Eugenia (Lady of Quality)
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Eugenia was the pseudonym used by an unknown English pamphleteer of the early 18th century. She became known for a social riposte entitled The Female Advocate: Or, a plea for the just liberty of the tender sex, and particularly of married women. Being reflections on a late rude and disingenuous discourse, delivered by Mr. John Sprint, in a sermon at a wedding... at Sherburn... By a Lady of Quality (London, 1700).
The Female Advocate (another edition is entitled The Female Preacher) was a powerful protofeminist response to the sermon by Rev. John Sprint entitled The Bride-Woman's Counsellor (1699).[1] Sprint, who may have been a descendant of the more famous theologian John Sprint (died 1623),[citation needed] had preached the offending sermon at a wedding in Sherborne, Dorset on 11 May 1699.[2]
The Female Advocate was addressed to "To the Honourable The Lady W—ley" and published in 1700 by the same firm that had issued The Bride-Woman's Counsellor itself.[3] Its author signed herself, "Your Ladiship's most obliged and most humble Servant, Eugenia."[4]