Born at Largs, Ayrshire, on 23 February 1812, he was eldest son of John Maccall, a tradesman, and his wife Elizabeth Murdoch.
[5] Coming to London in 1846, Maccall lived first at 4 Carburton Street, and preached, lectured, and wrote for the press.
John Stuart Mill gave him introductions to The Spectator and The Critic; he wrote also for the Gentleman's Magazine.
The Brotherhood sought to do this by meeting on Sunday mornings to contemplate the lives of holy men and study sacred, mystical, devotional, and philosophical books from across the world.
[1] In 1864 he became the major contributor to the Propagandist and Theological, Social and Political Review, founded by the secularist John Bagnall Bebbington in May of that year, and running to October.
The eclectic content drew on Charles Hennell, and Maccall's translations from Ludwig Büchner and Scandinavian writers.
[1] Maccall published:[1] His views on individualism, central to his thought, were developed in compact form while he was preaching in Crediton, in 1845–6.
[13] Maccall also translated the Tractatus Politicus of Spinoza, 1854 (for "The Cabinet of Reason"), Charles Letourneau's Biology, London, 1877, and pamphlets.