As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.

Home / People / Lachlan Macquarie

Historical person

Lachlan Macquarie

1762–1824

Lachlan Macquarie was a Scottish-born British Army officer who served as governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. After a long military career in North America, India and Egypt, he arrived in Sydney following the overthrow of Governor William Bligh. Macquarie sought to regularise colonial administration, strengthen public institutions and reshape the settlement through roads, churches, hospitals, government buildings and planned towns.

Macquarie promoted opportunities for some emancipated convicts, appointing former prisoners to positions of responsibility and arguing that rehabilitation should permit social advancement. This policy angered influential free settlers and contributed to official criticism of his government. His administration also expanded British occupation inland and was accompanied by violent conflict with Aboriginal communities, including punitive expeditions. An inquiry led by Commissioner John Bigge helped end the more expansive phase of Macquarie’s policies, and he returned to Britain before dying in 1824.

Patrick O’Brian’s The Nutmeg of Consolation brings Aubrey and Maturin to New South Wales during Lachlan Macquarie’s governorship. Macquarie is part of the colonial authority surrounding the penal settlement, while his wife welcomes the Surprise in his absence; the Australian chapters use the governor’s administration as the institutional setting for Stephen’s investigation of punishment, corruption and abuses of power.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Lachlan Macquarie (1 series)

Aubrey–Maturin Novels in Order

by Patrick O’Brian 21 books 4.5(73,173)

The Aubrey–Maturin novels follow Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon, naturalist and intelligence agent Stephen Maturin from the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France through the War of 1812 and the first years after Waterloo. Across twenty completed novels, their friendship links shipboard command, espionage, science, domestic…

All books in this series