Although Aikin was called a "little Dunce" by her grandmother for not learning to read as quickly as her precocious aunt and older brothers--a reproach that she remembered until the end of her life--she rapidly came into her own as both a writer and a scholar. Her lively intelligence was encouraged at home, where her father was her principal tutor, since experience had shown that the local school could profit her but little. The education she received was not normally vouchsafed to girls in the eighteenth century: she had a thorough grounding in the English classics and was fluent in Latin, French, and Italian. She shared her father's taste for history and biography, and she would later repay his instruction by becoming his biographer. Her studies in history served her well in the writing of her popular court memoirs, which described life during the reigns of Elizabeth I, Charles I, and James I.
In 1792, after being identified as the author of two fiery pamphlets attacking the repeal of the Corporation and Trust Acts, John Aikin moved his family and practice from Yarmouth to London.
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