Matthew Robinson’s wife seems to have been educated according to the traditions of a school founded in 1673 for the purpose of raising women to the dignity and usefulness which distinguished their ancestresses. The lady, Mrs. Makin, who originated this school for English maidens, stated her object in an essay, of which a few words may be said, as illustrative of a system of female education in England which, founded nearly half a century before Elizabeth Robinson was born, had not lost all its influence till after she herself was to be reckoned among learned young ladies. The work in question was called “An Essay to revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen in Religion, Manners, Arts, and Tongues: With an Answer to the Objections against this way of Education.” In the dedication to the Lady Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, the author says: “The barbarous custom to breed women low is grown general amongst us, and hath prevailed so far, that it is verily believed that women are not endowed with such reason as man.” Of old, Mrs. Makin says, women were highly educated; but now, “not only learning, but virtue itself, is scorned and neglected as pedantic things, fit only for the vulgar.” The remedy enjoined for this matter is thus stated: “Were a competent number of schools erected to educate Ladies ingeniously, methinks I see how ashamed men would be of their ignorance, and how industrious the next generation would be to wipe off the reproach!” The author adds: “Let not your Ladyship be offended that I do not, as some have wittily done, plead for female preëminence. To ask too much, is the way to be denied all.”
To prove that women were formerly educated in arts and tongues, the author names a score and more of Greek, Roman, and other ladies celebrated for their proficiency in those respects.
“How,” asks the author, “could the Sibyls have invented heroic, or Sappho ‘sapphick,’ or Corinna have thrice beaten Pindar at lyric verses, if they had not been highly educated?” And to prove that the young ladies of both Greece and Rome were instructed in all kinds of good literature, the writer refers to a learned duel between twenty ladies a side, from each nation, in which the Grecian women came off the better in philosophy, and the Roman superior in oratory.
As instances of admirably educated English women, the following persons are named, with much eulogistic comment:
The Lady Jane Gray. The “present Duchess of Newcastle, who, by her own genius, rather than any timely instruction, overtops many grave Gown-men.” The Countess Dowager of Huntingdon, a pupil of Mrs. Makin’s; “well she understands Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Spanish,” and “what a proficient she is in arts subservient to Divinity, in which (if I durst, I would tell you) she excels.” The Princess Elizabeth, daughter to King Charles the First, to whom Mrs. Makin was tutoress, “at nine years old, could write, read, and in some measure understand Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Italian: had she lived, what a miracle she would have been of her sex. Mrs. Thorold, daughter of the Lady Car, in Lincolnshire, was excellent in philosophy, and all sorts of learning. I cannot, without injury, forget the Lady Mildmay and Doctor Love’s daughters: their worth and excellency in learning is yet fresh in the memory of many men.” Finally, as the greatest sample of all, the author describes Queen Elizabeth at some length, who, “according to Ascham, read more Greek in a day than many of the doctors of her time did Latin in a week.”
In the Postscript to the above essay, the following passages occur:
“If any enquire where this education may be performed, such may be informed that a school is lately erected for Gentlewomen, at Tottenham High Cross, within four miles of London, on the road to Ware, where Mrs. Makin is governess, who was formerly tutoress to the Princess Elizabeth, daughter to King Charles the First. Where, by the blessing of God, Gentlewomen may be instructed in the Principles of religion, and in all manner of sober and virtuous Education: more particularly in all things ordinarily taught in other schools.
| “As Works of all sorts | } | Half the time to be spent in these things. |
| Dancing | } | |
| Musick | } | |
| Singing | } | |
| Writing | } | |
| Keeping accompts | } |
“The other half to be employed in gaining the Latin and French tongues; and those that please may learn Greek and Hebrew, the Italian and Spanish: in all which this Gentlewoman hath a competent knowledge.