Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton

British, 1783 - 1795

BiographySarah Goodin Barrett Moulton was born on March 22, 1783 at Little River, St. James's, Jamaica, the eldest child and only daughter of Elizabeth (Barrett) (1763-1830) of Cinnamon Hill, Jamaica, and Charles Moulton (d.1819) of Madeira, a merchant. She was named for her mother's younger sister, Sarah Goodin Barrett, who had died in 1781 at the age of seven, but her extended family preferred to call her by the diminutive nickname, "Pinkie." By 1789 her father had left Jamaica, having separated from his wife, and Sarah and her siblings were raised by their mother and her wealthy relations. Descendants of Hersey Barrett, who had served with the Parliamentary forces that conquered Jamaica in 1655, the Barretts prospered as exporters of rum and sugar cane; by the mid eighteenth century they owned over 84,000 acres and 2,000 slaves. Like many colonial families in the Caribbean, they were eager for their children to acquire the patina of English manners and education. During a visit to London in 1791, Sarah's grandfather Edward Barrett (d.1798) indentured Francis Murphy to tutor his four Moulton grandchildren in Jamaica for a four-year term. Murphy had arrived by February 1792, but in late September Sarah sailed for England with two of her brothers. In England, she joined other children of Jamaican colonial families in attending Mrs. Fenwicks school at Flint House, Greenwich. She had just recovered from a troublesome cough in September 1794, when her brother came down with whooping cough. This illness may have contributed to her death at Greenwich on April 23, 1795. She was buried on April 30 in the parish church of St. Alfege, Greenwich. Her portrait by Thomas Lawrence had already been submitted to the Royal Academy exhibition, which opened the following day.

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