Major-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet (23 July 1773 – 27 January 1860) was a British Army officer, colonial administrator and astronomer. He served in many important wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including front-line action during the Peninsular War. Upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, with whom Brisbane had served, he was appointed as Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.
In the colony, he implemented expansionist land policies that benefited wealthy colonists, while also augmenting the system of convict punishment. A keen astronomer, he built the colony's second observatory and encouraged scientific and agricultural training. Brisbane also declared martial law against the Indigenous Wiradjuri people to quash their resistance to colonisation. The convict settlement of Brisbane established during his tenure was named in his honour and is now the third largest city in Australia.
Brisbane was born in 1773 at Brisbane House in Noddsdale, near Largs in Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Sir Thomas Brisbane and his wife Eleanora (née Bruce). He was born into an aristocratic military family and as a child was home educated by prestigious tutors. As a teenager, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and later boarded at an English academy in Kensington, London, where he learnt mathematics and astronomy.
In 1789, Brisbane was commissioned into the British Army's 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot as a junior officer and was posted to Ireland.
Following Revolutionary France's declaration of war against Britain on 1 February 1793, Brisbane transferred to the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot and fought in the Low Countries theatre of the War of the First Coalition under the Duke of York. Between June 1793 and November 1794, Brisbane participated in the siege of Valenciennes, siege of Dunkirk, siege of Nieuwpoort, siege of Landrecies, Battle of Tournay and siege of Nijmegen. Following the fall of Nijmegen to the French in November 1794, the British army in the Low Countries was evacuated and returned to England in spring 1795.
In November 1795, the 53rd Foot were embarked for the West Indies, where it fought against French forces for control of the region. Brisbane took part in the capture of Saint Lucia from the French in May 1796, participating in the taking of the fortress of Morne Fortune on 24 May. Later in 1796, he participated in the suppression of an uprising by Kalinago and Garifuna people under Joseph Chatoyer in Saint Vincent. During the uprising, Brisbane personally killed the Kalinago chief Taquin in combat and subsequently participated in the deportation of the Garifuna to the small island of Baliceaux in the Grenadines. In the following year, Brisbane was present at the capture of Trinidad in February and the failed invasion of Puerto Rico in April. Brisbane then transferred to the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot which returned to England in 1802 after being stationed in the British colony of Jamaica.
After a brief period of being retired on half-pay, Brisbane was appointed as an army assistant in the Adjutant-General's office, serving under the Duke of Wellington. In 1813 he was promoted to major general in the 74th Regiment and saw much action during the Peninsular War, including leading a brigade in the 3rd Division that broke through at the Battle of Vitoria. For his services in the Peninsula War, Brisbane received the Army Gold Cross with one clasp for the battles of Vitoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthez, and Toulouse; and the silver war medal with one clasp for the Nive.
With the forces of Napoleon all but defeated, Brisbane was appointed as a brigade commander to lead troops in the concurrent War of 1812 with the United States. In 1814 he led a brigade at the Battle of Plattsburgh, which Brisbane claimed the British troops present could have won if they had been allowed to launch a full infantry attack. During the battle, he used the Charles C. Platt Homestead as his headquarters.
With the British defeat at Plattsburgh and the Napoleonic forces finally being vanquished at the Battle of Waterloo, Brisbane was returned to Europe and given command of twelve regiments to occupy Paris in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. From 1815 to 1818, Brisbane remained in Paris before the occupation forces were recalled to England. In November 1819 he married Anna Maria Hay Makdougall of Makerstoun, Roxburghshire, Scotland. On his father-in-law's death, Brisbane assumed the additional surname, becoming Makdougall Brisbane.
Land grants to the rich and increased convict punishment
In 1821, on the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, Brisbane was appointed as Governor of New South Wales, a post he held until 1825. Brisbane took over the government on 1 December 1821.
A report by John Bigge disparaged the policies of the previous governor, Lachlan Macquarie, which the conservative Tory British government at the time regarded as wasteful, expensive, and too lenient on the convicts.
Guided by the Bigge report and instructions from the High Tory British Secretary of State, Earl Bathurst, Brisbane re-established the Norfolk Island convict settlement and oversaw the formation of new penal colonies at Port Macquarie and also at Sarah Island on the remote west coast of Van Diemen's Land. These establishments were to serve as dreaded places of isolation and punishment for the convicts. In 1823, Brisbane also sent Lieutenant John Oxley to find another new site for convicts who were repeat offenders. Oxley surveyed a large river flowing into Moreton Bay and a year later, the first convicts arrived at the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement. Brisbane visited the settlement in December 1824 and Oxley suggested that the river be named the Brisbane River. The settlement was also renamed as Brisbane after him, which was later opened to free settlers in 1839.
Brisbane also introduced a new land grant system which stipulated that for every acre granted the grantee would be assigned, free of expense to the crown, one convict labourer. Large land grants given to rich and well-connected colonists were favoured through this system, including a contract of a million acres to a consortium of entrepreneurs led by John Macarthur known as the Australian Agricultural Company. This policy enabled the colonial government to drastically reduce the maintenance costs of convicts while providing rich colonists with accessible cheap labour.
These decisions firmly halted the socially progressive policies of Lachlan Macquarie and reaffirmed strong class distinctions within the colonial society. The exclusive 'Pure Merino' class of colonists (named after the type of sheep they bred) were able obtain large areas of land and significant political influence. This class of colonist evolved to dominate much of colonial society for many years, becoming known as the squattocracy.
Free press and representative government
Although Brisbane introduced many of the recommendations of Bigge's report, he did not limit his attention just to this.
He also implemented the beginnings of representative government by the establishment in 1823 of the first New South Wales Legislative Council. Although there were only a handful of members in this council, all of which were appointed by Brisbane and had no real power except to advise the governor, it gradually evolved over decades into a modern elective representative body.