John Macarthur (1767 – 11 April 1834) was a British Army officer, landowner, and politician, best remembered as a key organiser of the 1808 Rum Rebellion and a pioneer of the Australian Merino wool industry. Born in England, Macarthur joined the nascent New South Wales Corps in 1789; he quickly established himself as a particularly unscrupulous, volatile, and entrepreneurial member of the so-called 'Rum Corps'.
Macarthur imported the first Merino Sheep to New South Wales in 1797. His time in the colony was marked by frequent quarrels with other settlers, one of which resulted in his brief expulsion from the colony, but his wool cultivation became the cornerstone of a commercial empire. After disputes with Governor William Bligh, Macarthur orchestrated a coup against Bligh's rule. Despite serving in the military junta which arose from the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur avoided prosecution for mutiny in England, and returned to his profitable colonial landholdings in 1817. In commemoration of his contributions to the Australian wool industry, Macarthur was featured on the Australian two-dollar note from 1966 to 1988.
Early life John Macarthur was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth, England in 1767. His exact date of birth is unknown, but his baptism was registered on 3 September 1767. He was the second son of Alexander Macarthur, who had fled Scotland to the West Indies after the Jacobite rising of 1745 before returning to Plymouth to work as a linen draper and mercer.
In 1782, John Macarthur was commissioned as an ensign in Fish's Corps, a regiment of the British Army formed to serve in the American War of Independence. The war ended before the regiment was ready to sail and was disbanded in 1783. On half-pay, Macarthur went to live on a farm near Holsworthy in Devon, where he became interested in 'rural occupations' and contemplated a career in law. Instead, in April 1788, Macarthur returned to full-pay army duties, securing a commission as an ensign in the 68th Regiment of Foot, stationed at Gibraltar. In that same year, he married Elizabeth Veale of Bridgerule near Holsworthy.
New South Wales Corps In June 1789, Macarthur secured a lieutenancy with the New South Wales (NSW) Corps, a regiment formed to serve at the recently established convict outpost of Sydney. According to his wife, he had the "expectation of reaping the most material advantages" of being attached to an army regiment in the new colony. It has also been argued that he was driven by a desire to escape the financial and social embarrassment of being the son of a tailor.
The Second Fleet, duel with Captain Gilbert John and Elizabeth Macarthur, with their infant son Edward, were subsequently enlisted to sail to Sydney with the NSW Corps and 1,006 convicts as part of the Second Fleet on board the Neptune. The Second Fleet became known as the 'Death Fleet' due to its organisation being managed by ex-slavers, resulting in 26% of the convicts dying during the voyage.
Before the Neptune had even departed the British Isles, Macarthur's 'passionate temper' that came to define much of his future career, saw him become involved in a heated disputation with the vessel's commander Captain Thomas Gilbert. An issue with the size of his cabin caused Macarthur to publicly denounce Gilbert as a great scoundrel and the two fought a duel with pistols on the Plymouth docks in which neither were injured. Macarthur's fellow NSW Corps officer on the ship was the brother of Evan Nepean, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and in a move that also became typical of Macarthur, he was aided by this political association to have Captain Gilbert replaced as master of the Neptune before the fleet's departure.
Despite the removal of Captain Gilbert, the cramped and squalid accommodation provided for his wife and infant son on board the Neptune provoked further disputes, with Macarthur successfully requesting half-way through the voyage that he and his family be transferred to another vessel of the fleet.
Arrival in Sydney, dispute with Governor Phillip Macarthur arrived in Sydney in June 1790 where he lived with his family and was placed in charge of 60 soldiers. He became an important part of the trading cartel that the NSW Corps under Major Francis Grose established over produce that entered the port colony, in particular the monopoly of the liquor trade. When Governor Arthur Phillip ordered the return of a cask of spirits which Macarthur had taken from the government stores, Macarthur outright refused. Governor Phillip then threatened him with immediate arrest to which Macarthur demanded an explanation before later returning the cask. Macarthur refused to associate with Governor Phillip after this incident.
Increase in wealth and influence as part of the 'Rum Corps' Governor Phillip left for England in late 1792, leaving the colony under the charge of the commander of the NSW Corps, Francis Grose. Under Grose, the officers of this regiment, including Macarthur strengthened their monopolistic control not only of the trade of spirits and food, but also of convict labour. The NSW Corps became known as the 'Rum Corps' due to their very profitable extortion of trade, especially spirits.
Macarthur seems to have been a favoured racketeer of Grose who in February 1793 granted him of the best land in the colony at Rose Hill near Parramatta together with 40 convicts to labour on it. He was granted a further of adjoining land in April 1794. He named the property Elizabeth Farm in honour of his wife. Grose also gave Macarthur a valuable pregnant cow and the command of the outposts at Parramatta and Toongabbie. Grose also appointed him as paymaster for the regiment and as Inspector of Public Works, giving Macarthur almost complete control of the finances and administration of both the military and civil sections of the colony.
Grose was replaced as Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales in 1794 by another 'Rum Corps' officer in Captain William Paterson. Under Paterson, Macarthur's influence increased further by being promoted to the rank of army captain. The tender for the supply of the soldiers' clothes in the colony was also given to his brother in Plymouth who ran the family's tailoring business. By 1795, Macarthur held some of the highest paying government positions in the colony, made profits of up to 500% on the extortion of trade and held 500 acres of land which produced goods that he sold to the government and other settlers at inflated prices, making him an extra £400 each year.
Power struggle with Governor Hunter In 1795, Governor John Hunter arrived to take command of the colony from the interim military oligarchy of the 'Rum Corps' officers. Hunter began a process of reform by attempting to separate the military and civil functions, resulting in Macarthur being forced to resign from his position of Inspector of Public Works. Macarthur detested this loss of power and spearheaded a subversive campaign to discredit Hunter by writing letters to the British government claiming that the widespread drunkenness in Sydney was due to him despite it being widely regarded now as being due to the corrupt practices of the 'Rum Corps' officers.
Macarthur and the 'Rum Corps' retained control of the courts under Hunter and were also able to employ violent techniques of intimidation over people who wanted reform. When the chief-surgeon William Balmain called for an investigation into the violent assault of a civilian by Macarthur's soldiers, Macarthur humiliated him while the officers of the 'Rum Corps' threatened Balmain's life. Due to the legal system being under control of the 'Rum Corps', the assault and intimidation was not inquired into. Balmain viewed Macarthur as a 'base rascal and an atrocious liar and villain' over this incident.
Because of the machinations of Macarthur and the subsequent failure to reform the colony, Hunter was recalled as Governor in 1800 to England where he fought to restore his reputation from the allegations presented by Macarthur.
Acquisition of the first Merino sheep During this period, Macarthur also pioneered the establishment of Merino wool production in the colony. In 1797, Captain Henry Waterhouse of HMS Reliance arrived in Sydney from the Cape Colony with eight Merino sheep purchased from the stock of the recently deposed Dutch governor. These were the first sheep of this breed to be introduced into New South Wales and of them, four ewes and two rams were 'favoured' to Macarthur who was a friend of Waterhouse. In order to advance the breeding of these sheep Macarthur later purchased a large parcel of land at Toongabbie from fellow 'Rum Corps' officer Joseph Foveaux.
Shooting of superior officer, arrest and removal from the colony Governor Philip Gidley King replaced Hunter in September 1800 and was soon also to encounter Macarthur's scorn. In July 1801, King overturned a sentence of imprisonment against navy lieutenant James Marshall, who had been convicted of assaulting Macarthur by a court stacked with 'Rum Corps' officers. Macarthur saw this as an insult, and tried to organise the 'Rum Corps' officers to boycott Governor King. However, when his superior, Colonel Paterson, refused to co-operate, Macarthur used personal material to try to blackmail him. This resulted in Paterson challenging Macarthur to a duel in which Macarthur gave Paterson a severe wound by shooting him in the shoulder.
Governor King had Macarthur placed under house arrest, and realising that Macarthur would not be successfully tried in the colony's 'Rum Corps' dominated courts, decided to send him to England to face a court martial there. King also prepared an extensive volume of notes outlining Macarthur's history of transgressions in New South Wales to be sent to England with Macarthur to aid in convicting him. In this were documents showing how Macarthur had amassed a fortune of £20,000 through extortion and monopolisation. Despite this report being heavily guarded during the voyage to England it was found missing when the ship docked in London. It has been argued that Macarthur, 'or some close associate', was responsible for its disappearance.
Promoting a colonial wool industry Macarthur sailed on the Hunter, departing Sydney in November 1801. The vessel was waylaid in Amboyna where Macarthur became good friends with Robert Farquhar, the island's head administrator for the East India Company. Farquhar was the son of Sir Walter Farquhar, who was the personal physician of the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Macarthur was later able to use these elite connections of this friendship with Farquhar to gain favour at the highest levels in England. When Macarthur eventually reached England in December 1802, the legal authorities advised that his court martial should have been conducted in Sydney and the case was quietly dropped.
While in London, Macarthur lobbied extensively for support of his wool production interests back in New South Wales. Macarthur had samples of the pure Merino wool from his flock, and submitted them to a Committee of Manufacturers who reported that it was equal to any high quality Spanish Wool. Macarthur, encouraged by these findings, quit his position in the army and petitioned the government for permission to occupy 10,000 acres of 'unoccupied land' in New South Wales to raise Merino sheep for the large scale production of colonial British wool.