Catharine Macaulay

Catherine Macaulay or Catherine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, also known as Catharine Macaulay ( born April 2, 1731 in Wye, Kent, † June 22, 1791 in Binfield, Berkshire ) was an English historian, suffragist and Republican writer, the great influence on the personalities had the American Revolution. It is regarded as the first English historian.

Life

Catherine was born the second of four children of the landowner John Sawbridge of Olantigh (d. 1762) and his wife Dorothy in Kent near Canterbury and acquired mainly through self-study, a comprehensive education in (even classical ) literature, philosophy and history, with a focus on Greek and Roman history, what their republicanism justified. Another incident, which they politically activated, was the case of Catherine Macaulay's grandfather Jacob Sawbridge, through which the family had come to know the consequences of governmental and voluntary agencies. This was in 1720 sentenced to almost stand for a part of John Law's South Sea dizziness, since he was a director of the Company. 1760 she married at the age of 29 years, which was considered at that time as very late, the 15 -year-older widowed Scottish doctor George Macaulay ( 1716-1766 ). Macaulay had studied in Padua and worked as a physician at the Brownlow Street Hospital, a maternity hospital ( " lying in " ) in London. The marriage produced a daughter emerged.

Her husband's death in 1766, Catherine Macaulay offset a severe blow. Their health constitution was life not very good, but this did not prevent political activities. As dedicated Republican, she was in several reform clubs of that era leader, for example, she was closely associated with the " Supporters of the Bill of Rights ." This had been founded in 1768 by a group of young lawyers and merchants, including Mrs. Macaulay's younger brother, the Member of Parliament John Sawbridge. The Group supported John Wilkes, whose election victory was not recognized and was in jail. Other aims of the group were to secure the promised in the Bill of Rights liberties. They were well organized, similar to a modern party. Sawbridge was as popular as Wilkes by his campaign in public and was elected Sheriff and Alderman of London.

From 1774 to Catherine Macaulay plunged into social life in the spa town of Bath. The pastor of St. Stephen Walbrook in London, Dr. Thomas Wilson, gave her a home ( " Alfred House " in Alfred Street No. 2 ) together with the library, where she held in her " salon " yard. Macaulay dedicated to him the first volume of her history of England. Wilson immortalized again in a marble statue, on which she was presented with pen and book the muse of history, and presented this to the annoyance of his congregation at the church near the altar.

Other admirers were for her birthday print 1777 six odes. 1775 and 1777 she visited Paris, where she, among others Turgot, Marmontel, and Benjamin Franklin met with great success and celebrated. In the words of Walpole it was one of the attractions that wanted to visit every foreigner ".

However, her frank demeanor also provoked malicious comments like that of the former " literature Pope " Dr.Johnson ("You should rather her cheeks redden as other people's souls black " ), who criticized her history of England violently. At a dinner she gave, Johnson presented their Republican principles to the test by one of their servants ( " Footman " ), called to the table and then remarked about its response that "they [ Johnson ] then never liked him again." Johnson conceals Macaulay's answer, but they themselves are in their letters of Education - she was referring to the political equality of every citizen. The Whig politician and journalist John Wilkes, actually one of their political supporters, also commented disparagingly ( they return from Paris " to the eyes painted " back ). That did not stop them from supporting him in the " North Briton affair " in 1763, when he was imprisoned at the king's command because of some articles in his newspaper North Briton, although he was a Member of Parliament.

The fully coated in Leicester on 17 December 1778, surprising marriage of the 47 -year-old Macaulay with the then 21 -year-old William Graham, the brother of the famous Scottish quack James Graham, and then apprentice assistant to a surgeon was and later clergyman was, caused a scandal, the their reputation in England undermined. Many friends parted from her, and biting satires published. Even Dr.Wilson let her marble statue remove from his church. Mrs. Macaulay turn him over let her little house in Bath and moved with her husband to Leicestershire and finally to Binfield near Bracknell in Berkshire, in a part of Windsor Forest - her success as a writer, she had made financially independent.

Her grave is in the churchyard of All Saints in Binford.

Since it is sometimes cited only as Macaulay, it should not be with Thomas Babington Macaulay, who also wrote a ( much better known ) history of England, confused.

Historian

After her marriage Catherine Macaulay started to act itself as a historian, mainly to the conservative ( Tory ) views in David Hume's famous English history counter. Her work History of England was published from 1763 to 1783 in eight volumes over 3500 pages and treated mainly the 17th century. It was at that time very popular and was, for example, by Horace Walpole still asked about David Hume. Although Walpole said that the work is determined by prejudices ( for example, they detested Oliver Cromwell, although he deposed Charles I ), testifying but " masculine power with the dignity of a philosopher ." But personal attacks were inevitable, which even went so far that has been claimed after her death, she had been banished in 1764 from the reading room of the British Museum, as it would have manuscript leaves removed. Your widowed husband denied this vehemently in 1794. In her historical work, it relies unusual for the time strongly on primary sources. The English history is portrayed as a constant struggle for freedom rights against tyrants, who was continuing to the present day. A French translation of Guiraudet appeared on the recommendation of Mirabeau 1791-1792 in Paris in five volumes. William Pitt also praised the work in the House.

Political Influence in the U.S.

During their marriage in England hurt their reputation kept them in America but their admirers, and had with their republican writings and their historical work great influence on the leaders of the American Revolution. 1785 was celebrated on their tour through the USA and lived with her husband for 10 days at George Washington in his Mount Vernon. They corresponded until her death with him, inter alia, on constitutional issues. They also met James Warren Mercy Otis Warren and his wife, also a historian, John Adams and his wife Abigail, Benjamin Rush and others, with whom she corresponded been around since the 1770s in England and with much needed information on the opinions in England to American "Rebellion " supplied.

In addition to the American Revolution, they also welcomed the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in public pamphlets the conservative views of Edmund Burke to the revolution in France.

Macaulay as an early feminist and her letters about education

The 1790 published " Letters on education issues," they show a precursor to Mary Wollstonecraft, whose treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was ( defending the rights of women ) from 1792 is often considered the first significant protest against the situation of women. Wollstonecraft had the letters of Education of Macaulay reviewed for the " Analyticial " and took a lot out of them. While Wollstonecraft cautious but the education of the women demanded that they might be good mothers, she pleaded for education in order to obtain the same rights as men. The then gladly claimed as a general "wisdom" inferiority of women was simply the result of lack of education and social disadvantage for them. Wool Wollstonecraft met her role model, although never personally, but stood with Macaulay in correspondence. Both had to rely on to earn their own money and were not therefore in the from about the 1770s, then as a bluestocking ( Bluestockings ) designated circles literarily ambitious women who predominantly higher social strata came from (eg, Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey, later Fanny Burney ).

In her letters about education she also sang a particularly education for compassion towards animals and violence. She also complains about the double standard that women easily brings as in their case in unconventional behavior to case.

Quotes

She is the woman of the greatest abilities did this country ever produced Hat, endowed with a sound judgment, and writing with sober energy and argumentative closeness wool Mary Wollstonecraft Vindication of the rights of woman

(Eng. She is the woman with the biggest skills that this country has ever produced, equipped with a secure judgment. She writes with quiet force and argues mandatory)

Works

• The History of England from the Accession of James I to the restoration of the Brunswick Line, 8 vols, London, J.Nourse, 1763-1783
• Loose remarks on Mr. Hobbes ' Philosophical Rudiments of Government and Society, with a short Sketch of a democratical form of government in a Letter to Signor Paoli, London, W.Johnston, 1767 ( the Revolution in Corsica by Pascal Paoli from 1755 was the first great revolution of the century, with the first pamphlet opposes Hobbes monarchist ideal government )
• Observations on a Pamphlet, Entitled, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, 1770
• Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon Edmund Burke, on the Revolution in France, in a Letter to the Right Honorable The Earl of Stanhope, London, C.Dilly, 1790, Boston in 1791, Burke's New On reflection of the french revolution, Woodstock Books 1997, ISBN 1-85477-204- X
• The Address to the People of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the Present Important Crisis of Affairs, 1775 ( the American Revolution )
• Modest plea for the property of copyright, Bath, London 1774
• Treatise on the immutability of Moral Truth 1783 ( reprinted in Letters on education )
• Letters on Education with Observations on Religious and Metaphysical Subjects, 1790, edition Catherine Macaulay, Letters on Education, 1790, Oxford, New York, Woodstock Books, 1994, ISBN 1-85477-184-1, London, and in 1996, Pickering and Chatto, ISBN 1-85196-277-8 ( as well as New York, Garland Publishing 1974 Preface Gina Luria )