• Title
  Portrait of Major Archibald Clunes Innes, ca. 1813
• Call number
  DG 408
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. 1813
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  896545
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 painting - oil - visual image 25.5 x 20.5 cm, in frame 36.9 x 32.4 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Archibald Clunes Innes (1800-1857), soldier and pastoralist, was born at Thrumster, Scotland on the 14th May 1800, the son of Malor James Innes. He was commissioned an Ensign in the 3rd Regiment on 23 September 1813 and served in the Peninsula War. The Eliza left Sheerness, UK on 20th July 1822 with Archibald as Captain of the Guard and arrived in Sydney on 22 November 1822.
  
  From January 1824 to May 1825 he served in Van Diemen’s Land where he recaptured escaped convicts. In December 1825 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales and became a magistrate in November 1826. He sought and gained the position of Commandant of the penal settlement at Port Macquarie, being appointed in December 1826 in succession to Captain Gilman. About six months later he returned to Sydney as Brigade Major. In 1828 he resigned his commission and was appointed Superintendent of Police and Magistrate at Parramatta, serving there until his resignation in 1829. On 15th October 1829, he married Margaret “Pug” Macleay, daughter of the Colonial Secretary, Alexander McLeay. (Margaret was responsible for bringing the Lantana plant to Australia).
  
  In 1830 Innes became Police Magistrate at Port Macquarie and was granted 2568 acres (1039 ha) and contracts to supply the convict population with food. This land he worked with convict labour, transforming the wilderness into the fabled Lake Innes, for many years the greatest pastoral property north of Sydney. On this establishment he built, on a typically grand scale, his home, Lake Innes Cottage. As his wealth grew he spread his interests. In his first few years at Lake Innes he produced the first sugar grown in the district. He acquired sheep and cattle stations all over northern New South Wales, among them Yarrows on the Hastings, Brimbine and lnnestown on the Manning, Waterloo, Innes Creek, Kentucky and Beardy Plains. He bought Furracabad and the township on this station, the present Glen Innes, was named after him. In 1844 he planted thirty acres (12 ha) of vines and constructed large wine cellars; this venture soon failed. He was largely responsible for the building of a road from Port Macquarie to the New England district. An example of his panache at the height of his career was the hiring in 1842 of the steamship Maitland to take his wool from Port Macquarie to Sydney. One of the wealthiest men in the colony, he became famous for the hospitality he dispensed to all travellers to his regions; a detailed account of a journey through the area by Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy and the vice-regal entourage is given by Colonel Godfrey Mundy in Our Antipodes (London, 1852). During the depression in the 1840s Innes’s wealth was almost completely wiped out and he became bankrupt in 1852. He was then appointed Assistant Gold Commissioner and Magistrate at Nundle and later Police Magistrate at Newcastle, where he died on 29th August 1857 of Lung disease and was buried at Port Macquarie Cemetery. His wife Margaret died the following year.
  
  Of his five children, two sons died in 1842; the surviving son, Gustovus Archibald Clunes Innes, became a Church of England minister and served in New South Wales and was the 1st Archdeacon of Hamilton, Victoria. His two daughters, Eliza Clunes lnnes (1832-1907) and Gordina Clunes lnnes (1835-1860) married and resided in the colony; his niece, Annabella Boswell nee lnnes, kept a journal in 1845-48 at Port Macquarie, which was published in Sydney in 1962. George Innes, a younger brother of Major Innes, and Annabella’s father, received one of the first land grants in Bathurst plains in 1823, to which he gave the name Yarras.
  
  Innes was largely responsible for transforming Port Macquarie from a penal settlement to a flourishing town. His activities led to the opening of the area between Port Mocquarie and New England. His early success in his pastoral endeavours at Lake Innes, including his pioneering of the sugar industry, pointed to the future prosperity of this part of New South Wales.
  
  The Eliza I was one of the ships used to transport convicts from England to Australia and members of the 3rd Regiment of Foot (Buffs) were on board to manage the prisoners. Some of the soldiers had their families with them. The Eliza I left Sheerness, UK on 20th July 1822 and arrived in Sydney on 22nd November 1822 taking a total of 125 days for the voyage. 160 male convicts were on board when they left Sheerness and 160 arrived in Sydney. The Master of the ship was James Hunt and the Surgeon was William Rae. The Captain/Major in charge of the 3rd Regiment of Foot on the EIiza I was Archibald Clunes lnnes - the town of Glen Innes named after him. In between the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars and India, “The Buffs” had a tour of service from 1821 until 1827 in the British colony of New South Wales. For the duration of their service, The Buffs were divided into four detachments. The first was based in Sydney from 1821. The second arrived in Hobart in 1822. The third, entitled “The Buffs’ Headquarters”, arrived in Sydney in 1823. The fourth arrived in Sydney in 1824, but variously saw service throughout the colonies, being stationed at Port Dairymple, Parramatta, Liverpool, Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Bathurst. The regiment reunited and was transferred to Calcutta in 1827. During their service in New South Wales, The Buffs were commanded by Lieut. Colonel W. Stewart and Lieut Colonel C. Cameron.
  
  Select Bibliography:
  Australian Dictionary of Biography online. http://adb.anu.edu.au/
  Historical Records of Australia, series 1, vols 1 3-1 6, 1 8-21, 24
  B. W. Champion, ‘Major A. C. Innes, 3rd Regiment of Foot’, Journal and
  Proceedings (Royal Australian Historical Society), vol 21, part 2, 1935, pp
  103-16
  E. S. Lauchland, ‘Homes We Visited: “Lake Innes”, Port Macquarie’, Monthly
  Journal (Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society), vol 2, part 1,
  1947, pp 3-7
  W. J. Goold, ‘The Tourists: Port 2: Port Macquarie-An Historic Outpost’,
  Monthly Journal (Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society), vol 4, part
  ll, l95O,pp 161-171
  Additional Family Information by Archibald’s 1 c/4r, Rhonda Robertson from
  Wee Waa, NSW
  
  Reference:
  Information supplied by Rhonda Robertson, March 2012
  
  Reference:
  "New hope for an old problem" [articele on lantana, Innes and his property Lake Innes House] / Angie Testa, in Town and country farmer, Autumn 2000, p.37
  
  Additional biographical information on A.C. Innes's family added to Library correspondence file, March 2012
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  On the back of the frame is written 'This portrait of Captain (afterwards Major) Innes is loaned for the remainder of his lifetime by C. J. Mackay Esq.'
  
  Unsigned
• Date note
  
  Undated
• Subject
  Adult Males
  Innes, Archibald Clunes, 1800-1857.
  
• Topic
  army officers
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE18490931

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