Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Sabrina Sidney

Sabrina Sidney

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/March 4, 2017 by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 02:17, 19 February 2017 (UTC)



Sabrina Sidney (1757–1843), was a British foundling girl taken in when she was 12 by author Thomas Day, who wanted to mould her into his perfect wife, inspired by Rousseau's Emile, or On Education. In 1769, Day and his barrister friend John Bicknell chose Sabrina and another girl, Lucretia, from orphanages. Day took the girls to France to begin Rousseau's methods of education in isolation but soon returned to Lichfield with only Sabrina. He used eccentric techniques to try to increase her fortitude, such as firing blanks at her skirts. When Sabrina reached her teenage years, Day was persuaded by Edgeworth that his ideal wife experiment had failed, and arranged for Sabrina to first attending a boarding school, then becoming an apprentice to a dressmaker family, and eventually being employed as Day's housekeeper. In 1783, Bicknell sought out Sabrina and proposed marriage, telling her the truth about Day's experiment. Horrified, she confronted Day in a series of letters. Sabrina married Bicknell, and the couple had two children. Sabrina went on to work with schoolmaster Charles Burney, managing his schools. In 1804, Anna Seward published a book about Sabrina's upbringing.
 * Most recent similar article(s): nothing similar ever
 * Main editors: Worm That Turned, Staceydolxx
 * Promoted: Oct 2016
 * Reasons for nomination: consider to run in March when we focus on women
 * Support as nominator. Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:44, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Support Ceoil (talk) 09:03, 18 February 2017 (UTC)