Catherine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham was born on April 2nd, 1731. She was born to a wealthy family and her mother died in 1733. She did not receive much education but she used her father’s library quite often. In 1760 Catherine Sawbridge married George Macaulay. She began her rise to being known through the publishings of her eight volume set of a history of England. These were published throughout the years of 1763-1783. In 1766 her husband George Macaulay passed away. Catherine published her first pamphlet a year later in 1767. It was against Hobbes and his thoughts on why monarchy was good. Instead the pamphlet promoted a democratic republic. Catherine had quite a few communications with the colonists in America as well, one of these being Benjamin Franklin. 

In 1778 Catherine Sawbridge Macaulay married William Graham who was only 21 compared to Catherine who was 47 years old. The public was not too happy about this age difference and there were also rumors of her having an affair with William Graham’s brother. That year she continued her publishing which content-wise was too radical for even the Whig’s who had supported her up until then. When America had won its independence Catherine went with her husband to visit a few times. In 1785 she met with George Washington and they communicated through letters for a while afterwards. Catherine had some plans to write history of the American revolution after her America trip but her health would not allow it.

In 1790 Catherine did however publish her Letters on Education, which argued against the ideas that there were differences between men and women that were just naturally there and argued for equal education among both parties. Before she passed away, Catherine returned to the political sphere briefly to support the French Revolution and then passed away on June 22, 1791. 

Sources:

Green, Karen. “Catharine Macaulay.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1 June 2020, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/catharine-macaulay/.