, or Graham, the name of her second husband, was born in 1733, at Ollantigh,
, or Graham, the name of
her second husband, was born in 1733, at Ollantigh, in
Kent, the seat of her father, John Sawbridge, esq. She
appears to have had none of the regular education given
to young ladies of her ranl$, but had an early taste for promiscuous reading, which at length terminated in a fondness for history. That of the Romans is supposed to have
inspired her with the republican notions which she professed throughout life, and in which she was probably encouraged by her brother the late alderman Sawbridge,
whose politics were of the same cast. In 1760 she married
Dr. George Macaulay, a physician of London. Soon after
this, she commenced her career in literature, and in 1763
published the first volume, in 4to, of her “History of
England, from the accession of James I. to that of the
Brunswick Line.
” This work was completed in 8 vols.
in 1783; it was read with some avidity at the period of its
publication, as the production of a female pen, but has
since fallen into so much disrepute, as scarcely ever to be
inquired after. It was written in the true spirit of rancorous republicanism, and was greatly deficient in that impartiality which ought to be the characteristic of true history. While in the height of her fame, Mrs. Macaulay
excited the admiration of Dr. Wilson, rector of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, who in his dotage placed her statue,
while living, in the chancel of his church. This disgraceful appendage, however, his successor thought himself
justified in removing. Having been left a widow, Mrs.
Macaulay in 1778 married Mr. Graham, a step which, from
the disparity of years, exposed her to much ridicule. In
the year 1785 she went to America, for the purpose of
visiting the illustrious Washington, with whom she had before maintained a correspondence. She died at Bin field,
in Berkshire, June 22, 1791. Her works, besides the
history already referred to, which may be regarded as the
principal, are, “Remarks on Hobbes’s Rudiments of Government and Society;
” “Loose Remarks on some of Mr.
Hobbes’s Positions;
” the. latter being an enlarged edition
of the former: the object of these is to shew the superiority of a republican to a monarchical form of government. In 1770, Mrs. Macaulay wrote a reply to Mr.
Burke’s celebrated pamphlet entitled “Thoughts on the
Causes of the Present Discontents;
” and in An Address to the People of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, on the present important Crisis of Affairs.
”
She wrote also “A Treatise on the Immutability of Moral
Truth;
” which she afterwards re-published, with much
other original matter, under the title of “Letters on Education,
” Observations
on the Reflections of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, oo
the Revolution in France, in a letter to the Right Hon. the
Earl of Stanhope,
”