Catharine Macaulay: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|English historian, philosopher, and feminist (1731-17911731–1791)}}

| image = Catharine Macaulay (née Sawbridge) by Robert Edge Pine.jpg

| caption = Portrait of Catharine Macaulay by [[Robert Edge Pine]], {{circa|1785}}.

| birth_name = Catharine Sawbridge

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1731|03|23}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1791|6|22|1731|4|02}}

| birth_place = [[Olantigh]], [[Wye, Kent]], England

| death_place = [[Binfield]], Berkshire, England

| resting_place = All Saints' Church, Binfield

| resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|51|26|32.65|N|0|47|6.53|W|type:landmark|display=inline}}

| occupation = Historian, political theorist, author

| nationality = English

| parents = {{unbulleted list| John Sawbridge (1699–1762) | Elizabeth Wanley (died 1733) }}

| spouse = {{Plainlist |

* Dr. George Macaulay (1760–1766, his death)

| known_for = Writing on the history of England, early feminism, political activism

| notable_works = ''The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line'' (1763–1783)

'''Catharine Macaulay''' (née '''Sawbridge''', later '''Graham'''; 23 March 1731 – 22 June 1791), was ana famed English [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] republicanhistorian. She was the first Englishwoman to become an historian and during her lifetime the world's only published female historian. She was the first English radical to visit America after independence, staying there from 15 July 1784 to 17 July 1785 including time at [[Mount Vernon (plantation)|Mount Vernon]] with [[George Washington]] and his family.

==Early lifeLife==

Catharine Macaulay was a daughter of John Sawbridge (1699–1762) and his wife Elizabeth Wanley (died 1733) of [[Olantigh]]. Sawbridge was a landed proprietor from [[Wye, Kent|Wye]], Kent, whose ancestors were [[Warwickshire]] yeomanry.<ref>{{harvnbSfn |Hill|1992|p=4}}.</ref>

Macaulay was educated privately at home by a governess. In the first volume of her ''History of England'', Macaulay claimed that from an early age she was a prolific reader, in particular of "those histories which exhibit liberty in its most exalted state in the annals of the Roman and Greek Republics...Republics… [from childhood] liberty became the object of a secondary worship".<ref>{{harvnbSfn |Hill|1992|p=9}}</ref>

However this account is at odds with what she told her friend [[Benjamin Rush]], to whom she described herself as "a thoughtless girl till she was twenty, at which time she contracted a taste for books and knowledge by reading an odd volume of some history, which she picked up in a window of her father's house". She also told [[Caleb Fleming]] that she knew neither Latin nor Greek.<ref name="Hill10">{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=10}}</ref>

Little is known about her early life. In 1757, a Latin and Greek scholar, [[Elizabeth Carter]], visited a function at Canterbury where she met Macaulay, then 26 years old. In a letter to a friend, Carter described Macaulay as a "very sensible and agreeable woman, and much more deeply learned than beseems a fine lady; but between the [[Sparta]]n laws, the Roman politics, the philosophy of [[Epicurus]], and the wit of [[Charles de Saint-Évremond|St. Evremond]], she seems to have formed a most extraordinary system".<ref>{{harvnbSfn |Hill|1992|p=11}}</ref>

On 20 June 1760<ref>Marriage Register for St Gregory & Martin, Wye, Kent</ref> she married a Scottish physician, Dr. George Macaulay (1716–1766), and they lived at [[St James's Place]], London. They remained married for six years until his death in 1766. They had one child together, Catharine Sophia.<ref>"Born February 24th 1765", baptism register, St James Piccadilly</ref>{{Sfn |Hill|1992|pp=12–16}} Macaulay moved to [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1774. At age 47, she was married a second time on 14 November 1778<ref>Entry in marriage register All Saints Church, Leicester.</ref> to William Graham (then 21 years old). This caused some scandal.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|ppp=12–16109}}</ref>

Between 1763 and 1783 Macaulay wrote, in eight volumes, ''The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line''. However, when completing the last three volumes she realised she would not reach 1714 and so changed the title to ''The History of England from the Accession of James I to the Revolution''.<ref name="Hill 1992 26">{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=26}}</ref> Being practically unknown before the publication of the first volume, overnight she became "the Celebrated Mrs. Macaulay".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=16}}.</ref> She was the first Englishwoman to become an historian and during her lifetime the world's only published female historian.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=16, 25, 49}}</ref>

The ''History'' is a political history of the seventeenth century. The first and second volumes cover the years 1603–1641; volumes three and four cover 1642–1647; volume five covers 1648–1660; volumes six and seven cover 1660–1683 and the last volume spans 1683–1689. Macaulay chose this period because, as she wrote in the first volume, she wanted "to do justice...to the memory of our illustrious ancestors". She lamented that her contemporaries had forgotten that the privileges they enjoyed had been fought for by "men that, with the hazard and even the loss of their lives, attacked the formidable pretensions of the Stewart family, and set up the banners of liberty against a tyranny which had been established for a series of more than one hundred and fifty years".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=26–27}}.</ref>

[[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] welcomed the first volumes of the ''History'' as a Whig answer to [[David Hume]]'s "Tory" ''History of England''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=30}}</ref> However, in 1768, relations between her and the Whigs cooled. Volume four of the history was published; this dealt with the trial and execution of Charles I. Macaulay expressed the view that Charles's execution was justified,<ref>{{harvnb|Rabasa et al.|2012|p=524}}</ref> praised the [[Commonwealth of England]] and revealed [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom|republican]] sympathies. This caused her to be abandoned by the [[Rockingham Whigs]].<ref name="ODNB">{{harvnb|Hill|2012}}</ref>

[[Thomas Hollis (1720–1774)|Thomas Hollis]] recorded in his diary (30 November 1763) that "the history is honestly written, and with considerable ability and spirit; and is full of the freest, noblest, sentiments of Liberty".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=39–40}}</ref> [[Horace Walpole]] wrote to [[William Mason (poet)|William Mason]], quoting with approval [[Thomas Gray]]'s opinion that it was the "most sensible, unaffected and best history of England that we have had yet".<ref name="Hill40">{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=40}}</ref>

Macaulay was associated with two political groups in the 1760s and 1770s: the Real Whigs and the Wilkites.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=52}}.</ref> She was also sympathetic with the cause of the American Colonists.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catharine-Macaulay Catharine Macaulay profile], Britannica.com. Accessed 5 November 2022.</ref> However, she was more interested in polemic than everyday strategy.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=57}}.</ref> She was a supporter of [[John Wilkes]] during the Wilkesite controversy of the 1760s and closely associated with the radical Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights. Both of these groups wanted to reform Parliament.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

She supported the exiled Corsican [[Pasquale Paoli]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=62–63}}.</ref> In her ''Sketch of a Democratical Form of Government'', she advocated a two chamber state (Senate and People). She wrote that "The second order is necessary because&nbsp;... without the people have authority enough to be thus classed, there can be no liberty". The people should have the right to appeal a court's decision to the Senate and the People. Also, there should be a rotation of all public offices to prevent corruption. An agrarian law was needed to limit the amount of land an individual could inherit to prevent the formation of an aristocracy. She claimed that there needed to be "an unrestrained power lodged in some person, capable of the arduous task of settling such a government" and claimed that this should be Paoli.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=63–64}}.</ref> However, Paoli distanced himself from Macaulay as his sole concern was sustaining English support for Corsica rather than intervening in domestic politics.<ref>Peter Adam Thrasher, ''Pasquale Paoli: An Enlightened Hero, 1725–1807'' (1970), p. 166.</ref>

Macaulay attacked [[Edmund Burke]]'s ''[[Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents]]''. She wrote that it contained "a poison sufficient to destroy all the little virtue and understanding of sound policy which is left in the nation", motivated by "the corrupt principle of self-interest" of "Aristocratic faction and party" whose over-riding aim was a return to power.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=74}}.</ref> Burke, in her estimation, had failed to see that the problem lay in the corruption which had its origins in the Glorious Revolution. Parliament was reduced to "a mere instrument of regal administration" rather than controlling the executive. Macaulay advocated a system of rotation for MPs and "a more extended and equal power of election".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=75}}.</ref>

None of Macaulay's historical or political works were concerned with women's rights. In her support for parliamentary reform, she did not envisage granting the vote to women.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=147}}.</ref> She was heavily influenced by the works of [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]], especially his belief that property was the foundation of political power.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=170}}.</ref>

During a visit to France in 1774, she dined with [[Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Turgot]], who enquired whether she wanted to see the [[Palace of Versailles]]. She replied that "I have no desire to see the residence of the tyrants, I haven't yet seen that of the Georges".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=209}}.</ref>

Her last work was a pamphlet reply to Burke's ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790). She wrote that it was right that the French had not replaced [[Louis XVI]] as this would have complicated their task to ensure liberty.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=228}}.</ref> She replied to Burke's lament that the age of chivalry was gone by claiming that society should be freed from "''false'' notions of honour" which were nothing more than "methodized sentimental barbarism".<ref name="Hill229">{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=229}}.</ref> Whereas Burke supported the inherited rights of Englishmen rather than the abstract rights of man, Macaulay claimed that Burke's theory of rights as gifts of monarchs meant that monarchs could just as easily take away the rights they had granted. Only by claiming them as natural rights could they be secured. The "boasted birthright of an Englishman" she had always thought of as "an arrogant pretension" because it suggested "a kind of exclusion to the rest of mankind from the same privileges".<ref name="Hill229" />

SheMacaulay wrote pamphlets criticizing the policy of the British Government in the lead up to the Revolution and she was personally associated with many leading figures among the American Revolutionaries. She was the first English radical to visit America after independence, staying there from 15 July 1784 to 17 July 1785.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=126}}.</ref> Macaulay visited siblings [[James Otis, Jr.|James Otis]] and his sister [[Mercy Otis Warren]]. Mercy wrote afterwards that Macaulay was "a lady whose Resources of knowledge seem to be almost inexhaustible" and wrote to John Adams that she was "a Lady of most Extraordinary talent, a Commanding Genius and Brilliance of thought".<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1992|pp=126–127}}.</ref> According to Mercy's biographer, Macaulay had "a more profound influence on Mercy than had any other woman of her era".<ref>Katharine Anthony, ''First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren'' (1958), p. 123.</ref> She then visited New York and met [[Richard Henry Lee]], who afterwards thanked [[Samuel Adams]] for introducing him to "this excellent Lady".<ref name="Hill127">{{harvnb|Hill|1992|p=127}}.</ref> Upon the recommendation of Lee and [[Henry Knox]], Macaulay stayed at [[Mount Vernon (plantation)|Mount Vernon]] with [[George Washington]] and his family. Afterwards, Washington wrote to Lee of his pleasure at meeting "a Lady ... whose principles are so much and so justly admired by the friends of liberty and mankind".<ref name="Hill127" />

[[Category:18th-century BritishEnglish philosophers]]

[[Category:BritishEnglish women historians]]