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Was born in 1767 near
Plymouth, Devonshire. His father, Alexander Macarthur, had fought for
Prince Charles Edward in 1745, and after Cullodon had fled to the West
Indies. Some years later he returned to England and established a business
at Plymouth. His son John was educated at a private school and entered the
army in 1782 as an ensign, but having been placed on half pay in 1783,
went to live at Holsworthy in Devonshire. He spent some time in study and
thought of reading for the bar, but in 1788 was in the army again and,
about this time, married Elizabeth, daughter of a country gentleman named
Veale. In June 1789 he was appointed a lieutenant in the New South Wales
Corps. He sailed for Australia on 14 November 1789 in the Neptune
with his wife and child and immediately quarrelled with the captain with
whom he fought a duel, without injury to either, at Plymouth. After a long
and trying voyage the Neptune arrived at Port Jackson on 28 June
1790. Mrs Macarthur was the first educated woman to arrive in Australia,
and for some time was the only woman received at the governor's table.
Later on in this year Macarthur was involved in a dispute with his brother
officer, Captain Nepean. The details have been lost, but a court-martial
could not be held on account of the absence of some of the other officers.
The matter was patched up and the two men became reconciled. In February
1793, during the administration of Francis Grose (q.v.), Macarthur was
appointed an inspector of public works and received his first grant of
land, 100 acres adjoining the site of Parramatta. An additional grant of
100 acres was made in April 1794. He was promoted captain between June and
October 1795. On 25 October Governor Hunter (q.v.), in a dispatch to the
Duke of Portland, informed him that he had judged it necessary for the
good of the service to continue Macarthur in his office of inspector of
the public works, "a situation for which he seems extremely well
qualified". However, in September 1796, the governor in another dispatch
stated that "scarcely anything short of the full power of the governor
would be considered by this person (Macarthur) as sufficient for
conflicting the duties of his office". The governor found it necessary to
check him in his interfering with other officers not responsible to him,
and Macarthur promptly sent in his resignation. Hunter "without
reluctance" accepted. But Macarthur had other interests. In September 1795
he was working his land with a plough, the first to be used in the colony,
and experimenting in the breeding of sheep. He had imported sheep from
both India and Ireland and produced a cross-bred wool of some interest. In
1796 he obtained a few merino sheep from the Cape of Good Hope, the
progeny of which were carefully kept pure-bred. A few years later he
purchased nine rams and a ewe from the Royal flock at Kew, and eventually
raised a flock from which has grown the Australian wool industry. It was
Macarthur's greatest achievement. He was engaged in a quarrel with Richard
Atkins who had succeeded him as an inspector of public works, in connexion
with Atkins having reported that soldiers were stealing turnips from the
governor's garden. Atkins objected as a magistrate to not being given the
title of esquire. Macarthur in reply wrote to the governor complaining
that he had been grossly insulted, and stating that Atkins could be proved
to be "a public cheater, living in the most boundless dissipation, without
any visible means of maintaining it than by imposture on unwary
strangers". David Collins (q.v.) as judge-advocate held an inquiry and
reported in favour of Atkins, and having been vindicated Atkins wrote a
furious letter to Macarthur. Hunter was about to appoint Atkins as
judge-advocate, when Macarthur requested that he might institute criminal
proceedings for libel in respect to Atkins's letter. Hunter, however, saw
that Macarthur's real motive was to embarrass the civil power, and so
reported to the English authorities. But Macarthur was a dangerous man to
quarrel with. He wrote a long letter to England with many complaints
against Hunter, which arrived in England early in 1797 and was sent out
for reply to Hunter. His answering letter was dated 25 July 1798, but
Macarthur had had a long start and undoubtedly was largely responsible for
Hunter's recall. Hunter had only done his duty in endeavouring to restore
to the civil administration the control of the land and the law courts,
but this did not suit Macarthur and the other officers, who had been in
full power between the departure of Phillip and the coming of Hunter, and
in the fight that ensued Macarthur was the leading figure.
In 1798 when Dr Balmain
while carrying out his duties came into conflict with the officers,
Balmain found that his only resort was to challenge Macarthur to a duel.
Macarthur's reply was that the corps would "appoint an officer to meet
him, and another, and another, until there is no-one left to explain". In
August 1801 his quarrel with Lieutenant Marshall led to Macarthur
endeavouring to get the officers of the corps to unite in refusing to meet
Governor King (q.v.). His commanding officer, Colonel Paterson (q.v.)
refused to join in, and eventually Paterson challenged Macarthur to a duel
and was severely wounded. King sent Macarthur to England under arrest to
stand his trial by court-martial, and prepared a formidable indictment of
him. King took every precaution he could for the safety of this document,
but it was stolen on the way to England. Mr Justice Evatt in his Rum
Rebellion says, "The inference is irresistible that either he
(Macarthur) or some close associate of his arranged that the damning
document should be stolen and destroyed". Whoever was responsible
Macarthur arrived in London able to exercise his personality to his own
advancement. He could be friendly when he wanted to be, and managed to
become on good terms with officials in the colonial office. Samples of the
fine wool he had produced had previously been sent to England, and he was
able to show how valuable the development of its production would be. He
proposed that a company should be formed to "encourage the increase of
fine-woolled sheep in New South Wales" but it was never formed. Having
addressed a memorial to the committee of the privy council appointed for
the consideration of all matters of trade and foreign plantation,
Macarthur gave evidence before this committee which decided that his plan
should be referred to the governor of New South Wales, with instructions
to give every encouragement to the growth of fine wool. Another
recommendation was that Macarthur should be given a conditional grant of
lands of a reasonable extent. The theft of King's dispatch was not
investigated, Macarthur resigned his commission, and was allowed to return
to New South Wales where he arrived on 9 June 1805. Apparently Macarthur
had so impressed his views on the English authorities that long before
this they had decided to recall Governor King. His successor, William
Bligh (q.v.), was appointed in 1805, but did not arrive at Sydney until
August 1806.
Bligh, a stronger man than
either Hunter or King, proceeded to carry out his instructions to suppress
the rum trade. But this touched the pockets of the officers and other
monopolists, and less than six months after the governor's arrival
Macarthur in a letter described him as "violent, rash, tyrannical".
Apparently the settlers on the Hawkesbury took another view, for on the
very day of Macarthur's letter, a large number of them signed a letter in
which they spoke of the governor's "just and humane wishes for the public
relief", and promised "at the risk of their lives and properties" to
support the "just and benign" government under which they were living. (Sydney
Gazette 8/2/1807). In Bligh's dispatch to Windham dated 7 February
1807 he stated that he had "considered this spirit business in all its
bearings, and am come to the determination to prohibit the barter being
carried on in any way whatever. It is absolutely necessary to be done to
bring labour to a due value and support the farming interest" (H.R. of
N.S.W., vol. VI, p. 250). In September of the same year principal
surgeon Jamison a friend of Macarthur's was dismissed by Bligh from the
position of magistrate, and Macarthur was evidently becoming openly
hostile to the governor. Before the end of the year Macarthur was charged
with sedition and committed for trial. Evatt in his Rum Rebellion
examines the evidence and the law, and comes to the conclusion that a jury
should have found Macarthur guilty on two out of the three counts. When
the trial began on 25 January 1808 Macarthur objected to Atkins, the judge
advocate, sitting on various grounds, mostly absurd or irrelevant. During
the reading of Macarthur's speech Atkins intervened and said that
Macarthur was defaming him and should be committed to prison. Atkins
eventually left the court and proceeded to government house to consult
Bligh. Gore the provost marshal also left and ordered away the constables
on duty. The six officers who had been sitting with Atkins agreed that
Macarthur's objections to Atkins were valid, and asked the governor to
appoint an acting judge-advocate which Bligh refused to do. The officers
then allowed Macarthur out on bail. Next morning the officers met in the
court room at 10 a.m., but in the meantime Macarthur had been arrested by
the provost marshal and put in gaol. The officers took up a perfectly
illegal position and announced that they intended to bring Gore the
provost marshal to justice. Bligh on the previous day had sent for Colonel
Johnston who declined to come on the ground of illness, and he now wrote
to the six officers summoning them to government house next day. Johnston
apparently was now well enough to come to town and sign an order to
release Macarthur, and that evening the New South Wales Corps marched in
military formation to government house and arrested Bligh. It is generally
admitted that Macarthur was the leading spirit in the deposing of Bligh,
and undoubtedly he and his associates were guilty of high treason.
Macarthur, always fully conscious of his own rectitude, wrote an
affectionate note to his wife to tell her that he had been "deeply engaged
all day in contending for the liberties of this unhappy colony. . . . The
tyrant is now no doubt gnashing his teeth with vexation at his overthrow".
At a new trial for sedition held seven days after the rebellion Macarthur
was acquitted.
Immediately the rebel
government was formed Macarthur was appointed colonial secretary, and
until after the arrival of Paterson was the real ruler of the colony. The
rum traffic was restored, and though in The Early Records of the
Macarthurs of Camden it is stated that "the public expenditure was
greatly reduced by Macarthur exchanging surplus cattle from the government
herds for grain", Evatt refers to it as a "system of peculation". It seems
clear that the recipients of government cows and oxen were practically all
officers or supporters of the rebel administration. On 31 March 1809
Macarthur left for England with Johnston where they arrived in October
1809. In the previous May Viscount Castlereagh had given instructions that
Johnston was to be sent to England to be tried, and that Macarthur was to
be tried at Sydney. Johnston was tried by court-martial. Legally his
position was extremely bad, and the defence made was that the extreme
measures taken were necessary to save the colony. Macarthur in his
evidence did his best to discredit Bligh, and no doubt helped Johnston in
preparing his defence, which has been described as a masterpiece of
specious insinuations against Bligh. On 2 July 1811 Johnston was found
guilty and cashiered, the mildness of his punishment no doubt being on
account of the full realization that he had been a mere tool of Macarthur.
Macarthur was quite aware
that if he returned to Sydney the new governor, Macquarie (q.v.), would
arrest him. In October 1812 he writes to his wife that he is in great
perplexity and doubt as to whether he should return to the colony or
withdraw her from it. In August 1816 he sent to his wife a copy of two
letters he had sent to Lord Bathurst. The first which attempted to justify
his conduct was shown to Lord Bathurst's secretary, who suggested that a
different type of letter might be more likely to succeed. In the second
letter Macarthur asked "whether after the lapse of so many years, when all
the harsh and violent feelings which formerly distracted the different
members of the community in Port Jackson have been worn out" an act of
oblivion might not be passed which would enable Macarthur to return to his
home. Lord Bathurst consented but included in his letter a clause "that
you are fully sensible of the impropriety of conduct which led to your
departure from the colony". Macarthur would not, however, accept
permission to return on such terms, but Lord Bathurst in his letters of 14
August and 14 October 1816 stood firm and would not withdraw the passage.
However, on 18 February 1817 Macarthur wrote to his wife to say that "all
the obstacles which have so long obstructed my return to you . . . have
this day been removed". He was still pursuing his campaign against Bligh,
for in the same letter he tells her that he had told the under-secretary
of state that Bligh was a "brutal ruffian governed by no principle of
honour or rectitude, and restrained by no tie but the wretched and
despicable one of fear". Macarthur arrived in Sydney in September 1817
having been absent eight and a half years.
Macarthur, now possibly the
richest man in New South Wales, settled down to the management of his
estates, and his life henceforth was comparatively tranquil. His great
interest was the development of the fine wool industry. In September 1818
he mentions that he is trying to break in his sons, James and William "to
oversee and manage his affairs", but fears characteristically enough that
they "have not sufficient hardness of character to manage the people
placed under their control" and that "they set too little value upon
money, for the profession of agriculture which as you know requires that
not a penny should be expended without good reason". In 1820, writing to
his son John in England, he emphasizes the necessity of the colony
providing exports to pay for its imports by developing the wool industry,
and in 1821 he was suggesting to Commissioner J. T. Bigge (q.v.) the
advisability of really respectable settlers, men with capital, being
encouraged to come out to New South Wales. In January 1822 the governor,
Sir Thomas Brisbane (q.v.), invited Macarthur to become a magistrate, but
the two judges, John Wylde and Barron Field (q.v.), wrote to Brisbane
questioning the advisability of this in view of the part taken by
Macarthur in the rebellion. Macarthur was unable to obtain a copy of the
letter for some time but when he did the old fires revived, and he wrote
an abusive and insulting letter to Field who quite properly took no notice
of it. In 1828 disagreeing with a decision of the chief justice, Francis
Forbes (q.v.), Macarthur threatened to impeach him, but apparently thought
better of it. He had been appointed a member of the legislative council in
1825 and he was again appointed in February 1829 when the number of
members was increased. The death of his son John in 1831 was a great
sorrow to him, and towards the end of 1832 his mind began to fail. He died
on 10 April 1834 at the cottage, Camden Park, and was survived by his
wife, three sons, of whom Edward is noticed separately, and three
daughters.
Macarthur had the slightly
tilted nose and determined chin of a born fighter. His son James in some
notes on his character described him as "a man of quick and generous
impulses, loth to enter into a quarrel but bold and uncompromising when
assailed and at all times ready to take arms against opression or
injustice". The trouble was that Macarthur who always had a keen eye for
his own interests, firmly believed that he was always in the right, and
was ever ready to vehemently point out how much in the wrong his opponents
were. By some process they immediately became dishonest scoundrels. The 20
years after his sailing for Australia in 1789 is full of his quarrels. He
broke three governors, and the verdict of history is that they were honest
men doing their duty and that Macarthur was in the wrong. His conduct to
them and his share in the liquor traffic are blots on his character that
cannot be forgotten. He even quarrelled with Phillip. (Rum Rebellion,
p. 64). He was not unforgiving especially if he had obtained his object,
and it says something for his personal charm that he became afterwards
reconciled with both Hunter and King. In his family life he was
affectionate and beloved, and in his development of the wool industry he
did a great work for his country. His knowledge, ability and foresight,
joined with a tremendous force of character, made him the greatest
personality of his time in Australia.
Macarthur's fourth son,
James Macarthur, was born at Parramatta in 1798. He was educated in
England and afterwards assisted his father in managing his property. In
1837 he published New South Wales Its Present State and Future
Prospects, an interesting work with valuable statistics. In 1839 James
Macarthur was nominated to the legislative council and in 1859 was elected
to the legislative assembly. He died on 21 April 1867. He married in 1838
Emily, daughter of Henry Stone, whose daughter, Elizabeth, married Captain
Arthur Alexander Walton Onslow, R.N.
Sir William Macarthur
(1800-1882), the fifth son of John Macarthur, was born at Parramatta in
December 1800. He was educated in England, returned to Australia with his
father in 1817, and assisted in the management of his estates. In 1844 he
published a small volume, Letters on the Culture of the Vine,
Fermentation, and the Management of the Cellar. In 1849 he was made a
member of the legislative council, and represented New South Wales at the
Paris exhibition of 1855. Shortly afterwards he was knighted. After his
return to Australia in 1857 he was again a member of the legislative
council for some time, but never took a prominent part in politics. He
died unmarried on 29 October 1882. |
