A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Macaulay, Catharine
MACAULAY, CATHARINE,
A celebrated female historian and politician, was the youngest daughter of John Sawbridge, Esq., of Ollantigh, in Kent. Catharine was born about the year 1733. During her infancy her mother died, and left her and an elder sister to be brought up by 4 governess, who, it appears, was very unfit for such a responsible task. The two sisters seem to have been left almost wholly to the guidance of their own feelings and instincts. Catharine, at an early age, found constant access to her father's large library, and rummaged and read whatever she fancied. Her first favourites were the periodicals, the Spectator, Rambler, Guardian, etc.; next, history attracted her mind; and at length Rollin's spirited account of the Roman republic struck on the master chord of her noble nature, and made her a republican and a writer of history.
She took the name by which she is best known from her first husband. Dr. George Macaulay, a London physician, to whom she was married in 1760. It was soon after this date that she commenced authoress, by the publication of her "History of England from the accession of James the First to the elevation of the House of Hanover," the first volume of which, in 4to., appeared in 1763, and the fifth and last, which however only brought the narrative down to the Restoration, in 1771. The work also went through more than one edition in 8vo. On its first publication it attracted considerable attention, principally from the double piquancy of the sex and the avowed republicanism of the writer; but, notwithstanding some occasional liveliness of remark, and its notice of a good many facts omitted by most of our other historians; yet, as its spirit was purely republican, its advancement to a standard work was rendered impossible in England. The style is nervous and animated, although sometimes loose and inaccurate, and the reflections of the author are often acute and sagacious, always noble and benevolent. The five volumes of the History were followed, in 1778, by another, entitled "The History of England from the Revolution to the present time, in a series of Letters to the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, and prebendary of Westminster," 4to., Bath. The six letters of which this volume consists come down to the termination of the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742.
In 1785, Mrs. Macaulay visited the United States, and travelled through the greater part of the country, where she was very kindly received. She terminated her journey by a visit to General Washington, with whom she corresponded for the remainder of her life. She resided after her return principally at Binfield, in Berkshire.
In 1788, or according to another account, in 1785, Mrs. Macaulay, having lost her first husband, married a Mr. Graham, of whom all that is told is that he was so many years her junior as to expose the lady to much irreverent remark. She also wrote several pamphlets, both during the progress of her great work, and after its completion. Of these the catalogue-makers have preserved the following titles:—"Remarks on Hobbe's Rudiments of Government and Society," 1767; enlarged and republished in 1769, with the more striking title of "Loose Remarks on some of Mr. Hobbe's Positions;" "Observations on a pamphlet (Burke's) entitled Thoughts on the Causes of the present Discontents," 1770; "An Address to the People of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the present Important Crisis of Affairs, 1776;" "A Treatise on the Immutability of Moral Truth," called in a second much enlarged edition, "Letters on Education," 1790; and "Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon. E. Burke on the Revolution in France, in a Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Stanhope," 1791.
This excellent woman died June 23rd., 1791. Her friend, Mrs. Arnold, in her account of the private character of Mrs. Macaulay, toys, "As a wife, a mother, a friend, neighbour, and the mistress of a family, she was irreproachable and exemplary. My sentiments of this amiable woman are derived from a long and intimate acquaintance with her various excellencies; and I have observed her in different points of view. I have seen her exalted on the dangerous pinnacle of wordly prosperity, surrounded by flattering friends, and an admiring world; I have seen her marked out by party prejudice as an object of dislike and ridicule; I have seen her bowed down by bodily pain and weakness; but never did I see her forget the urbanity of a gentlewoman, her conscious dignity as a rational creature, or a fervent aspiration after the highest degree of attainable perfection. I have seen her humble herself in the presence of her Almighty Father; and, with a contrite heart, acknowledging her sins and imploring His forgiveness; I have seen her languishing in the bed of sickness, enduring pain with the patience of a Christian, and with the firm belief, that the light afflictions of this life are but for a moment, and that the fashion of the world will pass away, and give place to a system of durable happiness."
Dr. Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster, was an enthusiastic admirer of hers, and erected a statue to her, as a patroness of liberty, in the church at Walbrook; but on the death of Dr. Wilson, this mark of homage was removed by his successor.