Father of Australia's Wool Industry

Son of a Jacobite

JOHN MACARTHUR was born at Stoke Damerel, near Plymouth, Devon, England , 3 September 1767. His parents were compelled to leave Argyleshire after the Battle of Culloden, in which his father had fought with his brothers on the side of the Stuarts in 1745.

Young MacArthur was educated at a private school and at the age of 15 entered the army as an ensign. After spending 12 months with his regiment, he was placed on half-pay at the end of the war in 1783, and he retired to a farm house near Holdsworthy, Devon, where he applied himself to the study and practice of agriculture.

New South Wales Corps

In 1788, having meanwhile studied history and law and seriously been attracted to the latter as a profession, he accepted a commission with the 68th Durham Regiment from which he transferred in the following year to the New South Wales Corps.

He reached Sydney on June l8, 1790, and was sent as commandant to Parramatta. The provision of food supplies for the young colony was at that time a matter of considerable concern to the administration.

Agriculture Land Grants

During the administration of Governor Grose, officers in the New South Wales Corps who were willing to assist in the production of food products were given a grant of 100 acres. As a further inducement a further 100 acres was offered to the man who first cleared and cultivated 50 acres.

MacArthur won the prize and thus received a grant of 200 acres at Rosehill. The farm he named Elizabeth Farm after his wife, whom he married at Bridgerule, Devon England, October 1788, prior to his departure for Port Jackson. This was the cradle of the Australian wool industry.

MacArthur at this time superintended the farming establishments formed by the Government at Toongabbie, in addition to the duties connected with his detachments of troops.

An active part in the management and development of Elizabeth Farm was undertaken by Elizabeth MacArthur, to whom was to fall in later years a great part in carrying on the efforts of her husband in the development of merino wool.

Fine Wool Breeding

In 1796, MacArthur resigned the superintendency of public works to which he had been appointed by Governor Grose and a quarrel ensued between Mac Arthur and his successor and Governor Hunter.

The year marked the beginning of serious attention by MacArthur to the foundation of a fine wool flock. He imported sheep from the Cape Colony and began experiments with their wool.

At famous Elizabeth Farm was conceived the dream of raising a struggling convict settlement to a prosperous community with the promise of unlimited growth. And as the months and years passed, MacArthur transformed these dreams to reality as his experiments prospered.

Home Government Concerns

In 1800, MacArthur offered his farm and stock to the Government for £4,000. The purchase was recommended by Governor King to the Home Government, which, however, rejected the proposal, and criticized the carrying on of farming pursuits by officers.

MacArthur went to England that year to investigate the prospects of the industry. He was questioned by the Board of Trade concerning the prospects of the fine wool industry. He recommended that grants of land be made to those who were inclined to engage on the breeding of fine wool sheep.

He reported that the climate of New South Wales was "...peculiarly adapted to the increase of the fine-woolled sheep, and that from the unlimited extent of luxurious pastures with which the country abounds, millions of these valuable animals may be raised in a few years with little other expense than the hire of a few shepherds."

A Matter of Honour

On his return to Australia, MacArthur became involved in a duel in which his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Paterson was the challenger.

His superior officer being wounded, Governor King issued an order placing MacArthur under arrest, from which MacArthur refused to accept release and demanded a court martial.

King sent him to England, to stand his trial. MacArthur was ordered back to New South Wales, where he threw up his commission and devoted himself entirely to his wool project.

Governor King was sharply rebuked for his action in sending MacArthur to England. But MacArthur had taken with him to England some samples of his wool and it was pronounced by the best judges of wool as possessing a softness superior even to that of many Spanish wools.

Flocks Moved to Camden Park

In October, 1804, the Secretary for State, Lord Hawkesbury, instructed Governor King to convey a land grant to MacArthur of not less than 5,000 acres fit for the pasture of sheep.

MacArthur insisted upon choosing his 5,000 acres at Cowpastures, then a reserve for Government cattle. He entered into provisional occupation and transferred his flocks to Camden, named after Lord Camden, his patron in England.

Friction between officials, opposition to MacArthur by Sir Joseph Banks and other obstacles held up the grant for 20 years. MacArthur paid a nominal price of 1 ram for every 14 acres of the 4,638 acre run. (Note: In 1820 MacArthur was selling merino bred rams for an average of six guineas a head, placing his initial outlay for Camden around £2,200.)

In 1822, MacArthur realized £300 for one ram at a sheep and cattle fair at Parramatta, and £500 was given for a pair of sheep descended from his pure merino flock.

Rum Rebellion

In 1808 MacArthur was involved in trouble with Governor William Bligh owing to importation of two stills, which it is alleged were for a legitimate purpose.

Bligh, who described MacArthur as an "arch fiend", ordered that they be reshipped to England and that MacArthur be tried for the offence in a criminal court consisting of seven military officers and presided over by judge advocate Richard Atkins, who was a personal enemy of MacArthur.

MacArthur resisted arrest and then objected to being tried by Atkins. Atkins ordered him to prison , and the other officers granted him bail. Bligh intervened and had him committed to prison on an escape warrant, but Major George Johnston, then in command of the New South Wales Corps, signed an order for his release.

MacArthur. persuaded Johnston to depose Bligh, placing him under arrest and assuming the office of Governor.

Living in Exile

In 1809, when the Home Authorities gave the administration of the colony to William Paterson, both Johnston and MacArthur were sent to England for trial. The Home Government, unwilling to place either man on trial, was for sending them back to New South Wales.

JJohnston, however, insisted on trial and was cashiered, but MacArthur had no trial. He was forbidden, to return to Australia until he admitted his wrong doing, but the home authorities little knew the man they were dealing with. He remained in exile in England until 1817, when Lord Camden allowed him to return unconditionally.

During these years of exile, the work of carrying on the establishment at Camden Park was taken up by Elizabeth MacArthur. She was a woman of great character and to her is due a higher place in the credit for the development of the wool industry than is popularly accorded.

Silencing the Sceptics

MacArthur's efforts had placed the wool industry beyond the reach of opponents or critics. The verdict of Dr. John Dunsmore Lang, a leading figure in New South Wales history, speaks for the opposition he had experienced.

Dr. Lang says that almost every person in New South Wales was sceptical of MacArthur and his production of fine wool. They believed that MacArthur had obtained undue advantage from the Government in land grants and convict labour.

The discouragements of various kinds from almost every quarter against which he struggled through a long series of years were sufficient, said Dr. Lang, "to have paralysed the energies of a less energetic mind."

Ultimate Accolade

In 1822, the Society of Arts of London awarded MacArthur two gold medals, "for importing into Great Britain wool the produce of his flocks equal to the finest Saxony".

He had exported at that time 150,000,000 pounds of fine wool to England.

Another recognition was an act of the English Parliament providing that "no higher duty than one penny per pound should be charged on wool imported to England from New South Wales."

Source: Trove Digitized Newspapers -The Canberra Times - 18 April 1934

(Note: The Glasgow College and Cambridge University educated James MacArthur Junior an Equity Lawyer aided by British Barrister Basil Montague worked tirelessly to promote Colonial interests, and that of his father, John MacArthur Senior, in Great Britain.

Not only were they successful in having the sixpence per pound import duty on wool from Australia dramatically reduced but also had abolished the auction duty levied on wool and other produce from the Colony.

Born at Parramatta in 1794 James MacArthur Junior died from "water on the brain" in London, 10 April 1831 aged 36 years.