Ponsonby, Sarah (1755–1831)

Irish diarist and letter writer. Name variations: Ladies of Llangollen. Born in Ireland in 1755; died in Llangollen, Wales, Dec 8, 1831; dau. of Chambre Barbazon Ponsonby and Louise (Lyons) Ponsonby (both of whom died when Sarah was a child); in 1768 adopted by father's 1st cousin Lady Betty Fownes and her husband Sir William Fownes, who lived in a mansion at Woodstock, near Kilkenny; attended Miss Parke's School for Young Ladies in Kilkenny, 1768–73, where Eleanor Butler acted as Sarah's guardian during the Fownes' frequent absences from Woodstock.

One of the celebrated women of Llangollen who lived with Eleanor Butler for 50 years in rural Wales in an age when romantic friendship between women and retirement to the countryside were fashionable; left Ireland forever (early May 1778), to avoid the unwanted sexual advances of her supposed guardian Sir William; after six weeks of wandering in Wales and England, settled with Eleanor Butler in rural Llangollen in northern Wales, residing in a cottage they called Plas Newydd (New Place); read and studied the classics as well as contemporary literature in English, French, Italian and Spanish; tended a large garden; took frequent walks around Llangollen; kept up a voluminous correspondence with the greatest minds of the day; frequently entertained genteel neighbors as well as distinguished persons who went out of their way to visit Llangollen, "the vale of friendship." Tourists still stream to Llangollen to visit Plas Newydd.

See also Elizabeth Mavor, The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic Friendship (Michael Joseph, 1971); and Women in World History.