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Sarah Murray (travel writer)

English travel writer

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 11, 2024
Entity authorityQ7422631
Source-derived summary

Sarah Murray, née Maze (1744 – 5 November 1811) was an English travel writer, best known for her Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland (1799). She published under the name The Hon. Mrs. Murray, of Kensington, though after her second marriage she was also known as Sarah Aust.

Life

Sarah Maze was born in 1744, and baptised in Batheaston. During the 1760s she seems to have run a school in Bath, but by 1782 she had moved to Kensington. In 1783 she married her first husband, the Hon. William Murray, brother of the Earl of Dunmore, though he died in 1786. In 1802 she married George Aust (1740-1829), a retired Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Murray published her Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland in 1799.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Sarah Murray (travel writer)” as english travel writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sarah, Murray and travel.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1744, 1811, 1799, 1782—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1744-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Sarah, Murray and travel providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Sarah Murray (travel writer)”, the useful work is to connect “english travel writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 11, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7422631. VIAF identifies the subject as 62961537. The Library of Congress control number is n84223317. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1744, 1811, 1799 and 1782.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sarah Murray (travel writer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sarah Murray (travel writer) primary sources, Sarah Murray (travel writer) archive and Sarah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sarah Murray (travel writer)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Sarah Murray (travel writer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.