I'm Bruce Fummey and this is Scotland History Tours. Now I've had a couple of people in the comment
section say, you're always talking about Scots in America, why can't you do something about Scots
in Australia, and to be honest, there's a man that I'd intended to cover from the time that I started
making these videos. It's just it's taken until now, because for his story I have to take you on a boat
trip. If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then click the
subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Whenever you approach the ferry port of Craignure, on the Isle of Mull, you see a castle
on the shore. That's Duart Castle, the seat of the Maclains. Now the mother of today's
character grew up there, so let's be honest, he's a bit posh. I mean highland posh. but still posh.
Our own hero didn't grow up there, in fact he didn't even grow up on the Isle of Mull,
he grew up on an even smaller island off the coast of Mull, but he headed off and joined the
army when he was 14. Before he was 16, he was off to fight rebellious colonists in the Americas, who
were up to no good, and by the time he'd finished stints there and the West Indies, Egypt and India,
it was 1807. He was commander of the 73rd Foot, and he was on his second marriage after
his first wife died of TB (tuberculosis). He then took a much longer boat journey than us, to Australia.
Now let's be clear, when our hero went to Australia, it wasn't Australia, it was a British penal colony
in the arse end of the world, all of which at the time was called New South Wales. The fact that
we call it Australia today, is largely because of our hero. Let me give you a very brief, potted history
of New South Wales until our hero arrives, and I'm not going to mention lots of names, apart from two,
because I think you'll find them interesting. In 1788, a small fleet of ships arrived in Botany Bay,
they contained people convicted of crimes of the day, a specially recruited regiment of marines to
keep order, officials, and some free folk to set up this new penal colony. They came ashore at Sydney
Cove on the 26th of January. They cleared the camp, raised a flag, and made toast to the King and Queen.
Australians now celebrate this as Australia Day, although if you were one of the people who were
already living there, you'd justifiably take a dramatically different view, but that is a
much bigger debate. Now the regiment and marines that I mentioned, were enlisted for three years.
Over those three years, the colony was started, managed by the Governor, and supervised by the
marines. In 1791, a new cohort of troops arrived, to be stationed on a more permanent basis.
The New South Wales Corps, were led by the new Governor, and our first named character Francis
Grosse. Grosse overturned the work and the civil structures of the outgoing Governor, establishing
the military as the legal and administrative authority, abandoning the principle of equal
rations for all, in favour of military officers, and awarded land grants to officers of the Corps.
When we look at kleptocratic military juntas like Myanmar, remember they're probably not
as far from you in time and space as you think. Grosse also relaxed restrictions on rum trading.
More than anything else, this corrupt military enterprise was based on rum.
With no currency, rum brought in from India became the medium of exchange.
Military officers used their positions to control and profit from it, so much so, that the New South
Wales Corps became known as the 'Rum Corps'. The reason I mentioned Francis Grosse by name is
because at the same time as he was engaged in his activities on behalf of the British state, his dad,
also called Francis Grosse was in Scotland writing a book called 'The Antiquities of Scotland'.
In return for a page in the book, featuring the Old Churchyard at Alloway, he persuaded Robert Burns
to write a ghost story, that I'm sure you'll have heard of, or even be able to recite,
'Tam o' Shanter'. Funny, in Sydney there's a statue of Robert Burns, but there's not one of Francis Grosse.
Grosse returned to the UK in 1795, but the foundations had been set. Successive Governors
tried various tactics, but they all struggled to deal with drunkenness, the use of rum as
the de facto currency, or the stranglehold, corruption, and discipline of the Rum Corps.
Here's where I give you the second name you might recognise, Captain William Bligh. You'll
know him from the 'Mutiny on the Bounty', where his harsh and overbearing demeanour led to mutiny,
and him being set adrift on an open boat at sea. Well that went so well, that in 1805 they thought,
he's the very man to sort out New South Wales. On twice the wages of the previous government.
Bottom line is, it led to an uprising and a takeover that we now call the Rum Rebellion.
Captain Bligh was again put in a boat, but this time kept as a prisoner. Quite a CV (Resumé) he was working up,
and that was where Captain Bligh remained, until our hero Lachlan Macquarrie,
born across there in Ulva arrived as Governor with the 73rd Regiment of Foot,
on the last day of 1809. Now if it seems that this story's been largely about other people, I
apologise, but without the context you wouldn't realise quite the impact that Macquarrie made.
Look, another way to measure his impact, is the fact that he was promoted from Lieutenant Colonel, to
Colonel a year later, and then Brigadier the year after that, and Major General two years after that,
basically every time a letter came from Britain he got a promotion. He immediately overturned
the changes brought about by the Rum Rebellion conspirators, then he set to longer lasting work.
Now don't forget, the reason for the Rum Rebellion was essentially that military gangsters didn't
like government getting in the way of business. Macquarrie returned New South Wales to civil courts.
He bought 40,000 Spanish dollar coins, and got a forger to cut holes out of the middle and stamp them,
that way each dollar produced two coins, which were only of value in the colony, and they
now had two units of New South Wales's first official currency. Modern day Sydney is based on
the street plan that he laid out. I'm told that the poshest bit of Sydney is called Macquarrie Street.
He designed the local hospital at the time. He also had a government building and a
conservatoire of music built, against the wishes of the British Government. You see while the British
Government saw a dumping ground for convicts, Macquarrie saw the potential for a new nation.
Of course he still had trouble with vested interests. Not only had he interfered with
the profits from rum trade, but there was push back from those in control of the local court,
but there was an even bigger scandal to come. You see there were two types of citizens in
New South Wales; Exclusives and Emancipists. The Exclusives were the free people, who arrived of
their own accord, the Emancipists were the convicts who'd been released or pardoned
after their sentence. Needless to say when Macquarrie started to allow civic rights and
participation to the Emancipists, the Exclusives didn't enjoy quite the same level of exclusivity.
That put the koala bears amongst the dingoes didn't it, but it was worse than that, you see
he had a Emancipists round for tea at Government House, gasp! He appointed one as a Magistrate!
No ... and he encouraged them to get involved in the church! Oh call the Vicar, Mrs Oakshot's fainted!
Now these liberal policies, implemented by the man who was now its longest-serving Governor, were what
started the transformation from New South Wales Penal Colony to Australian nation, and you'll see
rivers, lakes, islands, passes, streets, and towns, all over the country named after him. The mausoleum
where he and his family rest here in Mull, is maintained by the National Trust of Australia,
for the man that they call the father of Australia. Of course there were two groups
who might not have viewed Lachlan Macquarrie quite so favourably; the Exclusives complained
to London about his authoritarianism, which ultimately led to his resignation and a New
South Wales Legislative Council being put into place. If you were an Emancipist who'd levelled up,
he was a hero. If you were an Exclusive who no longer had privilege, and people to look down on
then not so much. Now in truth, both groups had somebody to look down on. Let's not forget that
the locals, the indigenous people, the people who were displaced by convicts and marines,
then Rum Corps, and then gold rushers and of course in the 1960s, my parents-in-law as '10 pound poms'.
Lachlan Macquarrie initiated some brutal actions against those indigenous people.
Now he's the hero of today's video, but no hero is without flaw. Often people comment
that, oh you can't judge people in history by the standards of our day, and I get that, although often
it's said by people who cling on to superior and callous attitudes of yesteryear.
If we can't judge kleptocratic military juntas, because it's the way things were back then,
does that mean that we can't judge them in places where they're the norm today?
If autocratic government violence and ethnic cleansing were the norm back then,
does that mean that we accept them where they're the norm today?
No I came to praise appraise Caesar not to bury him. Every one of us is a complex mixture of light and shade,
capable of great achievements, and also capable of compassion, condescension or contempt.
Policies implemented by Lachlan Macquarrie were seen as progressive and liberal in their day. If
somebody else had gone to New South Wales, what would life have been like for the Emancipists then?
What would Australia be today? Would the folks who belonged there for centuries have fared better,
or worse? I have no idea. I'm not saying that we should judge Lachlan Macquarrie
by the standards of our time. I'm saying that we should judge ourselves by those standards.
To find out about the life of a pioneer of another nation formed out of a British colony, why not watch
my video on John Witherspoon here. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.