The Macquarie Years

A chronology is not a substitute for a biography. However, its arrangement is often a much more convenient tool for establishing an effective overview of a person's life or career. Details can be established at a glance rather than having to extract them laboriously from a detailed narrative or biography.

The survival of a significant quantity of letters, diaries, journals, notebooks and other documents by Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie provides a unique opportunity to trace and examine some of the key events in their lives. There are, of course, many unfortunate gaps in this record, but there still remains sufficient documentation to allow for the establishment of a broad chronological outline.

In the case of Lachlan Macquarie there is a substantial collection of primary source materials dating from the 1780's when he began to systematically record the events, experiences, and names of people whom he encountered in his travels.

He documented these details in various journals, notebooks and memoranda – as well as, indirectly, in his letters. Whilst many of the original letters by Lachlan Macquarie have not been preserved, the personal copies that he made and kept in his different Letterbooks have survived. These provide invaluable sources of information regarding his personal life, as well as allowing a unique insight into his relationships with those individuals to whom he was writing.

Elizabeth Macquarie appears to have been less inclined to document her feelings - though her 1809 diary of the voyage to NSW is rich in personal detail and observation. If she kept other diaries there is currently no trace of them. There are, however, a number of important and significant letters written by her that have survived - and, in particular, these provide us with an invaluable insight into to the last decade of her life when, despite her fragile health, she was determined to promote the legacy of her husband's life and to defend and memorialise his achievements in Australia.

The value of preparing a 'chronology' for Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie in the period 1761-1835 is that it will help to establish:

• where he/she was at that point in time
• what he/she was doing
• who he/she was meeting
• what specific places were being visited
• when a specific event took place
• how important a particular person, place or event may have been

The years of childhood and adolescence, for both Lachlan and Elizabeth, are particularly scant and chronologically imprecise. Similarly the lives of their parents, and the relationships between the Macquarie, Campbell and Maclaine families are largely undocumented in the C18th. The details describing and recording the adult years of their lives emerge progressively – but only slowly. In the case of Lachlan, each year after 1780 becomes clearer and better defined; however, for Elizabeth the records remains extremely sparse until c.1809; and thereafter, she passes in and out of focus – and generally through the filter of Lachlan's eyes and record-keeping. After his death in 1824 there are more substantial pieces of documentation but these are dispersed in various locations in Australia and the UK.

At a later stage it is planned to add a 'chronology' that will deal with the period 1835-1845. This is essential. The Macquarie family saga requires rounding out. For the legacy of their lives and achievements needs to be set against the behaviour (and failures) of their only surviving son, Lachlan Jnr. (1814-1845). This final decade is one of tragedy and family failure – leading finally to Lachlan Jnr's. senseless clumsy death, and a subsequent courtroom inheritance challenge that ensured that all the lands on Mull acquired by Lachlan (1761-1824), and his brother Charles Macquarie (1771-1835), passed out of Macquarie family ownership forever.