Her work was widely acclaimed, with Robert Treat Paine, Jr., in the Massachusetts Magazine dubbing her the "American Sappho".

[5] At one time she was thought to be the author of The Power of Sympathy (1789), widely considered to be the first American novel,[6] but that has since been attributed to fellow Bostonian William Hill Brown.

[7] Fanny left a suicide note proclaiming her "guilty innocence" that was published in newspapers shortly after her death.

[7] In January 1789 Sarah's brother Charles Apthorp challenged Perez Morton to a duel.

[5] In spite of this reconciliation, fifteen years later Sarah had an affair with founding father Gouverneur Morris.

[15] Through her daughter Sarah, she is the great-great grandmother of Frederick Bradlee (1892–1970), an American football player who was a first-team All-American while attending Harvard University in 1914.