John MacArthur

Australian sheep breeder

• Born: August 18, 1766
• Birthplace: Stoke Damerel, Devonshire, England
• Died: August 11, 1834
• Place of death: Camden Park, New South Wales, Australia

MacArthur introduced to Australia merino sheep, which produce extremely high-quality wool. His initiative in importing fine stock from Spain and South Africa resulted in Australia’s becoming one of the world’s premier wool-producing countries and provided the basis for the continent’s future economic development.

Early Life

John MacArthur was the son of Alexander and Catherine MacArthur, who had returned to England after a period of residence in the West Indies and purchased a mercer and draper business in Plymouth, and settled down to raise their fourteen children. John was educated in a private school until he entered the army as an ensign in 1782. In October, 1788, at the age of twenty-two, he married eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Veal, the daughter of a lawyer who had been raised in the household of a cleric, the Reverend John Kingdon. Their first son, Edward, was born in 1789, shortly before John became a lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps.

Neither marriage to a woman raised in a religious household, fatherhood, or advancement in his profession had a beneficial effect on John MacArthur’s character. Chronically discontented and short-tempered, he was recurrently embroiled in unpleasant social disputes. When his regiment was sent to Australia, he found sufficient fault with the captain of the ship that was to transport them there to provoke a duel before they had even left Plymouth. The actual voyage, which lasted seven months, was no happier than its inception, While they were at sea, Elizabeth gave birth to a premature daughter, who died and was buried at sea, while John engaged in a continuing quarrel with the captain, resulting in their being transferred to another vessel in the three-ship fleet in which they were sailing. They finally reached Port Jackson, the harbor of Sydney in what was then the convict colony of New South Wales, on June 28, 1790.

Life’s Work

MacArthur’s abrasive personality quickly led to a dispute with the colony’s governor, Arthur Phillip, whose reprimand and displeasure barred the unpleasant young man from entrance into the upper levels of the colony’s society. However, the arrival in February, 1792, of Major Francis Grose, newly assigned to the command of the New South Wales Corps, changed MacArthur’s luck. Grose befriended the young man and appointed him regimental paymaster, a position that substantially increased his salary. A year later, when Grose was named acting governor of New South Wales, MacArthur was elevated to inspector of public works and was granted one hundred acres of excellent farmland along the Parramatta River, about fourteen miles from Sydney.

With the help of the cheap labor provided by convicts sent to New South Wales, MacArthur and his wife began clearing their land immediately. In November, 1793, they moved their family, which had grown by the addition of a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1792 and a son, James, earlier in 1793, to their new house on Elizabeth Farm. There MacArthur’s family continued to grow. James died the following year, but John was born in 1794, Mary Isabella in 1796, a second James in 1798, William in 1800, and Emmeline Emily in 1808.

At Elizabeth Farm, MacArthur began experimenting with the cross-breeding of sheep. By importing stock from Ireland, Spain, and India, he hoped to be able to produce a breed that would adapt to the conditions of Australia and would produce marketable wool. His first attempts were not successful; the sheep that he bred produced only an inferior quality of wool. It was not until 1796, when he imported several merino sheep from South Africa, that he found a solution to his problem. The merinos, developed in Europe and world renowned for the exceptional quality of their wool, thrived under Australian conditions. Expanding his farm to three hundred acres, MacArthur developed a flock of merinos that showed immense economic promise.

Although MacArthur’s sheep flock was improving, his position in Australian society was not. His friend, Governor Grove, was replaced by Governor John Hunter, who disapproved of MacArthur’s ambition and litigious disposition. In September, 1796, MacArthur was forced to resign from his position as inspector of public works. In league with other disaffected officers of the New South Wales Corps, he worked at having Hunter replaced. Although his efforts were successful, Hunter’s replacement, Philip Gidley King, proved to be no easier a governor with whom to deal.

Still in opposition to the government, MacArthur provoked and fought a duel with Lieutenant Governor Paterson. For wounding his superior, he was arrested and returned to England in November, 1801, to be court-martialed. Surprisingly, he was authorized to take with him his daughter Elizabeth and his son John to be educated in England, along with samples of his finest wool. During the long voyage to England, the document containing the indictment against him disappeared. After he arrived, the government consequently declined to court-martial him.

While MacArthur was in London, he discovered that the demand for wool far exceeded the available stocks. In 1803, he published a pamphlet, Statement of the Improvement and Progress of the Breed of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales , that was designed to promote the sale of his Australian wool. This modest publication alerted the European wool market to the quality of Australian wool and launched the colonial wool industry that would make MacArthur both rich and famous.

In 1805, MacArthur returned to New South Wales, where Governor King had been replaced by William Bligh, a naval officer now famous for the mutiny of his crew aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. Bligh was a resolute official, sent by the government to end the illegal rum trade that flourished among the officers and farmers of New South Wales. Not surprisingly, MacArthur opposed Bligh as he had earlier opposed King and Hunter.

With many of his fellow officers, MacArthur participated in the Rum Rebellion that deposed and imprisoned Bligh. MacArthur was tried in January, 1808, for his involvement in the rebellion but was acquitted. Afterward, he was tried for sedition and acquitted once again. He then took a lead role in the formation of a rebel government and was appointed colonial secretary.

In 1809, MacArthur sailed for England and spent the next eight years in London. He was under virtual, if not actual, arrest, for his part in the Australian scandal. Finally, in 1817, he was cleared of all charges. Moreover, by then he had acquired the patronage of Lord Camden, who granted him five thousand acres of prime pastoral land in Camden, Australia, to develop his wool production, with the promise of five thousand additional acres if his enterprise succeeded.

After moving his family to the new estate in Camden, MacArthur built a finer house there and settled in to the process of expanding his flocks. Assisted by his son William in managing the estate, he spent his remaining years developing the region’s agricultural capacities. With the wool industry well established, MacArthur and his son turned some of their attention to the production of wine as well. During his last years, his declining health led to severe mental difficulties that incapacitated him during the two years leading up to his death in 1834, at the age of seventy-eight.

Significance

John MacArthur’s political significance lies in his contentious career as a soldier and public official in Australia that culminated in the Rum Rebellion. However, he is not remembered primarily for that event. His more important legacy is his contribution to the economic development of Australia. He was not merely a contentious and unruly civil servant, he was also an ambitious and energetic farmer who actively sought out products and markets through which Australia could be transformed from a backwater convict colony into a thriving and important link in the structure of the world economy.

MacArthur’s discovery of the ability of merino sheep to thrive in New South Wales, combined with his fortuitous opportunities to promote the sale of their wool in British and European markets, led to the development of one of Australia’s most important industries. Moreover, his late experiments in viniculture pointed the way to another thriving Australian endeavor. Both of his original farms were still operating at the beginning of the twenty-first century, standing as monuments to his part in developing the economy that continues to support Australia today.

Bibliography

De Vries-Evans, Susanna. Historic Sydney: The Founding of Australia. Brisbane, Qld.: Pandanus Press, 1999. Readers will find this book particularly relevant to MacArthur because of the location of his estates in Parramatta and Camden, in the suburbs of Sydney.

Duffy, Michael. Man of Honour: John Macarthur, Duellist, Rebel, Founding Father. Sydney: Macmillan, 2003. Well-written and researched biography, tracing MacArthur’s life and times until just after the 1808 Rum Rebellion.

Evatt, Herbert V. Rum Rebellion: A Study of the Overthrow of Governor Bligh by John Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1938. The author examines the reasons for the Rum Rebellion and its consequences for New South Wales.

Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986. This is an excellent description of the founding of Australia and the men and women who shaped the new country.

Woldendorp, Richard, Roger McDonald, and Amanda Burdon. Wool: The Australian Story. North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Arts Center, 2003. This book is a good introduction to the development of Australia’s wool industry, in which MacArthur played so important a role.