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Alderman Macaulay
George Mackenzie Macaulay was born on 8th March 1750 into a family of nine children. His father, a captain of coasting vessels from the Isle of Wight, was killed when he fell from a cliff leaving his children unprovided for. Men on the island, impressed with the young Macaulay, raised a subscription and sent him to London where he found employment in the counting house of George Abel, an underwriter in marine insurance. They became partners, trading from premises in Cloak Lane, and in 1776 lost money in South Carolina due to the American Revolution. By 1785, he was a partner in the firm of Turnbull, Macaulay and Gregory which was in the business of shipping and contracting supplies to the government. In particular, they held a contracts to provision the armed forces in Canada and the West Indies. He was also a Lloyd's underwriter.
In civic life, he was admitted Freeman of the City of London on 20th January 1774, joined the Bowyers' Company and was elected a Common Councilman in 1781. In that year, one of the sheriffs was Thomas Sainsbury, a fellow Bowyer. He was elected alderman for Vintry Ward in 1784 and in 1790 served as sheriff. It was said that he was passed over for the Lord Mayoralty on account of his Whiggism.
At the time of his elevation to alderman, he purchased the East Indiaman, Pitt, as sole owner to the amazement of London shipmen at that time as he was the only person to have fitted out such a ship at his own expense. The collections of the National Maritime Museum contain two aquatint engravings of Pitt which are dedicated by the artist to its owner. 1 Pitt was regularly sent to China for tea.
Between 1788 and 1796, Macaulay lived at Dartmouth Hill House, Blackheath, which, at that time, was a village of merchants. His neighbours included: his partner, John Turnbull at 32 Dartmouth Row; George Enderby at 22 Dartmouth Hill who was a whaler in the southern ocean; Duncan Campbell who was overseer of the Thames prison hulks; and Thomas King whose firm, Camden, Calvert and King mounted the atrociously cruel second convict fleet to Australia and were also fur traders and noted suppliers of slaves to Jamaica. It is remarkable that the families which dominated shipping lived together in just one suburb of London. Macaulay is known to have served as captain of The Blackheath Golf Club, which was a haven for Scots in London, and was a Freemason.
He was married twice. His first wife, Ann Theed, by whom he had one son and one daughter was described as the "wealthy and beautiful Miss Theed". She died in 1788 and he married, secondly, Mary Theed, (one son, two daughters) who died in 1820. His wives were either sisters or cousins.
On 18th August 1786, the Cabinet made the decision to transport felons to "New Holland". Only three days after the cabinet decision, the firm of Turnbull, Macaulay and Gregory offered enough ships for the project. One could ask how the firm had obtained its information. It is believed that Macaulay, only recently-elected as an alderman, could have been petitioning George III for the resumption of convict transportation. Quite rightly, the offer was rejected and the contract put out to tender.
Macaulay was not successful in getting his ships into the "First Fleet". However, one of the nine ships which took part, Lady Penrhyn, was the property of his good friend, Alderman William Curtis. She carried all women and became known as the "Floating Whorehouse". There was a common Georgian belief that sexual abstinence induced gout and it was said that the sailors of the Lady Penrhyn took no risks.2 On reaching Sydney, Lady Penrhyn was chartered by Macaulay to pick up furs from Nootka Sound (British Columbia) under the command of Lt John Watts RN who had served under Captain Cook. On that voyage, Watts discovered a volcanic island and an atoll which he named after his patrons: Curtis Island and Macaulay Island respectively,(both now dependencies of New Zealand). Subsequently in March 1791, Macaulay was awarded a contract to transport convicts to Sydney on board Pitt.
In 1797, Macaulay lost 25 per cent of his capital during the financial crisis when the Bank of England suspended its payment. Soon after he retired from business. The Alderman died, at Bedford, on 5th March 1803 of the quinsy (tonsillitis). The Gentleman's Magazine of March 1803 described him as "an active and intelligent magistrate, and possessed of very strong natural abilities, highly improved by cultivated education."
Simon Leach
13th May 2007
Sources:
The greater part of the article is summarised from the website of Dan Byrnes www.danbyrnes.com.au : Merchant Genealogies New Series: Mysteries of genealogy between London and Sydney, Australia, from 1786
The collections of the National Maritime Museum www.nmm.ac.uk . PAI 5921 and 5922. J W Edy (engraver); D Serres (artist); E Harris (publisher).
Thomas Keneally - Commonwealth of Thieves: the story of the founding of Australia, Chatto & Windus
