Elizabeth Macquarie

Biography

Born Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell, she was the youngest daughter of John Campbell of Airds, Scotland. A distant cousin of Macquarie's she first met him at the age of 26 when he was an army officer. They were married three years later in 1807. Shortly after, in 1809, he was appointed to the governorship of New South Wales and she followed him. She is said to have taken a particular interest in the welfare of women convicts and indigenous people as well as helping pioneer hay-making in the colony. Elizabeth's Library of books on architecture were used by her husband and architect Francis Greenway in the planning of government buildings.

During her time in Australia she traveled to Tasmania in 1811, across the Blue Mountains in 1815, and in 1818 to the Hunter River.

At the end of her husband's term, she returned with him to Scotland in 1823, living at the Macquarie estate of Jarvisfield on the Isle of Mull. The Macquaries had two children, Jane, a girl who died in infancy, and Lachlan, a boy. Jane was born in Perth, Scotland, on 15 September 1808, but died aged 3 months. The younger Lachlan was born in Sydney in 1814, married Isabella Campbell in 1836, and died without children in May 1845, aged 31.

Following her husband's death in London in 1824, Macquarie lived with a £400 pension from the British government. From 1825 to 1828 she lived in Surrey and Middlesex, spending summers at Jarvisfield. In 1828-29 she lived in London at 58 Upper Charlotte Street in a house that was bequeathed to her by her friend Henrietta Meredith. In 1830 she moved to Aberdeen, returning to Jarvisfield the next year when her husband purchased a commission in the Army. She died at Gruline House on 11 March 1835, and was posthumously granted 2,000 acres (810 ha) of land in New South Wales.

In her own words, a collection of her journal writings and letters transcribed and annotated by Robin Walsh, was published in 2011.