MACLEAY, Sir WILLIAM JOHN (1820-1891), pastoralist, politician and patron of
science, was born on 13 June 1820 at Wick, Caithness, Scotland, second son of
Kenneth Macleay of Keiss and his wife Barbara, née Horne. Educated at the
Edinburgh Academy in 1834-36 he entered the medical school of the University of
Edinburgh. Orphaned in 1837 he was left with little money and two younger brothers
to educate. Though fascinated by medical and scientific studies, he accepted the
advice of his uncle Alexander McLeay to migrate and arrived in Sydney in March
1839 in the Royal George with his brother Walter. He found the company of his
uncle and cousins William Sharp Macleay and (Sir) George Macleay congenial and
under their influence acquired an increasing interest in natural history. In 1840
Macleay joined George on the family's runs first at Goulburn, then on the
Murrumbidgee. A magistrate from 1841, he sat on the Wagga Wagga bench from 1847.
He served on the local National school board and in 1852 was a founder of the
Murrumbidgee Turf Club. By 1848 he had taken over Mulberrygong, 90,000 acres
(36,422 ha) on the Murrumbidgee, and soon acquired Kerarbury in which he held a
share until the 1870s. A Freemason he had become grand warden of the Provincial
Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1855 and in 1861-66 he was a captain in the Sydney
Volunteer Artillery. At St James's Church in 1857 he had married Susan Emmeline,
18-year-old daughter of E. D. Thomson. They lived in Macquarie Street until he
leased Elizabeth Bay House from George in 1865.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
(Sir) William John Macleay, a New South Wales pastoralist, politician and scientist, was the founder of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney and helped to found the Entomological Society of New South Wales. He wrote widely on entomology, icthyology and zoology.
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Encyclopedia of Australian Science
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