Documents

Lot 3399    SESSION 12 (11.30AM THURSDAY 4TH APRIL)    Documents

Estimate $5,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

BILL OF EXCHANGE ISSUED BY LACHLAN MACQUARIE'S FATHER, handwritten in ink and dated at Ulva 22 Agust (sic) 1767 for £19:10 sh, To Mr William Craige/Senior/Merch: in Belfast, Sir, Two days after sight pay Mr John McDugale Merch; in Campbelltown or Order within your office The sum of Ninteen (sic) pounds Ten sh British for value in Cash received, which place to the Acct: of--------- Sir/Your Hule:Sevt (Humble Servant)/ Lach:MacQuarie, and on the reverse top right corner is written, 'McQuarys (sic)/Draught (British variant of Draft)/in favour/of/W McDugale'. With folds and a few small stains on reverse but in excellent condition for its age, good very fine and very rare.

A rare bill of exchange written and signed by Lachlan MacQuarie of Ulva, a small island off the coast of the island of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, a chain of islands off the west coast of Scotland. He is the father of Lachlan Macquarie (note that his son records his name in the Anglicised spelling as Macquarie, also a Gaelic version of the name is MacGuaire ), governor of New South Wales (1 January 1810 - 30 November 1821). Lachlan MacQuarie (1715-c1775), a carpenter by trade, was a cousin of the sixteenth and last clan chief of the MacQuaries of Ulva and his wife, (Governor Lachlan Macquarie's mother), was the only sister of Murdoch Maclaine, 19th Laird of Lochbuy, Mull.

Recently the Scottish government stopped the sale of the island of Ulva. It only has five residents and is barren and windswept but locals from the island of Mull have been given a grant to buy and redevelop it for tourism while maintaining its historic links to Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales, who in 1817 became the first person to use the name 'Australia' in an official document.

Macquarie was born at Ormaig on Ulva on 31 January 1762 but his family moved to a small farm at Oskamull on the Isle of Mull in 1772. His father, Lachlan senior, died in c1775 when he was fourteen and young Lachlan then volunteered for army service and went on to forge a distinguished career in the British army. His first wife, Jane Jarvis daughter of the Chief Justice of Antigua, died of tuberculosis in 1796. In November 1807 he married his cousin, Elizabeth Campbell and bought a property at Mull and while he was away she started renovating it as they intended to live there after he retired in 1821. They did so in 1824 for a short time but unfortunately while on business in London in that same year he was taken sick and died. He and his wife and their two children, Jane and Lachlan, are buried in a mausoleum on Mull at a site maintained by the National Trust of Australia and at this site he is described as 'The Father of Australia'. There are also many areas, streets, buildings and other sites particularly in Australia bearing the Macquarie name in his honour.

Lachlan MacQuarie senior, the father of 'The Father of Australia', is buried on Ulva at the cemetery at Kilvickewen.

With research.