Sarah contracted smallpox in 1741, a disease that would often leave its victims scarred and disfigured, "lowering value in the marriage market." Scholars have traced the impact that smallpox left on Scott literary output: "Scott's pronounced concern [with deformity... was motivated by her own experience of being left marked by a severe bout of smallpox [...], a trauma which had played a key role in redirecting her away from emulating the social success of her equally beautiful sister Elizabeth (Robinson), towards a life dedicated to writing, domestic female friendship and Christian philanthropy." Sarah would later create a fictional character in "Millenium Hall" who had the telltale marks of smallpox that diminished her complexion but not her character.