Macaulay, Catharine (1731-1791) to Capel Lofft
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01794.43 Author/Creator: Macaulay, Catharine (1731-1791) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 November 1789 Pagination: 4p. : docket ; 23 x 18.5 cm. Order a Copy
Mentions her letters on education
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.
Dear Sir
be assured that I have a very grateful sense of yr kind attention in forwarding to me Some of the contents of Dr Prices excelent Address had it not been for yr very kind letter and some hints that I afterwords received from another friend I should have remained in profound ignorance of the glorious things which [struck: had] [inserted: have] been said and done at yr last [inserted: revolution] meetings for tho I have the perusal of four different papers I have not met with [struck: a] [inserted: one] word of [struck: it] indeed [inserted: & that was transacted on that occasion] [struck: they are grown so] the news [struck: printers are grown so] publishes are grown so shamefully partial that one might peruse [struck: them abt] [struck: the papers] [inserted: all the punts of this kind] to be made acquainted with every thing that is going forward in politicks
I need not tell you how intesely my sentiments agree with those of [struck: the excelent] Dr Price and I admire his courage [struck: to] [inserted: in] stand[inserted: ing] forth its [illegible] his Countrymen for a baseness of conduct which alas at [2] this time is almost universal
I waited till I had perused yr Theological Tract before I wrote to you otherwise my excelent Friend you would not have had an opportunity to have shown so much condescension with yr goodness
Yr Answer to Knowles is written with a clearness and precision that must I think bring over all the candid to yr opinion I never was a Trinitarian but I acknowledge to you that I Worship Jesus Christ as the Lord of all the human race and as [struck: d] a Being deserving of all the honors which God can confer on any of his Creatures This is the only point of the controversy on which I think there can be a dispute concerning the opinions and practice of the primitive times and had it the [struck: Divines] [inserted: Christian Church] preserved [struck: this] [inserted: such a] moderation in [struck: that] [inserted: its] honors to the Savior of the World we could not wish justice [struck: we could not] have been accused of absurdity or of departing from Unity in our religious notions [3] [text loss] my friend who upon the powers and virtues of philosophy[,] poetry[,] and patriotism how I admire that calmness and equal [inserted: ness of] temper which could enable you to discuss so deep a subject in the Uproar of political contention as for my part my i[strikeout: m]magination has been so compleatly filled with the revolution in France that I have dreamt talked and thought of nothing else from the period of its commencment to the present day of its progress in short I look upon it as the political star [struck: to] [inserted: destined to] conduct all Europe to light and happiness and I find that time has so little abated that [struck: through] strength of my passions and the warmth of my temper in these particulars that my [struck: free] Body has more than once suffered [struck: fr] with my mind on the arrival of News that cast a gloom on the situation of affairs
But to return to your meetings pray was Mr Keller among you for I have not heard from him some time I am sorry you could not procure a Frank but I should have been happy in a full payment if your memory and patience could have furnished [4] more [illegible] the Sermon
I have now finished my letters on education and intend to put the Work to press this winter or early in the Spring
My best compliments attend yrself[,] Mrs Lofft[,] and Family from Dear Sir
Yr Faithful Friend
And Obedt Servt
Cath: Macaulay Graham
Bracknell Novr 12, 89
[docket:]
Novr 12. 1789
Letter to Capel
Lofft Esqr
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