After acting for three years as tutor to the sons of Joseph Foster Barham I at Bedford, he took holy orders and obtained a curacy at Claybrooke, Leicestershire.
[3] In 1793 Macaulay went on a tour in Holland and Belgium, an account of which he wrote for the 1793–4; and next year, as travelling tutor to a son of Sir Walter Farquhar, he visited the court of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and gave English lessons to his daughter Caroline of Brunswick, who later married the future George IV of the United Kingdom.
In 1796, after his return, Macaulay was presented by his brother-in-law Thomas Babington to the living of Rothley.
[1] Macaulay married Ann, daughter of John Heyrick the town clerk of Leicester; they had eight sons.
[1][4][5] The second son, Colin Campbell Macaulay (1799–1853), became a partner in a firm of solicitors at Leicester.