Lachlan Macquarie (1761 - 1824)
Lachlan Macquarie was born on the island of Ulva in the Inner Hebrides,
Scotland on 31 January 1761. His father, Lachlan Macquarie, was a cousin
of the sixteenth and last chieftain of the clan MacQuarrie.He was
carpenter by trade who lived and worked as a sub-tenant on the
south-western side of Ulva - near Ormaig. 
View from Ulva, near Ormaig, south-east
towards Mull.Photo credit: Robin Walsh
[1996]
At some time c.1772 Lachlan Macquarie Snr.
moved his wife and family from Ulva to Mull, where he leased 75 acres
from the Duke of Argyll at Oskamull (near the Laggan ferry-berth beside
the Sound of Ulva).He died of 'pleuratic fever' c.1785. Macquarie's
mother, Margaret, neé Maclaine (1728-1810), was the only
sister of Murdoch Maclaine, chieftain of Lochbuie in Mull. She bore her
husband at least seven children - six sons, of whom four survived:
Donald (1750-1800), Lachlan (1761-1824), Charles (1771-1835), and Hector
(d.1778) - and a daughter, Elizabeth.
Early Years
There are few details of Lachlan's early years
and education - though the cost of his education was met by his uncle,
Murdoch Maclaine. In 1776, at the age of 15, he joined the British Army
as a volunteer.
Military Service (1777-1809):
America (1777 - 1783)
In 1777 he obtained an
ensigncy in the 2nd battalion of the 84th
Regiment, known as the Royal Highland Emigrants, and served in
Canada at Halifax and other parts of Nova Scotia. He was commissioned a
lieutenant in the 71st Regiment in
January 1781 and performed garrison duty in New York and Charleston at
the closing stages of American War of Independence. In June 1783 he was
transferred to Jamaica and 12 months later he was placed on half pay. He
returned to Scotland and for the next few years lived a farmer's life at
Oskamull, on Mull, with his mother Margaret, his sister Betty and her
husband Farquhar McLean, and his two brothers Donald and Charles.
India (1787 - 1801)
In 1787 Macquarie took up a commission
as a lieutenant in the 77th Regiment and
began a long association with India. He saw much active service in the
subcontinent, especially in the south, where he was present at the
sieges of Cannanore (1790) and Seringapatam (1791), at Cochin (1795),
the capture of Colombo and Point de Galle (1796), the Battle of
Seedaseer, and at the second siege of Seringapatam (1799).
On 28 September 1793, he married Jane Jarvis, who was the youngest
daughter of Thomas Jarvis, Chief Justice and Member of Council of the
Island of Antigua. Unfortunately, their marriage was brief and childless
- she died of tuberculosis at Macao, in China, on 15 July 1796. He
brought her body back to India and she was buried at Bombay on 16 January
1797.
Egypt (1801-1802)
In March1801, while military secretary to
Jonathon Duncan, Governor of Bombay, Macquarie was appointed
deputy-adjutant-general to the 8000-strong army, under the command of
Major-General David Baird, that was sent to Egypt to expel the French.
The Indian army was landed on the Red Sea coast at Cosseir and from here
marched across 140 miles of desert to reach Keneh. From here the troops
sailed down on the Nile to Cairo before finally reaching Alexandria in
September 1801. Here Macquarie was able to meet up with his brother
Charles whom he had not seen since 1788. They were able to spend several
weeks together and to discuss future plans for purchasing land on the
Isle of Mull. Charles had received a severe head wound at the Battle of
Aboukir on 8 March 1801 and was eventually forced to retire from the
army in May 1811 - he suffered pain and giddiness more or less
continuously for the rest of his life.
On 11 February 1802 Lachlan discovered that he had been appointed as
from 15 January 1801 to an effective majority in the 86th Regiment.
Britain (1803-1804)
Macquarie returned to England in 1803 to
attend to financial matters and to enjoy the social whirl of London
after so many years abroad.He was presented to the King and Queen (on
two occasions), dined with members of the royal family and peerage,
attended balls and the theatre,had his portrait painted by noted Cornish
artist, John Opie, and finally, after 12 months, travelled to Scotland
to visit family and friends.
India (1805-1807)
On 25 April 1805 he sailed for India where he was promoted to
lieutenant-colonel of the 73rd Regiment.
After serving in northern India until 1806 he undertook to return to
Britain carrying government despatches. After sailing from Bombay to the
Persian Gulf, where he narrowly escaped drowning, he then travelled
overland to London via Baghdad, Moscow, and St Petersburg.
Britain (1807-1809)
However the real reason for his return
was to marry his distant cousin Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell, of Airds
whom he had met in 1804. He had proposed to her in March 1805 but asked
her to keep their engagement secret and wait until his return from
India. She had become impatient with his seeming delay, particularly
when it became apparent that his tour of duty would be for four years.
They married on 3 November 1807. The bride was 29, and the groom 46. She
bore him a daughter, Jane, on 15 September 1808, but unfortunately, the
child died on 5 December, the same year.
New South Wales (1810-1821)
In April 1809 Macquarie was appointed Governor of New South Wales, designated to replace William Bligh whose
governorship had been wracked with controversy. Macquarie and his wife
sailed with the 73rd Regiment from Portsmouth in the storeship
Dromedary and escorted by H.M.S Hindostan on 22 May
1809, and they arrived at Port Jackson on 28 December. He took up his
commission as governor on 1 January 1810.
From the outset, Macquarie saw the colony as a settled community as well
as a penal settlement. However, his term of office also coincided with
an increase in the number of convicts sent to the colony. His solution
was to commence an ambitious programme of public works (new buildings,
towns, roads) to help absorb these numbers. He also extended the
practice of ticket-of-leave for convicts.
This policy of encouraging convicts and former convicts (emancipists)
brought him into conflict with an influential, conservative, section of
the local society. This group, known as the "exclusives", sought to
restrict civil rights and judicial privileges to itself. Many of these
free settlers also had influential friends in English political circles.
Frustration and recurring bouts of illness led him to submit his
resignation on several occasions. A serious illness in 1819 almost
proved fatal, and the pressures of a commission of inquiry into the
state of the colony, headed by J.T. Bigge, reinforced his desire to end
his term of office and return home to defend the charges made against
his administration. Finally at the end of 1820 he learnt that this third
application for resignation had been accepted. However, it was not until
12 February 1822 that he and his wife and son departed for England. (On
28 March 1814, after six miscarriages, Elizabeth had given birth to a
son named Lachlan).
Britain and Europe (1822-1823)
In 1822-23, worried about Elizabeth's health, he took her and Lachlan, with servants and a tutor,
Robert Meiklejohn, on a grand tour through France, Italy and
Switzerland.
Scotland (1824)
Finally, in January 1824 Macquarie returned
to his Jarvisfield estate on Mull. However, a number of matters
still remained to be resolved with the government and in April 1824 he
went to London to secure the pension that he had been promised.
Unfortunately, while he was there he suffered an attack of strangury - a
severe inflammation of the kidneys, bladder, and urinary tract.
Elizabeth hurried down from Mull, with Lachlan Jnr, in time to see him
before he died at 49 Duke Street, St James, on 1 July 1824.
To see the inscriptions from Macquarie's family tomb, click here.
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