The 18th-century historian who scandalized London and championed equality for women

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Catharine Macaulay was a radical intellectual who challenged the British monarchy and demanded equal education for women. Though she became a celebrated historian in her own time, her unconventional personal life and outspoken republican politics often overshadowed her scholarly contributions, sparking public ridicule and intense social scandal during the 1700s.

Born in 1731, Catharine Macaulay emerged from a politically radical family to become the first Englishwoman to publish as a professional historian. Her magnum opus, an eight-volume history of England published between 1763 and 1783, offered a fierce republican alternative to the Tory-leaning narratives of David Hume. Macaulay argued that the English Civil War was a necessary defense of natural rights, asserting that the people possessed the fundamental authority to overthrow monarchs who abused their power.

Macaulay’s life was marked by both intellectual acclaim and public controversy. Her support for American independence and her bold political stances drew significant attention, but it was her personal choices that invited the most vitriol. After the death of her first husband, she moved to Bath and entered a close relationship with the Reverend Thomas Wilson, who famously erected a statue of her in his church. The public scandal peaked in 1778 when she married William Graham, a naval surgeon twenty-five years her junior, leading to widespread lampooning regarding her private life.

Despite these distractions, Macaulay remained a formidable thinker. She toured the United States, where she was welcomed by George and Martha Washington, and spent her final years in Binfield, Berkshire. In her 1790 work, Letters on Education, she advocated for the equal education of women, a cause that earned her the praise of Mary Wollstonecraft. By the time of her death in 1791, she had cemented her legacy as a pioneering female voice in political philosophy, even as she navigated a society deeply unsettled by her defiance of traditional gender and political norms.

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