Why did Thomas Babington Macaulay remain especially close to his sister Hannah?

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Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, detail of an oil painting by J. Partridge, 1840; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Thomas Babington Macaulay never married, and he directed his profound capacity for affection toward his family, particularly his sisters. Among them, he held a special, deep-seated attachment to his sister Hannah, later Lady Trevelyan.12

This bond was characterized by close sympathy and a near-daily connection that persisted even after Hannah’s marriage. For Macaulay, this relationship provided the primary satisfaction for his emotional life, and he grew to regard Hannah’s children with the same devotion he would have felt for his own.1