Sarah Fielding (8 November 1710 - 9 April 1768) was an English author and the sister of novelist Henry Fielding. She wrote The Governess, or The Little Female Academy (1749), which is regarded to be the first novel in English directed specifically for children. Previously, she achieved fame with her work The Adventures of David Simple (1744). Sarah Fielding was born in East Stour, Dorset in 1710 to Edmund Feilding and his wife Sarah, nee Gould (died 1718), following Henry and Ursula; her younger siblings were Anne, Beatrice, and Edmund. Edmund, Sarah's father and the third son of John Feilding, was a military commander and a relative of the Earls of Denbigh (his father, John, was the youngest son of the third Earl). Although Edmund spelled his last name "Feilding" as frequently as "Fielding," Henry and Sarah spelled it "Fielding." When questioned by an Earl of Denbigh why, Henry Fielding's son replied, "I cannot tell, my Lord, except that my branch of the family were the first to know how to spell."