Colin Macaulay
Colin Macaulay (13 April 1760 – 20 February 1836),[1] was a Scottish general, slavery abolitionist and campaigner.
Early Life
Macaulay was a son of the Rev. John Macaulay (1720–1789), minister in the Church of Scotland, grandson of Dòmhnall Cam.[2] and his mother was Margaret Campbell. He had two brothers: Rev. Aulay Macaulay, scholar and antiquary, and Zachary Macaulay, colonial governor.
Whilst much has been written of the early life of his brothers, little is known about Colin's upbringing. However, his education must have been formative as he became in later life a distinguished linguist with extensive knowledge of classical and modern languages, history and literature, and he wrote with a polished style. It is possible that he studied at the Parish School in Inverary and later at Cardross.[3]
East India Company Army
Macaulay was enrolled as a Cadet in the East India Army at India House on 11 February 1777, not quite aged seventeen. He embarked for India a year later on 27 April 1778 and eventually served in India for over thirty years.
He was present at Seringapatam, and was one of Sir David Bird's companions in the two years imprisonment under Tipu Sultan. He was for many years on intimate terms with the Duke of Wellington. He served a resident of the British East India Company for Travancore and Cochin during 1800-1810 and was the subject of an attack by Chempil Arayan. In 1810 ill health led him to return home from India. For the next 25 years he remained in the UK (with occasional trips to Europe) on furlough but still received regular promotions and command of regiments in the East India Company Army; Colonel (1812), Major General (1814) and Lieutenant General (1830).
Return to England
For the first ten years of his return to England, Macaulay's London residence was 17 Downing Street. This was also the London base of his brother-in-law, the M.P. and abolitionist Thomas Babington. The arrangement lasted until 1820, when the men had a falling out for an unrecorded reason.
In 1812 Macaulay purchased a 247-acre farm near Lowesby, in Leicestershire. As it was leased, from the year of purchase until Macaulay's death it was presumably just an investment.
Macaulay also felt the cold badly and as a result often spent the winter months in France, Italy and the Mediterranean.
Public Life
Macaulay took a little part in public affairs. He sat in Parliament for one Session (from 1826 to 1830) as Member for Saltash[1] but did not take part in any debate. He was an active supporter of the British Bible Society and was engaged in the Abolition of Slavery. He became a member of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. He accompanied the Duke of Wellington to the Congress of Verona in 1822, where proposals were submitted for the entire Abolition of the Slave Trade.[4]
Codex Zacynthius
In 1820 he visited the island of Zante in Greece on behalf of the (then) British and Foreign Bible Society. Whilst there he met Prince Comuto, who had been President of the Septinsular Republic. Comuto's Palace was famous for its library and its works of art. The library contained the Codex Zacynthius which Comuto presented to Macaulay, personally inscribed, as a mark of his esteem. On his return to England Macaulay gave it to the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Today the Codex Zacynthius is recognised as one of the most important palimpsests of its kind. It was sold by the Bible Society to the Cambridge University Library in 2014 for £1.1 million.
Family
Macaulay never married and despite the rift with his brother-in-law Thomas Babington was much loved by his relatives. Sir George Otto Trevelyan, who was born too late to know him personally, but was certainly acquainted with many who did wrote that Colin 'was generous in a high degree, and the young people owed to him in books which they otherwise could never have obtained, and treats and excursions which formed the only recreations that broke the uniform current of their lives. They regarded their Uncle Colin as the man of the world of the Macaulay family'.
Biography
A short biography on Macaulay, 'A Life of General Colin Macaulay; Soldier, Scholar & Slavery Abolitionist', by Colin Ferguson Smith was privately published in November 2019 (ISBN 978-1-78972-649-7). Copies of the book are available from the Cambridge University Library, the Bodleian Library (Oxford) and the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.
References
- ^ a b Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)
- ^ Notes of Family History
- ^ C.F. Smith, A Life of General Colin Macaulay, (Privately Published, 2019, ISBN 978-1-78972-649-7), pp. 53-54.
- ^ S. P. Tregelles, Codex Zacynthios, p. XXIV.