John MacArthur (Wool Pioneer)

Source A (John Macarthur Portrait) Analysis

Macathur Square

This primary source depicting John Macarthur, shows his wealth/power in Australia. The image painted around the time Macathur's return to Sydney after the 8 years after the Rum Rebellion, at that time he was very wealthy. The image shows his extreme wealth by the clothes he's wearing & the fact that he could afford to get the portrait painted in the first place. Macarthur is standing straight looking straight at the observer, this also shows that John is a rich, proud man. In the background of the a subtle image of a portion of a pillar is visible, this odd feature also shows Macarthur's wealth.

Fun Fact: John Macarthur was very indecisive with the spelling of his last name it had varied from:

Macarthur

MacArthur

M'Arthur

Australian $2 note (1966-1994)

Personal & Pre-Australian Family Life

John and Elizabeth MacArthur married on October 1788 and they cruised on the Second Fleet to the new colony of Australia, after John had been assigned into the New South Wales Corps in 1789. Elizabeth brought forth a girl on the voyage to the new colony however to the dismay of her parents, the baby did not survive. John and Elizabeth MacArthur parented four children: John(1781-1788), Edward(1789), James (1798) and William (1800), the later two being conceived at Elizabeth Farm. This does not include the deceased baby girl.

Birth & Early Life

Note: The image depicted in the background was painted to show what Plymouth looked like 1760, but it was painted a century after the time period,making it a secondary source.

Centenary of John Macarthur's death

Postage Stamp

The date of John Macarthur's (A later wool pioneer) introduction to the world is unknown, however he was baptized on Sept. 3, 1767, at Stoke Damerel close Plymouth, England. He was his Scottish parents, Alexander and Katharine MacArthur, second child.

Portrait of John MacArthur

Elizabeth Macarthur

Military career

• In 1782 John Macarthur was part of a British military squad called the 'Fish Corps'. The corps was commissioned to aid in marine & land missions during the American War of Independence.
• After the war had ended he resigned from the army, to only rejoin the army a few years later in 1778.
• By June 1779, he was recommissioned to Australia & promoted to a lieutenant of the newly found New South Wales army corps.
• In Australia he was enlisted to the regiment in Botany Bay & Parramata

Legacy & Honours

After his death John Macarthur was honoured with many things, some of which include:

A postage stamp issued on the centenary of his death in 1934 (depicting a merino ram).

A 3,067 square kilometres district named after him (Macarthur).

His face and a merino ram appearing on the first Australian $2 note used between 1966 and 1994.

Later Life

i

• After the Rum Rebellion, McArthur stayed in England for Eight & a half years. (1808-1817)
• On re-arrival to Sydney, he focused in improving the quality his merino's wool. In 1822 he received two medals for bumping up his wool quality to be equivalent to the Saxon Merinos.
• He also had a large stable of about 100 horses, & Australia's first ever commercial vineyard.
• He was a founding investor in the Bank of Australia (1826) & Australian Agricultural Company (London 1824).
• In 1825 he joined the New South Wales Legislative Council, of which he was part of, for 7 years.
• In 1832, he resigned because of his mental health problems, he was announced to be insane later in the year.
• He finally kicked the bucket in the Autumn of 1834, in Elizabeth Farm.

SOURCE B: Former 2 dollar note

The secondary source of the (former) 2 dollar note depicts a portrait of John Macarthur. This was rewarded to him for his achievements in agriculture and farming , as the note also portrays a merino sheep (thus giving him the name, wool pioneer). This note was used from 1966 to 1994.

The source shows how much of a impact he was for Australia's, Agricultural, Economical & Political fields. The honour of having, a persons face on an Australian Mint Note, is a significant one as only 27 Australians & The Queen, has ever held it. The fact that he had his face printed on bank notes, show that he would have had a good legacy/relationship with the higher ups of the Australian Government & their descendents. Contrasting from hundreds of years ago, just after the Rum Rebellion, where he self-exiled himself out of the country. The Australian Mint also printed the Merino Sheep on the note showing that his hard work & his legacy had lived on for more than a century. These factors show how great of a man Captain John Macarthur was.

Rum Rebellion

• In 1807 Governor William Bligh was appointed to crack on commercial activities in the NSW corps.

• His primary target was John Macarthur, who he had a fierce rivalry with & hatred for.

• A court case was held, after a ship Macarthur owned had a convict stowaway in it, and John didn't give over the bond held to ensure compliance, worth 900 pounds.

• This got him court-martialed, but the assigned officers of the court turned on Bligh.

• This resulted in a revolution called the 'Rum Revolution' , after the rebels gained power Macarhtur was promoted to Colonial Secretary & Bligh was arrested.

• When the British Government instated a new regiment to replace the traitorous old regiment, Macarthur moved to England to prevent himself from getting arrested, by Bligh & his followers as he would in Sydney.

Life in Australia 1790-1801

How his family/other people felt about him

• John Macarthur was a very wealthy man, showed by photos of his properties & the clothes his wearing in his portrait in Source A.

• He and his wife had a stable relationship & he was known to be a smart man.

• These before mention traits of Macarthur, allowed his family to see him as a great father/husband.

• The public had a good image of John Macarthur, until the events of the Rum Rebellion. Though his good image was restored, as he made it on the 2 dollar note, showed in Source B

• He came to Australia, in 1790, aboard the Second Fleet, as a lieutenant for the army, but then he received merino sheep, purchased from the Dutch Government, he then began to focus more on Agriculture.
• His farm quickly grew to the highest sheep population in the entire colony. Making him one of the richest in the colony.
• He returned to England in 1801, to see how valuable his Merino wool was, and to try to acquire other breads of sheep.
• Just before his departure he was told by Colonial Secretary, Lord Camden, that he would receive land which would be 10,000 acres, in area, aka 40square km. Though this was to be lessen to 5,000 acres.

Elizabeth Farm House

Elizabeth Farm

Lord Camden

Camden Park House

• The land entitled Elizabeth Farm, is located in Parramatta.
• The estate, named after Macarthur's wife Elizabeth, was used to home Macarthur's large band of pure Merino Sheep
• In Macarthur's re-arrival in Sydney (1805), from his 1801 trip to England, Lord Camden also gave him 5000 acres (20 square km) of land, this later became Camden House.
• Both of these places show us the architectural trends during the house's period.

John Macarthur (Wool Pioneer)

(1767 – 10 April 1834)