| Notes |
- ALEXANDER MACKENZIE was a soldier in the 73rd regiment, one of the two regiments of the famous Black Watch, the premier unit of Scottish highlanders in the British Army.
The regiment was posted to New South Wales after the Rum Rebellion when its commanding officer, Lachlan Macquarie, was appointed Governor, succeeding William Bligh who, whilst Governor of New South Wales, had triggered what became known as the "Rum Rebellion" when he prohibited offering of spirits in payment for commodities.
Though many colonists supported his attempts to normalize trade, others resented his interference. A series of charges and counter charges culminated in a military rebellion on 26th January 1808, the 20th anniversary of the first settlement at Port Jackson, and in Bligh's arrest by the acting commandant of the New South Wales Corps. For over a year Bligh remained confined. Finally he agreed to set sail for England, but once aboard he turned back and attempted to resume control of Sydney. In 1809, the British government, recognizing the impasse between governor and military, recalled Bligh. The commandant was later found guilty of mutiny.
The 73rd regiment arrived in Sydney Harbour on 28th December 1809, though it was 1st January 1810 when the soldiers came ashore, with the primary task of restoring legitimate government. Macquarie's term as Governor marks a turning point in Australian history. Alexander, who was known as Sandy, had only a small part in it. He never held a rank other than private although he was remembered in family tradition as "Sergeant Mackenzie", but there is a good explanation of that as we shall see. Another part of the tradition handed down is that he came to Australia from India, and while we cannot say that it is exactly correct there is something to it nevertheless.
Alexander enlisted with the Dumfries militia in July or August 1803, and applied to transfer to the 73rd regiment on 7 September 1807. It is possible that he was an old hand in the regiment because he was about 36 years of age in 1807 and there were several soldiers named Alexander Mackenzie in the 73rd when it was in India in the 1790s, indeed as many as five of them were at Vellore in 1799. He was recruiting for the 73rd regiment at Inverness in December 1808. He was with the regiment at Sydney at the end of 1809 and posted to Parramatta in the March Quarter of 1810 where he stayed until the last quarter of 1811, when he returned to Sydney. He was then in Sydney until the March quarter of 1814, and it was during this time that he met Ann Clarke, as, on 23rd August 1813, his and Ann's daughter, MARY MCKENZIE came into the world.
In March 1814 when Mary was six months old Alexander was ordered to leave New South Wales with an advance party of the regiment which was being sent to Ceylon. Ann was most probably living with Alexander and when he left for Ceylon she was no longer "on stores", that is, she was not being supported by the government. The rest of the 73rd regiment moved to Ceylon later in 1814. This was the time when the British established effective control of Ceylon by sending a military force to intervene in a dispute between the chiefs and the king who was overthrown. Ann appeared in the NSW colonial muster records later that year as a single person living in Sydney with two children and without government support.
Alexander completed his term of service while the regiment was in Ceylon and he was discharged there on 16th December 1815. Instead of returning home to Britain he went back to NSW, writing twice to Ann apparently with the intention of rejoining her in Sydney. Whatever Ann's situation was, things obviously did not work out for them at the time.
Alexander received approval to select a grant of 80 acres of land from Governor Macquarie and went to Van Diemen's Land alone about July 1816. His original land somewhere along the North Esk River in the White Hills area was measured but not formally granted. It appears to have been exchanged for two adjacent blocks, supposed to have been 40 acres each, which are found on old maps on the left bank of the North Esk River downstream of Corra Linn, near and just below Paterson's Island, in what was later the district of St Leonards. The district was then known as Paterson's Plains.
Alexander began to develop the land while he worked in Launceston as an overseer of convicts. It was from this occupation that he became known as Sergeant Mackenzie. He received a cow in 1817 as a grant from government stores and by the time of the 1819 muster he had 32 cattle and crops on the land. He might have been able to gain assistance by virtue of his position as an overseer. In any case the land was relatively well developed with 40 acres in wheat as well as running a reasonable number of cattle a year or so later.
Whether Ann and Alexander ever considered marriage is uncertain, but they were both apparently eligible when they had been together previously. Things were a little different now, because a few months before Ann left James Wells in Newcastle to join Alexander in Launceston, Alexander married a 14 year old girl named Elizabeth Murphy. Not only that but when Ann arrived in Launceston she was already pregnant with another child by James Wells, which she might not have known when she left Newcastle around August 1818.
At some stage Elizabeth Murphy went back to her parents, Michael Murphy, a former marine on the first fleet in 1788 and Hannah Williams, a convict who arrived on the "Nile" in 1801. Elizabeth was listed with the other Murphy children in the 1819 muster, made in October, and later. She was sometimes known as Elizabeth Murphy, and on 4th Feb 1822 as Elizabeth Mackenzie she married John Porter, with whom she had 6 Children. In 1837 she married William Hughes.
Ann's daughter by James Wells, Margaret, was born 10th May 1819. Ann's four children were listed with Alexander's surname in the population muster of October 1819 and four children are given as members of his household in relation to Alexander's land in the Land Holders Muster that year. So they might have settled down at last; but before the end of the year Alexander Mackenzie was dead. He died at Launceston on 9th December 1819. His burial is the first entry in the register of St. John's, Launceston.
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1771 - 1819 (48 years)
