He married Alethea Buchanan Coleridge on 7 August 1849 at Ottery Saint Mary, Devon, daughter of Sir John Taylor Coleridge. She was born in 1826 in London and died on 30 March 1909. Her parents were John Taylor Coleridge and Mary Buchanan. Together they had eight children; one of whom was Frederick Michael Coleridge Mackarness a prominent barrister then judge who also served as the Liberal MP for the Newbury constituency between 1906 and 1910. Another son, Charles won the FA Cup with Oxford University in 1874, before going on to have a long career in the church, becoming Archdeacon of the East Riding from 1898 to 1916.