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Macleay
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Macleay

of the Royal Scottish Academy founded in 1826. At first he worked on ivory, afterwards in water-colours on paper. His bust portraits and small full-lengths are distinguished by exquisite beauty of touch and fine colouring. Among his earlier works was a small full-length of Helen Faucit, which attracted much attention and has been lithographed. He executed for the queen a series of full-length figures illustrative of the costumes of the highland clans, including portraits of the prince consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, and several members of the royal household at Balmoral. A selection of these were lithographed, hand-coloured, and published in two volumes in 1870, under the title of 'Highlanders of Scotland,' When the progress of photography reduced the popular demand for miniatures, Macleay turned his attention to oil-painting, and produced a few genre pictures of highland subjects and many landscapes. These are very hard and minute in handling, and greatly inferior to his earlier water-colour portraits. He married a daughter of Sir A. Campbell of Aldenglass. He died in Edinburgh on 3 Nov. 1878.

[Brydall's Art in Scotland; Catalogues of the Royal Scottish Academy Exhibitions and of their Loan Exhibition of 1880, &c; Scotsman, 4 Nov. 1878.]

J. M. G.

MACLEAY, Sir WILLIAM (1820–1891), Australian statesman and naturalist, born 13 June 1820, was second son of Kenneth Macleay of Newmore, Ross-shire, by Isabella Home of Stirkoke, Caithness-shire, and was first cousin of William Sharp Macleay [q. v.] He was educated at the New Academy, Edinburgh, and afterwards at the university, where he does not seem to have graduated. He emigrated to Australia in 1839 by the persuasion of his uncle, Alexander Macleay [q. v.] Being provided with capital he at once commenced sheep-farming, buying a run on the Murrumbidgee. From 1854 until 1874 he was member of the Legislative Assembly, sitting first for the Lachlan and Lower Darling districts, and later for Murrumbidgee. Macleay shared with other members of his family a taste for natural history.

He devoted himself particularly to entomology, formed a very valuable museum, and was the first president of the Entomological, afterwards Linnean, Society of New South Wales, established at Sydney 11 April 1862. He contributed ten papers on Australian insects to the first two volumes of the 'Transactions' of the Society, 1863-73 (Royal Society's Cat. iv. 168, viii. 800). To this society he also at a later date gave funds for endowment and a house at Elizabeth Bay, and in order to promote higher scientific study in the colony he set aside 40,000l., the interest on which was expended on research fellowships in the university of New South Wales. He further gave to the university his private museum, for which a building was erected at the public expense. In 1874 Macleay fitted out a vessel, the Chevert, and with Captain Onslow made an expedition to the south-west coast of New Guinea, exploring the harbours and collecting many specimens. On his return he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. He was knighted in 1889, and died 7 Dec. 1891. He had married, in June 1867, Susan Emmeline, daughter of Edward (afterwards Sir Edward) Deas Thompson. A portrait of Macleay is in 'The Australian Portrait Gallery.'

[Heaton's Australian Dates and Men of the Time; Australian Portrait Gallery; Epitome of the Official History of New South Wales Times, 8 Dec. 1891.]

W. A. J. A.

MACLEAY, WILLIAM SHARP (1792–1866), zoologist, eldest son of Alexander Macleay [q. v.] and first cousin of Sir William Macleay [q. v.], was born in London 30 July 1792. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as senior optime in 1814, proceeding M.A. in 1818. He was appointed attaché to the embassy in Paris, and shortly afterwards secretary to the board for liquidating British claims in France on the peace of 1815. This necessitated his residence for some years in Paris, where he became intimate with Cuvier, St.-Hilaire, Latreille, and other naturalists. He returned to England in 1819, and in 1821 was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, of which his father was then secretary. In 1825 Canning made him commissioner of arbitration to the mixed British and Spanish court for the abolition of the slave trade at Havannah. In 1830 he became commissary judge in the same court, and in 1836 judge of the mixed court under the treaty of 1835; but in this year he returned to England, and in 1837 retired on a superannuation allowance. In 1839, after presiding over section D of the British Association at Liverpool, he left for New South Wales, on account of his dislike of the English climate. He there devoted himself mainly to the enlargement of his father's collection of insects, and to the care of his beautiful gardens at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, where he died unmarried 26 Jan. 1865.

Most of Macleay's contributions to zoological literature belong to the period between 1819 and 1839. The chief is the