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historian politician statesman
Macaulay was born on October 25, 1800, at Rothley Temple in Leicestershire, United Kingdom, the son of Zachary Macaulay and Selina Mills of Bristol, a former pupil of Hannah More. His father, Zachary Macaulay, a Scotsman, had been a governor of Sierra Leone and was a leading figure in the "Clapham sect," a group of Evangelical reformers and abolitionists.
The young Macaulay was educated at a private school and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge.
At Cambridge, Macaulay's brilliant reputation attracted the attention of Francis Jeffrey, editor of the Edinburgh Review, the leading organ of Whig opinion and the most authoritative literary periodical of the day. He was invited to become a contributor, and his first publication in the Edinburgh was the famous essay on Milton (1825). In it Macaulay's main concern was to defend Milton as a champion of civil and intellectual liberty against tyranny and despotism. The essay was an immediate success and inaugurated a long connection with the magazine. In 1826 he was called to the bar, but he soon took more interest in a political career.
His essays were composed in the midst of an active political life. In 1830 Macaulay entered Parliament, first as a member for Calne and then for Leeds. He delivered memorable speeches in support of the 1832 reform bill. He was appointed a commissioner of the Board of Control and devoted himself to a study of Indian affairs.
Later, Macaulay's interests turned more fully to writing. In 1842 his Lays of Ancient Rome appeared. He continued to write essays, including those on Warren Hastings and Robert Clive, which derived from his Indian experience; one on Addison; and one on William Pitt the Elder.
However, the principal labor of Macaulay's later years was the celebrated History of England, to which he sacrificed both his political career and his life in society. The first two volumes of the History appeared in 1848, volumes 3 and 4 in 1855, and the last installment posthumously in 1861.
The success of the History was enormous. Macaulay intended to write the history of England from the accession of James II (1685) through the reign of George IV. However, it was also his aim to emphasize the art of narrative and evoke the drama and scenic quality of historical events. He died on December 28, 1859, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Thomas Babington Macaulay was well-known primarily as the author of the literary masterpiece History of England. It is famous for emphasis on a progressive model of British history, this model of human progress later was called the Whig interpretation of history. In politics, during his work in India he helped found a system of national education and was the chief architect of the criminal code. Serving as the Edinburgh representative in Parliament, he helped to pass Great Reform Act of 1832.
He opposed radicalism while idealising historic British culture and traditions. Macaulay was the spokesman for Victorian material advancement; but he was correspondingly somewhat blind to the social and economic evils that followed upon the industrial revolution.
Quotations: "We must never judge the quality of a teaching by the quality of the Teacher, or allow the spots to shut out the sun. It would be unjust, and it would deprive us of nearly all that is great and good in this world. Let me remind you of Macaulay. He remains to me one of the greatest of all writers and masters, although I think him utterly base, contemptible and odious for certain reasons which you know."
Thomas's brilliant conversational powers and lively social gifts made him popular in the fashionable world. He likely had an eidetic memory.
Quotes from others about the person
George Richard Potter claimed: "For all his linguistic abilities he seems never to have tried to enter into sympathetic mental contact with the classical world or with the Europe of his day. It was an insularity that was impregnable ... If his outlook was insular, however, it was surely British rather than English."
Macaulay never married and had no children.
