James Macarthur (politician)

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James Macarthur (15 December 1798 – 21 April 1867) was an Australian pastoralist and politician. Born at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, he was the fourth son of John and Elizabeth Macarthur. After private schooling he joined his father in England following the Rum Rebellion, studied in Hackney, and undertook a grand tour. He returned to New South Wales in 1817 and managed the Camden estates, significantly increasing the family's wealth. In 1834, on his father’s death, he and his brother William became co-owners of Camden Park Estate.

Macarthur helped run several colonial companies, including reviving the Australian Agricultural Company, and was a backer of The Australian newspaper for a time. He influenced the development of Camden and St John’s Church, Camden.

Politically, Macarthur served in the NSW Legislative Council three times (1839–1843, 1848–1856, and 1866–1867) and in the NSW Legislative Assembly from 1856 to 1859 for West Camden. A conservative, he opposed emancipist civil rights, supported ending transportation and cheap Asian labor, backed government subsidies for respectable British immigrants, and defended freehold land for the colony’s wealthy elite. He warned that self-government could enfranchise Aboriginal Australians, a view common at the time. His views shifted with changing politics, and he accepted representative self-government when it seemed inevitable; he also benefited economically from pastoral squatting.

Disillusioned with the liberal turn of the new constitution, he retired to England in 1859 and returned to New South Wales a year before his death, influenced by his daughter. He died at Camden Park Estate in 1867. Though a leading figure in the colony from 1820 to 1856, he viewed his political career as a failure, and his legacy is often undervalued. He kept a private library of about 3,000 volumes.