Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macarthur, John
MACARTHUR, JOHN (1767–1834), ‘the father’ of New South Wales, born at Plymouth, Devonshire, in 1767, was second son of Alexander Macarthur, who, after fighting at Culloden, fled to the West Indies, and returned to England. John was educated at a local school, and on 30 April 1788 became ensign in the 68th or Durham regiment of foot. On 5 June 1789 he became lieutenant in the 102nd foot, or New South Wales corps, which had been raised for service in the colony. He arrived at Sydney in June 1790, had a grant of land near Parramatta, and, like other members of the corps, engaged in various commercial pursuits. He was made commandant at Parramatta in January 1793, was promoted captain 5 June 1795, and seems to have retired in 1804. At Elizabeth Farm, as he called his settlement, he paid great attention to agriculture, and is said to have been the first to use an English plough. He also devoted himself to improving the breed of sheep in the colony. In 1796 Captains Waterhouse and Kent made a voyage to the Cape for supplies, and Macarthur commissioned them to procure sheep of the best kind. There happened to be for sale at the Cape certain merino sheep, the gift of the king of Spain to the Dutch government, and a few were purchased and brought to New South Wales in 1797. Those which Macarthur obtained he tended with the greatest care. In 1801 he fought a duel with Lieutenant-colonel Paterson of the New South Wales corps, and considering himself badly used in the proceedings which followed, he demanded a court-martial, and after some delay was sent to England, where he resigned his commission. Taking with him specimens of his wool, he interested the manufacturers, and had frequent conferences with Lord Camden, then secretary of state for the colonies, who perceived the importance of obtaining the finest wool from English colonies rather than from foreign countries. In 1805 Macarthur returned to New South Wales in the Argo, which he had purchased, with a grant of five thousand, afterwards increased to ten thousand, acres in the cow pastures. This station he named Camden, and there, encouraged by Philip Gidley King [q. v.], the governor, he continued to make improvements in colonial agriculture, planting the olive and other trees, then new to the colony, which he had brought out from England. In August 1806 William Bligh [q. v.] succeeded King in the governorship and at once commenced a crusade against the liquor traffic, in which Macarthur, like other members of the New South Wales corps, was largely interested. In February 1807 an order was issued forbidding distillation in the colony, and the Dart arriving in March with two stills, one of which was consigned to Macarthur, the governor ordered reshipment. Many sympathised with Macarthur; a political crisis followed, and a warrant was made out for Macarthur's arrest. On 25 Jan. 1808 he was tried at Sydney for high misdemeanours. The next day Major George Johnston, of Macarthur's old corps, arrested the governor, and Macarthur, having been honourably acquitted, became secretary to the provisional government. When Johnston returned to England for trial, Macarthur accompanied him, and gave evidence at the court-martial in 1811. His request at its conclusion to return to Sydney was refused. After the peace he studied the cultivation of the vine and olive, chiefly in France, and returned to London in May 1816. He was honourably sent out to the colony in a transport in 1817, and at Camden he planted the first vineyard in the colony. In 1825 Macarthur was elected a member of the first legislative council of New South Wales. His health suffered after the sudden death of his son John, and he retired in 1831. He died at Camden, 10 April 1834. A portrait of him appears in the ‘Australian Portrait Gallery,’ and a memorial window was placed in the cathedral church of St. Andrew, Sydney, by his son, Sir Edward Macarthur. Macarthur was impetuous in disposition, but a man of great energy and foresight. The great improvement which he introduced in the breed of Australian sheep practically created the trade in Australian wool, of which over 331,000,000 pounds are annually imported into England. To him is also due the foundation of the Australian wine trade.
Macarthur married, in 1788, Elizabeth, daughter of R. Veal of Judgeworthy, Devonshire. By her he had four sons and three daughters, of whom Sir Edward Macarthur [q. v.], the eldest son, is separately noticed. John Macarthur (1794–1831), the second son, born 1794, graduated B.A. 1817, and proceeded M.A. 1823 from Caius College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar, and had just been appointed chief justice of New South Wales when he died, unmarried, in 1831.
James Macarthur (1798–1867), the third son, was born at Camden in 1798. He was educated at home and in England, and in 1815 travelled on the continent with his father, returning to the colony in 1817. He took part in his father's agricultural enterprises, and frequently visited England. In 1840 he engaged in the exploration of Gippsland. In 1839, 1848, and 1851 he was elected a member of the legislative council; in 1853 he moved the resolution empowering the representatives of New South Wales to advocate the New Constitution Act in England. In 1860 he was a member of the international statistical congress in London, and served as commissioner for New South Wales at the exhibition of 1862. He returned to Sydney, and died 21 April 1867. He had married in 1838 Emily, second daughter of Henry Stone of Lombard Street, and left a daughter. He published, London, 1838, 8vo, ‘New South Wales, its Present State and Future Prospects.’
Sir William Macarthur (1800–1882), the fourth son, was born at Parramatta in December 1800. He assisted his father in his various projects, and in 1839, to improve the vine culture at Camden, brought over six German vine-dressers. In 1849 and 1864 he was elected member of the legislative council. He was a representative commissioner for the colony of New South Wales at the Paris exhibition of 1855, and at its close was knighted and made an officer of the Legion of Honour. He visited England in 1862, having assisted in collecting colonial objects for the exhibition of that year. He died unmarried 29 Oct. 1882.
Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur (1788–1861), son of James Macarthur, and nephew of John Macarthur, was born at Plymouth, England, 16 Jan. 1788. He emigrated to New South Wales in 1805, and assisted his relatives in the wool trade, visiting China and England in 1808–12. He was police-magistrate at Parramatta, and was elected member of the legislative council in 1843. He afterwards returned to England, and died at Norwood, Surrey, on 6 March 1861. He had married in 1812 Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Philip Gidley King.
[Burke's Colonial Gentry; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biog.; Heaton's Australian Dates and Men of the Time; Richards's Epitome of the Official History of New South Wales, ch. iii.; Rusden's Hist. of Australia, vol. i. passim, ii. 2 et seq.; Waller's Imp. Dict.; Army Lists; Grad. Cantabr.]