John Macarthur (wool pioneer)
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John Macarthur (1766-1834) was a soldier, entrepreneur, dumbass and pioneer of the Australian wool industry. He was born in Plymouth, Devonshire, the second son of Alexander Macarthur, who had fled to the West Indies after the Jacobite Rising before returning and working as a linen draper selling naval slop clothing.
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[edit] Military career
John Macarthur joined the army as an ensign in 1782. Having never seen action, his regiment was placed on half-pay when the American Wars ended in 1783. During the next five years Macarthur appears to have taught at a private school, using spare time to travel, read and perhaps contemplate a future at the bar. Having purchased a new commission in 1788 with the 68th Foot (later Durham Light Infantry), Macarthur found himself facing possible court-martial for refusing to assume his new post in Gibraltar. Ensuing negotiations with the war office resulted in an alternative posting to far-flung Sydney, with the New South Wales Corps in 1789. Prior to his ship's departure to New South Wales, Macarthur clashed with various personnel, including a suspected duel with a captain of the fleet. Disputes revolved around the cramped and squalid accommodation provided for his wife and infant son although this resulted in his family being exchanged to another ship.
He arrived in Sydney in 1790 holding the rank of Lieutenant and was appointed as commandant at Parramatta. In February 1793 the acting governor Major Francis Grose granted Macarthur 100 acres of land at Rose Hill near Parramatta. He was granted as further 100 acres in April 1794 for being the first man to clear and cultivate 50 acres. He named the property Elizabeth Farm after his wife and profitably farmed wheat and sheep. Grose came to depend on Macarthur's administrative skills and appointed him as paymaster for the regiment and as superintendent of public works, which Macarthur resigned in 1796 to concentrate on his business and farming interests.
Macarthur was a proud man and quarrelled with many of his neighbours and successive Governors. He was involved in a campaign alleging that Governor Hunter was ineffective and trafficked in rum that lead to Hunter being forced to answer the charges and then recalled.
In July 1801 Lieutenant James Marshall, a naval agent on the Earl Cornwallis, was convicted, fined and sentenced to a year's imprisonment for assaulting Captain Abbott and Macarthur of the NSW Corps during a dispute over Marshall's theft of a dead shipmate's possessions. Governor King believed that Marshall was guilty but the court, which consisted of officers of the NSW Corps, had refused to hear Marshall's objection to one of the Corps's officers not being an impartial judge, and so on grounds of fairness King decided to overturn the sentence send Marshall to England for the matter to be resolved. Macarthur refused to let this go and organised a petty social boycott of Governor King, including an unsuccessful attempt at sabotaging King's Government House celebration of the anniversary of King George III's coronation. When his superior, Colonel Paterson, refused to cooperate Macarthur used material from a personal letter of Paterson's wife to try and pressure him. [1]
Paterson challenged Macarthur to a duel in which Paterson was severely wounded in the shoulder. Governor King had Macarthur arrested and then released him and appointed him as commandant on Norfolk Island to resolve the matter. Macarthur refused to comply and demanded a court martial by his fellow officers. King, realising that his prosecuting Macarthur before a court of his colleagues would not work, sent Macarthur for trial in England. The statement against Macarthur went missing during the voyage (Evatt in Rum Rebellion accuses Macarthur of involvement though there was no evidence) and as all the evidence and witnesses were in Sydney the court decided that it a matter for that jurisdiction. The Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, rebuked King for failing to deal with the matter himself, but also stated that King's orders releasing Macarthur and transferring him to Norfolk Island stood. Macarthur resigned his commission and returned to Sydney to run his businesses. Governor King had declared while Macarthur was in London that, "if Captain Macarthur returns here in any official character, it should be that of Governor, as one-half the colony already belongs to him, and it will not be long before he gets the other half."
[edit] Establishing his flock
Macarthur decided that, instead of just producing food including mutton for the colony, the land around Sydney could be used to produce high quality wool and a profitable export industry established. In 1796 he imported some poor quality Merinos, which being Spanish were better suited to the local climate, from South Africa and began trying to breed up the quality of his flock's fleece.
On his way to England, for trial over the duel with Colonel Paterson, Macarthur's ship put in for repairs in Indonesia where Macarthur met a young official of the East India Company with family connections, and was able to gain backing for his wool enterprise. The Colonial Secretary, Lord Camden, was highly supportive and backed Macarthur for a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of his choosing. Sir Joseph Banks, however, was not impressed with either Macarthur or his commercial venture. When Macarthur failed to conceal his low opinion of Banks, Banks became a strong opponent of the plan and had the grant halved, with the remaining half to be granted only on the successful supply of high quality wool to England (something Banks believed would never happen). Lord Camden also helped Macarthur buy Merinos from the King's own flock and to successfully transport five rams and one ewe to Sydney, even though the export of such sheep to the colonies was illegal and Banks opposed it [2].
When he arrived back in Sydney in 1805 Macarthur further antagonised local authorities by claiming his 5,000 acres (20 km²) in the Cowpastures. This was prime grazing land, well supplied by water from the Nepean river, and reserved by the Governor exclusively for the colony's cattle herds. Both Governors King and Bligh strongly objected to this and wanted the grant moved, but the Colonial Office wrote back affirming Macarthur's right to the land. Macarthur named it Camden Park after his patron. Bligh also turned down Macarthur's request for the remaining 5000 acres (20 km²) after he had begun exporting wool to England. Bligh was firmly opposed to Macarthur's venture famously declaring "What have I to do with your sheep, sir? Are you to have such flocks of sheep as no man ever heard of before? No, sir!".
[edit] Rum Rebellion
Governor Bligh was appointed, with backing by Sir Joseph Banks, to crack down on the commercial activities of the NSW Corps, especially their trade in alcohol. Macarthur was a prime target and the pair clashed throughout 1807.
Macarthur was owed a debt in wheat, the price of which gone up four fold, but on appeal Bligh ruled it was only payable at the original value. Bligh cancelled a lease Macarthur held for some government land that Bligh wanted to use and Macarthur tried to prevent Bligh taking hold of it. When Bligh ordered that a still Macarthur had imported be seized and shipped back to England, Macarthur objected taking the copper and claiming he wanted to ship the rest of the still to China or India instead. When Bligh again demanded that the still in its entirety be shipped back to England Macarthur won a court case declaring the shipping agent's seizure of his property illegal. [3]
When a convict stowed away and escaped to Tahiti on the Parramatta, a ship Macarthur part- owned, Bligh demanded that the 900 pound Transport Board bond be forfeited. Macarthur refused to comply, the ship was seized when it returned and Macarthur abandoned it. In December 1807 Bligh had an order issued for Macarthur to appear before the courts which Macarthur refused to obey and he was arrested and bailed for trial on the 25th January 1808. This trial led to the Rum Rebellion when the officers of the NSW Corps on the court sided with Macarthur and the Corps overthrew Bligh. Immediately after the rebellion took place Macarthur, a brilliant tactician, dispatched his son Edward to London with Macarthur's version of the events, and accompanying him was the first bale of Australian wool to be exported. The British woollen mills were desperate for wool because of the Napoleonic blockade, and the wool sold for a record price.
Macarthur served as Colonial Secretary in the rebel administration, until he was removed. Macarthur was sent to England where he remained for eight and half years to avoid an arrest warrant for him in Sydney. While there he put his sons into public schools, went for a tour of the continent in 1815, and organised the shipment of his wool and developed export markets. This left his wife Elizabeth to manage his properties and the breeding and shearing of the flock, a partnership that served them well. Macarthur had gained the right to return to Sydney through lobbying, but would not accept the conditions imposed that he admit his wrong doing and promise his good behaviour and so he remained in England until Lord Camden granted him unconditional return to NSW in 1817.
It is interesting to note that Macarthur was never punished in any way for his involvement in the Rum Rebellion. Evatt in his book discusses the legal quibbles used to achieve this.
[edit] Later life
On his return to NSW Macarthur devoted himself to his farming. Wool had great advantages as an industry for New South Wales, which because of its distance from European markets needed a commodity which did not perish during long sea-voyages and which offered high value per unit of weight. Wool also had a ready market in England because the Napoleonic Wars had increased demand and cut English cloth-makers off from their traditional source of quality wool, Spain. The export of wool soon made Macarthur the richest man in New South Wales. In 1822 The Society for the Arts in London award him two medals for exporting 150,000 lb of wool to England and increasing the quality of his wool to that of the finest Saxon Merino.
As well as expanding the wool industry, Macarthur established Australia's first commercial winemaker, was a founding investor of the Australian Agricultural Company (London 1824) and the Bank of Australia. His Involvement in the Rum Rebellion blocked him from being appointed as a magistrate in 1822, but he was nominated to the NSW Legislative Council in 1825 where he served until 1832 when he was suspended due to his failing mental health. He died at Camden in 1834. His numerous and wealthy descendants remained influential in New South Wales affairs for many years. As the Macarthur-Onslows they are still wealthy but no longer prominent in public life.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- John Macarthur (1767-1834), pioneer and founder of the wool industry. The Biography of Early Australia. bendigolive.com. Retrieved on January 20, 2006.
- (1927) in A.W. Jose et al.: The Australian Encyclopaedia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
- (1970) in Rex Rienits: Australia's Heritage. Sydney: Paul Hamlyn.
- Serle, Percival. (1949). "Macarthur, John". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- Evatt, H.V., Rum Rebellion: A Study Of The Overthrow Of Governor Bligh By John Macarthur And The New South Wales Corps, 1943.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Australia's Heritage Vol. 1, pp. 211-2
- ^ Australia's Heritage Vol. 2, p. 446
- ^ Australia's Heritage Vol. 1, pp. 279-80
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