WATCH THIS SPACE: The Macquarie imprint on Tasmania

CLICK HERE TO GO TO SOURCE

Lachlan Macquarie (1762–1824), governor, was born, according to a note in his own hand in a family Bible, on 31 January 1762 on the island of Ulva in the parish of Kilninian in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. His father, Lachlan Macquarie, was a cousin of the sixteenth and last chieftain of the clan Macquarie. According to local tradition Macquarie senior was a carpenter or miller; certainly he was a tenant of the Duke of Argyll, leasing the small farm of Oskamull in Mull which he was too poor to stock himself and therefore shared with two other tenants. His own part of the farm he shared with his son-in-law, Farquhar Maclaine, a tradesman. It is not known when he died, but in August 1785 Macquarie paid a mariner a pound to buy a headstone for his grave.

Macquarie's mother, Margaret, was the only sister of Murdoch Maclaine, chieftain of Lochbuy in Mull, and as a widow she farmed her pendicle of Oskamull, with her eldest son Donald and Farquhar Maclaine, until her death in 1810 at 82. Two letters from her exist, but it is doubtful whether she was literate; in 1803 when Macquarie wrote to her at her request, he asked his uncle, his normal correspondent, 'to cause some proper Person to read to her'. Of Macquarie's older brothers, Hector was a lieutenant in the New York Volunteer Regiment and died while prisoner of the American rebels in 1778; Donald who was described as possessing an 'infirm imbecile state of mind' died in 1801 at 50. Following his father's death Macquarie and his younger brother Charles, who died on 27 March 1835, came under the affectionate care of Murdoch Maclaine .... CLICK HERE TO READ MACQUARIE'S BIOGRAPHY

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB – Scottish Gaelic spelling: Lachlann MacGuaire – was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by some historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. An inscription on his tomb in Scotland describes him as "The Father of Australia". 

Macquarie visited Van Dieman's Land twice, once at the beginning of his tenure as Governor in1811 and the second time in 1821 before returning to Britain ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MACQUARIE AND LINKS TO OTHER INFORMATION

CLICK HERE TO GO TO SOURCE

Macquarie, Elizabeth Henrietta (1778–1835), was the youngest daughter of John Campbell of Airds, Scotland, and a relative of the earl of Breadalbane. Her sister married Maclaine of Lochbuy, a relation of the Macquaries.

Elizabeth's early life was probably like that of any other gently born Scotswoman without fortune. She grew up at Appin on her brother's estate. At 26 she met her distant cousin Colonel Lachlan Macquarie at the deathbed of Lochbuy. It was their first meeting as Macquarie had been seventeen years on military service in India. He was immediately attracted to his young kinswoman, who showed herself so helpful in trouble and had impeccable taste in gardens. The acquaintance ripened when he drove Elizabeth and Lochbuy's two sons to Edinburgh, a journey not without hardship. She would make, he told his diary, an admirable soldier's wife. Macquarie proposed to Elizabeth at her aunt's house in London in March 1805, making it clear to her that they could not marry until after his next tour of duty in India, probably in four years time, as he had made a solemn vow on the death of his first wife never to marry again in India or to take a wife to that country. Elizabeth accepted him and his conditions with 'notable candour'. Being posted to the command of the 73rd Regiment stationed in Perth, Macquarie returned much sooner than expected. The marriage took place at Holsworthy in Devon on 3 November 1807. The bride was 29, the groom 46. In September 1808 their first child, a daughter named Jane Jarvis after the first Mrs Macquarie, was born, but she died in December. In 1809 Macquarie was appointed governor of New South Wales. His wife accompanied him to the colony, although shortly before their departure she had a serious illness. She has left a vivacious journal of the seven months voyage.

They landed in Sydney on 31 December 1809. At Government House Elizabeth needed all her tact and sincerity. The colony was torn by factions and her husband's policy, especially with regard to emancipists, was controversial. Throughout she supported him loyally. She took a kindly interest in the welfare of women convicts and of the Aboriginals. She was intelligently interested in gardening and agriculture. With Elizabeth Macarthur she is said to have pioneered hay-making in the colony. She had brought from England a collection of books on architecture which were useful to her husband and his architect, Francis Greenway. She also planned the road running round the inside of the Government Domain to the point which, like the road, was named after her ... CLICK HERE TO READ ELIZABETH MACQUARIE'S BIOGRAPHY

Even after Lachlan's death in 1824, she continued to work tirelessly to promote the memory of his achievements firstly, in her stubborn refusal to accept a widow's pension from the British Government until they agreed to publish Macquarie's [1823] reply to the allegations made in the Bigge Inquiry regarding his administration of New South Wales; and secondly, in making the claim on Macquarie's tombstone inscription that that his character and services to society 'rendered him truly deserving the appellation by which he has been distinguised: THE FATHER OF AUSTRALIA. '  ... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE