J. Matlock's Young ladies guide to the knowledge of the English tongue (1715): contextualising the first grammar of English for ladies

Abstract

AbstractRecently rediscovered, The Young Ladies Guide to the Knowledge of the English Tongue (1715) is now the earliest known grammar of English for females. After considering its possible authorship by the writing master John Matlock, I use his residence of Lichfield to exemplify the various ways in which girls might acquire vernacular literacy. Drawing on the Eighteenth‐Century English Grammars database (ECEG), I compare the Guide with contemporary grammars and spelling books, linking its latinate lexis, ‘ungrammatical’ sentences and non‐traditional grammatical terms and categories to an audience of Ladies who are stereotypically not classically educated but nonetheless distinct from charity school girls. I also contextualise this text in such ongoing changes as the movement from classical to vernacular grammar, the role of periodicals in commodifying vernacular education and debates about women's education.