Daughter of Henry Reginald, a London schoolmaster, Makin was fluent in at least seven languages: English, Latin, Greek, and French were the languages she knew best, but she also knew Syriac, Spanish, and German. Before her marriage to Richard Makin, Bathsua (a variation on the biblical name Bathsheba), taught languages in her father's school. Her proficiency in the languages, taught to her by her father, was unusual for women of that period and was a testimonial to her father's own erudition and teaching skills. Exploiting her talents, her father used her ability to teach in his school was an advertisement for his school.

      Married to the less erudite Richard Makin, Bathsua bore at least nine children, six of whom survived. Bathsua continued to teach on-and-off throughout her lifetime. In the 1640s, she became tutor, not governess, to the Princess Elizabeth, an accomplishment that she would refer to throughout her life.

      Under her father's watchful eye, she published her first work, Musa Virginea, at age 16. Dedicated to King James, this short work contains poems and encomium directed toward various members of the royal family in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and French. When presented to the King, a traditional man, the King asked, "But can she spin?"

      Late in life, Makin wrote the work she is best remembered for today. Addressed to the rich, leisured class, An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen (1673) was one of the earliest English polemics on the education of women. Makin uses several techniques to convince her reader that women should be educated.

• Citing classical and contemporary women who are educated, she discusses why their education has served them and their community well.
• Using a question and answer format, Makin address many of the objections that men have about educating their daughters.
• Explaining techniques that can be used to educate girls much more quickly than boys, she clarifies her ideal curriculum.

      Least you reach the conclusion that she writes An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen for any altruistic reason, she doesn't. On the last page, she tells the reader that if she has convinced you to educate your daughter, you can send her to Makin's school for girls.

      As an aside, Essay was written in the same year as that great, ground-breaking feminist work De l'égalité des deux sexes (The Equality of the Two Sexes) by Frenchman François Poullain de La Barre.

      An excerpt from Essay:

Objection: Women are of ill natures, and will abuse their Education: They will be proud, and not obey their Husbands; they will be pragmatic, and boast of their Parts and Improvements. The ill nature that is in them, will become more wicked, the more wit you furnish them with.

      Answer: This is the killing Objection, and every thick skulled Fellow that babbles this out, thinks no Billingsgate Woman can answer it. I shall take the Objection in pieces.

      1. They will abuse Learning. So do men; he is egregiously simple, that argues against the use of a necessary or very convenient thing from the abuse of it. By this Argument no men should be liberally brought up; strong Drinks should never be used any more in the World, and a hundred such like things.

      2. They are of ill natures. This is an impudent calumnt; as if the whole Sex of Women, or the greatest part of them, had that malice infused into their verity Natures and Constitutions, that they are ordinarily made worse by that Education that makes Men generally better.

      Ingenas didicisse sideliter artes
      Emollit mores, nec sinit esse scros.

      The heathen found, that Arts wrought upon Men, the rougher Sex. Surely it is want of fidelity in the Instructor, if it have not the like effect upon softer and finer materials.

      3. They will be proud, and not obey their Husbands. To this I Answer; What is said of Philosophy, is true of Knowledge; a little Philosophy carries a Man from God, but a great deal brings him back attain; a little knowledge, like Ballast in a Ship, settles down, and makes a person move more even in his station; 'tis not knowing too much, but too little that causes the irregularity. This same Argument may be turned upon Men; what-ever they answer for themselves, will defend Woman.

      Those that desire Answer, let them peruse Erasmus his Dialogue, of the Ignorant Abbot and the Learned Woman. An ignorant Magistrate, or Minister, may as well plead against improvement of Knowledge ion all below them, lest they should be wiser than themselves, and to deride them. Do not deny Women their due, which is to be as well instructed as they can, but let Men do this duty, to be wiser than they are. If this does not please, let silly Men let wise Women alone; the rule is, All should be (as near as they can) equally yoked.

For more information:

      * Used in preparation of this work

      * Moria Ferguson, First Feminists: British Women Writers 1578 - 1799 [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985]

      * Bathsua Makin, 1673, Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen, [Augustan Reprint Society, 1980]

      * Frances N. Teague, Bathsua Makin, Woman of Learning: Bathsua Essay to Revive the Antient education of Gentlewomen, 1998

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