Macarthur, John

John Macarthur, (baptized September 3, 1767, Stoke Damerel, Devonshire, England—died April 11, 1834, Camden, New South Wales, Australia), agriculturist and promoter who helped found the Australian wool industry, which became the world’s largest.

In 1789 Macarthur went to Australia as a lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps. By 1793 he had become a large landholder, having attained power as inspector of public works and paymaster of the corps. In the conflict between Governor Philip King and the corps over its monopoly on trade and labour supply, Macarthur shot King’s representative in a duel in 1801. He was sent to England in an abortive attempt to bring him to trial. While there, he interested English manufacturers in the prospect of establishing a wool industry in Australia, to which he returned in 1805 with a grant of 5,000 acres and a mandate for developing wool production.

In 1808 Macarthur inspired the Rum Rebellion against Governor William Bligh, who had sought to limit the landholdings and rum monopoly of the corps. Exiled to England for the next eight years, Macarthur studied the English wool market and again returned to Australia, where he, with his wife and sons, promoted the activities of the Australian Agricultural Company, formed in London in 1824 to develop the colony’s wool industry. By 1830 he had enlarged his grazing estate, Camden Park, to more than 60,000 acres, becoming the dominant force in the wool trade. Between 1825 and 1832 he served two terms on the Legislative Council as spokesman for the Exclusionists, conservative large landowners. His mind failed, and in 1832 he was removed from the council by the governor, Sir Richard Bourke.