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John Macarthur (1767-1834) was a soldier, politician 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 an army agent.
John Macarthur joined the army as an ensign in 1782 and after the end of the war in 1783 he was placed on half-pay. Macarthur had been educated at a private school and used the time to read and study and considered resigning his commission and taking up the bar. However, in 1788 he was recalled to the 68th (Durham) regiment, then in 1789 he exchanged into the New South Wales Corps. In 1790, he arrived in Sydney as a Lieutenant and was made 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 was successful at farming wheat and sheep. Grose also appointed him as superintendent of public works and paymaster for the regiment.
Establishing his flock
Macarthur decided that, instead of just producing food for the colony, the land around Sydney could be used to produce high quality wool and a profitable export industry established. In 1796 Macarthur resigned his position as superintendent to concentrate on his business and farming interests. 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 the fleeces of his flock. In 1800 while Macarthur was in England investigating ways to improve his flock, Governor King declared, "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."
Macarthur quarrelled with many of his neighbours as well as successive governors, and was involved in campaigns that undermined the authority of Governors Hunter and King.
In 1801 Macarthur's commanding officer Colonel Paterson objected to Macarthur's actions against King and also took offence to a letter Macarthur had written. Paterson challenged Macarthur to a duel in which Paterson was severely wounded in the shoulder. Governor King had Macarthur arrested and then tried to resolve the matter by releasing Macarthur and appointing him commandant on Norfolk Island. Macarthur refused to comply and demanded a court martial by his fellow officers of the Corps; King instead sent him to England for trial. In England the statement against Macarthur was missing (Evatt in Rum Rebellion accuses Macarthur of involvement) 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 transferring Macarthur to Norfolk Island stood. Macarthur avoided this by resigning his commission and returned to Sydney as a private citizen.
On his way to England Macarthur had managed to cultivate some political contacts which he used to further his wool-growing plans. The Colonial Secretary, Lord Camden, was highly supportive and backed Macarthur for a grant of 10,000 acres of his choosing, and also helped him obtain prize Merino rams from the King's own flock (which was prohibited). 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).
Returning to Sydney in 1805 Macarthur further antagonised local authorities by claiming his 5,000 acres 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, with Bligh 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!" But the Colonial Office wrote back afirming Macarthur's right to property, which Macarthur named Camden Park after his patron.
Conflict with Governor Bligh
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. First Bligh ruled against Macarthur over a debt and then he cancelled a lease Macarthur held for some government land. When a convict stowed away and escaped to Tahiti on the Parramatta, a ship under charter to Macarthur, Bligh demanded that the 900 pound Transport Board bond be forfeited. Macarthur refused to comply and the shipment was confiscated. Later in the year Bligh demanded that Macarthur get rid of two stills he had imported, for what Bligh insisted was illegal distillation, and again Macarthur refused to comply. Macarthur had become openly hostile towards Bligh and in December 1807 Bligh had a warrant issued for Macarthur's arrest.
This affair led to the Rum Rebellion. Macarthur served as Colonial Secretary in the new administration, till he was removed and then sent to England.
Macarthur remained in exile England 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 in charge of his properties and the breeding programme for the flock. 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 future good behaviour. In 1817 Lord Camden granted him unconditional return to Sydney.
Later life
On his return 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 was such a commodity, and it 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 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 till his death. 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.
See also
References
"John Macarthur (wool pioneer)"