Macquarie Timeline

 

1761 Lachlan Macquarie is born on the Isle of Ulva, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Of six boys, only four survived – Hector, Donald, Lachlan and Charles – and one girl, Elizabeth.

1776 Macquarie joined as a Volunteer in the 84^th Regiment, aged 15.

1778 Elizabeth Campbell is born, one of four surviving children. Her father is John Campbell of Airds.

1781 Macquarie transfers to the 71^st Highland Regiment, serves in New York, Charleston and Jamaica. He returns to Scotland, where there is a famine.

1787/1788 Macquarie recruited 17 men for the regiment which enabled him to be given a company to serve in India.

1789 Macquarie is promoted to Captain Lieutenant. The 77^th Regiment embarks on the Hercules for Tellicherry, India. 

1792 Macquarie ill with fever for five weeks.
Meets Miss Jane Jarvis, a ‘Dulcinea’.

1793 Marries on 8 September, makes a home in Bombay, aged 32.
The Regiment is sent to Calicut. The Macquaries purchased two slave boys in Cochin, Hector and George, later freed, remains with Lachlan Macquarie, a faithful servant for all his life.

1796 Jane becomes ill and dies of consumption on July 15^th. Macquarie is inconsolable.

1798/1799 Regiment fighting Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore.

1800 Macquarie promoted to Major.

1803 Returns to England, stays in London Society.

1804 In June he returns to Scotland. Murdoch MacLaine died. Macquarie took possession of newly acquired Jarvisfield. Lachlan Macquarie and Elizabeth Campbell meet.

1805 Lachlan Macquarie proposes to Elizabeth Campbell and she accepts. A long engagement follows.

1806 The last review of the 77^th Regiment, who were returning home. The tenth anniversary of Jane’s death. Macquarie visits her tomb.

1807 On 30^th March, he embarks on the ship Prince of Wales to return to England. He took seven months to reach London. He marries Elizabeth Campbell in the ancient church of St. Peter & Paul, Holsworthy, Devonshire on 3 November. She was 24, he was 46. They moved to Perth, Scotland where the regiment was garrisoned.

1808 In October, Elizabeth gives birth to a daughter, Jane, who dies three months later.

1809 The Rum Rebellion in NSW ends and Gov. William Bligh escapes to Hobart. Lachlan and Elizabeth, embark on the ship Dromedary in May with George Jarvis, Joseph Big, a coachman and Mrs Ovens. Their ship enters the Heads on 30 December 1809.

1810 Macquarie takes his responsibilities as Governor. In January, William Bligh returns to Sydney, then departs again in May.
Celebrates St Patrick’s Day with convicts, holds a May Day Fair at Parramatta, and opens a Race Course in Hyde Park.
Signs an agreement with Alexander Riley, Garnham Blaxcell and D’Arcy Wentworth for a ‘Rum Hospital’. Plentiful harvest, cattle and sheep are increasing.
Macquarie announces that the lower classes are inadequately supplied with livestock. A cow on 30 acres can be purchased and paid for in grain inside 18 months, and must be kept for three years. Sheep from government flocks are available on similar terms.
St Phillip’s church is completed. The turnpike road to Parramatta is completed. A foundation stone is laid for a church at Richmond. Improvements begun on Government House and dairy, Parramatta. Names Liverpool and the Macquarie Towns – Windsor (earlier called Green Hills), Richmond, Castlereagh, Pitt Town and Wilberforce.

1811 Seven Police Districts are named. A new government barge is launched, called Elizabeth.
249 couples are married under Macquarie’s proclamation. A foundation stone for Sydney Hospital is laid.
Elizabeth Macquarie, Lachlan’s mother, dies in Scotland, aged 82. Macquarie visits Van Diemen’s Land, Port Stephens and Newcastle. He sends George Evans to explore Jervis Bay and the Illawarra. Streets are laid out in Parramatta.

1812 Elizabeth Macquarie opens Mr West’s watermill, for grinding wheat.

1813 A Public Fair is held in Parramatta – the first by public authority. Macquarie travels the colony and visits the Nepean River, Emu Island, Hawkesbury River, Wilberforce, Eastern Creek, Rooty Hill. In Liverpool he opens a new store and granary.
Macquarie sees off the expedition by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth to find a way over the Blue Mountains. There is great progress in the roads and buildings of the colony.
The harvest produces plenty of  grain, subsistence for double the population.
By August it is in short supply. With very little rain, severe depletion of livestock. St John’s, Parramatta beings renovations and steeples. The Female Orphan School at Parramatta is begun.

1814 After several miscarriages, Elizabeth gives birth to Lachlan Macquarie Junior on 28^th March. Famine. In October many bushfires. George Evans is sent to explore the land over the mountains, and discovers the Bathurst Plains.
Muster shows that in the first ten years of the colony 5958 convicts had arrived. By 1810 – 11, 500 convicts. From 1812 to 1817 – 3978 males and 681 females. In 30 years – 15, 794 convicts transported to NSW. Francis Greenway arrives in NSW, a convict and a civil architect.

1815 Macquarie and his party, including Elizabeth, found Bathurst. A Supreme Court is convened in NSW.

1816 A school for Aboriginal children opens in Parramatta, to be managed by William Shelly. Government House and dairy improvements are completed.

1817 The Bank of NSW is opened. The first libel action is held in NSW courts, Rev. Marsden v ‘Philo Free’. Floods in the Hawkesbury. Macquarie begins building projects – The Macquarie Lighthouse at South Head, Hyde Park Barracks, the Lancer Barracks Parramatta, Barracks in Liverpool and Windsor, Forts on Bennelong Point and Dawes Point, The Female Orphan School, Sydney. St Andrew’s, Sydney, the Benevolent Asylum, the Mint Building, Parliament House, Government House Stables, St John’s Rectory.

1818 After eight years as Governor, Macquarie sends a letter to London asking to resign. The first stone is laid by Macquarie for second Parramatta Female Factory. Parramatta Military Barracks is begun. Free settlers are allowed to build at Bathurst.
The Female Orphan School at Parramatta is completed. The Colonial hospital at Parramatta is built. Macquarie explores Newcastle by sea.

1819 Ill again, Four weeks confined to home. Parramatta Military Barracks and Parramatta Female Factory are completed.

1820 The Convict Barrack and Lumber Yard are begun. The Commissariat Store in George Street, Parramatta is George Street, Parramatta is begun (not completed until 1825 after Macquarie leaves).

1821 A foundation stone is laid for St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Convict Barracks and Lumber Yard completed. Macquarie opens the first Poorhouse in Australia, and the first Blind Institute. He plans the town of Campbelltown, and opens St Luke’s Church, Liverpool. He visits Bathurst and Van Diemen’s Land.

1822 Macquarie turns 60. On a last colonial journey, he organises a gathering of 450 Aborigines and their leaders to introduce them to the new Governor. The colonists of NSW make a farewell gift of plate and £500 to Macquarie. He departs on board the ship Surry with Elizabeth Macquarie, Lachlan Junior, Hector Macquarie his nephew, John and Nancy Moore, George Jarvis and wife Mary Jelly, a stockman, a poulterer and a groom. Arrived in England on the 4^th of July, and returns to Mull in January 1824.

1824 On a visit to London in June he takes ill. Elizabeth and young Lachlan go to him. George Jarvis is with him when he dies on 1 July 1824. He is buried on Mull with his infant daughter, Jane.

1830 Lachlan Macquarie Junior joins the army – the Scots Greys.

1835 Elizabeth Macquarie dies on 11^th March and is buried at Mull.

1836 Lachlan Macquarie Junior marries Isabella Hamilton Dundas. They have no children.

1845 Lachlan Macquarie Junior dies aged 31, ‘dissolute, drunk’. Is buried with his parents on Mull.