# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macquarie, Lachlan

​MACQUARIE, LACHLAN (d. 1824), major-general and governor of New South Wales, came of an old Scottish family which had been established for many generations on the island of Ulva, near Mull. His father, Lauchlan Macquarrie (the son seems to have dropped the second r), was the sixteenth chief of the clan (Anderson, Scottish Nation. vol. iii.) Lachlan, the eldest son, entered the army on 9 April 1777 as ensign in the 2nd battalion of the 84th regiment of foot. From 1777 to 1781 he served in Halifax and other parts of Nova Scotia, but not in the field. On 18 Jan. 1781 he was transferred as lieutenant to the 71st regiment, and served in New York and Charlestown on garrison duty at the close of the war with the United States, and afterwards in Jamaica till 1784, when he was placed for a time on half-pay. On 25 Dec. 1787 he received a commission as lieutenant in the 77th regiment, which proceeded to India. On 9 Nov. 1788 he was promoted to be captain. In India he saw his first active service, being present at the sieges of Cannanore in 1790, and Seringpatam in 1791. He was in the field in Cochin China in 1795, and Ceylon in 1796. On 3 May 1796 he became major by brevet. He was at the second siege of Seringapatam in 1799; in the following year he was in Egypt and at the siege of Alexandria. On 12 March in ​that year he was transferred as major to the 86th regiment, and on 7 Not. of the same year was made brevet lieutenant-colonel. In 1803 he was in London, acting as assistant adjutant-general; but about May 1805 he relinquished that post to rejoin the 86th regiment in India, although on the 30th of that month he was gazetted as lieutenant-colonel to the 73rd regiment. Through the remainder of 1805 and 1806 he was on active service in India, and returned to London to take command of the 73rd in 1807.
Towards the close of 1809 Macquarie proceeded with his regiment to the convict settlement of New South Wales. The colony was in a critical state. The New South Wales corps, acting with the less law-abiding portion of the population, had deposed Governor William Bligh [q. v.] and established a provisional government. Macquarie replaced the New South Wales corps with his regiment, and proceeded to carry out his special instructions, viz. to enforce the authority of the crown, and after twenty-four hours to assume the government of the colony in succession to Bligh. On 28 Dec. 1809 he commenced his administration. In the exercise of the discretion entrusted to him he ratified most of the acts of the provisional government. On 25 July 1810 he was made a full colonel, on 21 Feb. in the next year a brigadier-general, and on 4 June 1813 a major-general.
One of his earliest acts as governor was a tour of inspection through the agricultural districts which had been inundated in the preceding year, and still suffered much distress, and he took measures for permanently securing the recovery of the districts and their immunity from future floods. In November 1811 the governor visited for the first time his dependency of Van Diemen's Land. When in 1813 the Blue Mountains were crossed and the district of Bathurst discovered, he caused a road to be constructed over the mountains, joining Sydney with the new country. In 1815 he made a sort of state progress over the new road, which was finished within fifteen months, and fixed on the site of the town which now bears the name of Bathurst. The diary of this journey was thrown into a somewhat pompous report to the secretary of state. In 1817 John Oxley [q. v.], the surveyor-general, acting under his directions, made extended explorations, particularly in the river system of the colony, in April 1821 he visited Van Diemen's Land for the second time.
Meanwhile he was giving practical effect to his view that the colony was a settlement for convicts, where free settlers had no place, and that the convicts should be treated with the utmost indulgence. He freely distributed tickets of leave and removed disabilities. He settled emancipated convicts on agricultural lands by giving grants of thirty acres to any person whose sentence had expired. His judgment was often at fault, but Campbelltown, Appin, and other places bear witness to partial success. His efforts generally on behalf of the convicts had been commended in the report of the parliamentary committee on transportation in 1812; but his imperious temper led to friction with every dissentient, and in 1815 he came into open collision with Geoffrey Hart Bent, the first judge of the supreme court of New South Wales, on the question of admitting convict solicitors to practise in the court. Bent was recalled in consequence of the dispute, one result of which was John Thomas Bigge's commission to inquire into the condition of the convict population and the settlement generally. The governor again disagreed with Bigge over the appointment of the convict Redfern to be a magistrate, and thus incurred a severe rebuke from home.
Macquarie's administration was in 1819 attacked with vigour but moderation by Grey Bennet, M.P., in a letter to Viscount Sidmouth. He urged that the governor had been guilty of illegal and high-handed actions, and had failed to carry out a policy which was really reformatory of the convicts. On 21 Jan. 1820 Macquarie replied exhaustively in a valuable letter to Lord Sidmouth from Sydney.
For the twelve years of his administration Macquarie was practically dictator of the settlement. When the secretary of state informed him that it was not the intention of his majesty's government to appoint a council to assist the governor, Macquarie replied, 'I entertain a fond hope that such an institution will never be extended to this colony.'
His expenditure on public works was very lavish. 'The number of public buildings … erected or constructed by Governor Macquarie not only in Sydney and Paramatta, but in all the other settlements of the colony, as also in Tasmania … would almost exceed belief.' He laid out Sydney as it now exists, and the road round the government domain close to that city bears Mrs. Macquarie's name. Many other places and buildings were, in deference to his known vanity, named after him. Two of the chief rivers of New South Wales are the Lachlan and Macquarie. Port Macquarie was a rural convict settlement established shortly before he left the colony. ​There are Macquarie County, Marshes, and Plains, and the Lachlan district. Macquarie Place and Macquarie Street are in Sydney. Tasmania has Macquarie Harbour, and the town thereon, Macquarie Plains, and Macquarie River. Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania, was discovered in 1811.
On 21 Dec. 1821 he was relieved of the government and returned to England, amid the general regret of the colonists, who took the unusual step of presenting him with a piece of plate as a memorial. He resided in London till his death, which took place at his house in Duke Street, St. James's, on 1 July 1824. His body was removed to Ulva, to be buried in the ancestral home, which he had himself bought back from his father's creditors (Anderson, Scottish Natum).
Macquarie had all the faults of military governors, but possessed their good points in a marked degree. His want of judgment and impatience of opposition were accentuated by his personal vanity and ambition. But 'there was a vigour about Governor Macquarie's administration of which it was long afterwards refreshing to contemplate the effects, and which under the guidance of a better regulated judgment would undoubtedly have led to the happiest results.' He has established some sort of claim to the title of 'father of the colony which some admirers sought to bestow on him. He was twice married, first to Miss Baillie of Jerviswood; secondly, to Miss Campbell of Airds, by whom he had one son, who survived him, but died without issue.
[Gent. Mag. 1824, pt. i. p. 397, pt ii. p. 276; Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates and Men of the Time; Sidney's Three Colonies of Australia, 1862, chap. vii.; Lang's Historical and Statistical Account of New 8outh Wales, ed. 1875, vol. i. chap. vi.; Epitome of Official History of New South Wales, chap. iv.; pamphlets by Grey Sennet, M.P., and by Samuel Marsden, attacking Macquarie's administration, with Macquarie's reply.]
C. A. H.