writing appeared in the ''London Chronicle'', the '' Whitehall Evening Post'' and the ''

Monthly Repository The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, i ...

'', as well as in pamphlets and tracts.Page, "No effort can be lost". Often attacked for her politics, she has the distinction of having been mentioned by

Richard Polwhele Richard Polwhele (6 January 1760 – 12 March 1838) was a Cornish clergyman, poet and historian of Cornwall and Devon. Biography Richard Polwhele's ancestors long held the manor of Treworgan, 4 3/4 miles south-east of Truro in Cornwall, w ...

in ''

The Unsex'd Females ''The Unsex'd Females, a Poem'' (1798), by Richard Polwhele, is a polemical intervention into the public debates over the role of women at the end of the 18th century. The poem is primarily concerned with what Polwhele characterizes as the encroach ...

''.

References

Resources

*Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. "Jebb, Ann." ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English''. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 572. * Brown, Susan, et al., eds.
Ann Jebb
. ''Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present''. Cambridge University Press. Accessed 11/14/23. *Gascoigne, John.
Jebb, John (1736–1786)
" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2005. 7 May 2007. *Hole, Robert.
Hallifax, Samuel (1733–1790)
" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 7 May 2007. *Page, Anthony. "'A Great Politicianess': Ann Jebb, rational dissent and politics in late eighteenth-century Britain", ''

Women's History Review ''Women's History Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of women's history published by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is June Purvis ( University of Portsmouth) and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa is deputy editor. Abstracting and inde ...

'', 17:5 (2008), pp. 743–765. *Page, Anthony. ''John Jebb and the Enlightenment Origins of British Radicalism''. Praeger Publishers, 2003. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jebb, Ann 1735 births 1812 deaths Sherard family 18th-century English writers English women writers People from Huntingdonshire 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English people