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Earl of Buchan (1742–1829) to Macaulay, Catharine

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01794.07 Author/Creator: Earl of Buchan (1742–1829) Place Written: Middleton, West Lothian, Scotland Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 25 June 1769 Pagination: 4p : docket ; 22.5 x 18.6 cm

Summary of Content: The local common people are simple and congenial to the spirit of liberty but are entrenched in the feudal system, making civil government weak and ineffective. He writes of Presbyterian tendencies to choose local pastors at the destruction of revolutionary patronage. He comments on the popularity of her writing. The 11th Earl of Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, (1742–1829)

Background Information: A full inventory is available.

After the death of her husband George Macaulay in 1766, Catharine Macaulay married an Anglican minister William Graham. Letters from her female descendents are in GLC 1795. ...Notable in that collection are letters of her daughter, Catharine Sophia Macaulay [Gregorie], to Macaulay while the latter toured America and France. This collection of Lady Catharine's correspondence was broken-up for public sale in 1993. The Gilder Lehrman Collection has also acquired other letters written to her, including GLC 1784.01-1800.04. There are approximately 190 items between these accession numbers. GLC 1784-1793 and 1796-1800 are individual documents written by important American figures including John Adams, Ezra Stiles, John Dickinson, William Cooper, Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren and the pseudonymous "Sophronia." Most of the documents relate to the events leading the Revolution. A few, notably the letters from Mercy Otis Warren and "Sophronia" concern the new Constitution and the French Revolution.See More

People: Macaulay, Catharine, 1731-1791

Historical Era: American Revolution, 1763-1783

Subjects: Women's HistoryPoliticsGovernment and CivicsLibertyReligionLiterature and Language ArtsGlobal History and CivicsForeign Affairs

Sub Era: Road to Revolution

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