Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur (16 January 1788 - 21 October 1861) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n colonist, politician, businessman and wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 pioneer. The nephew of John Macarthur

John Macarthur (wool pioneer)

John Macarthur was a British army officer, entrepreneur, politician, architect and pioneer of settlement in Australia. Macarthur is recognised as the pioneer of the wool industry that was to boom in Australia in the early 19th century and become a trademark of the nation...

 and son-in-law of former New South Wales governor, Philip Gidley King

Philip Gidley King

Captain Philip Gidley King RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. He is best known as the official founder of the first European settlement on Norfolk Island and as the third Governor of New South Wales.-Early years and establishment of Norfolk Island settlement:King was born...

, he was well-connected in the early colony of New South Wales.

First sojourn in New South Wales

Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur was born on 16 January 1788 at Plymouth, Devonshire, England. His father, James Macarthur, a draper, was the elder brother of John Macarthur. When his uncle John returned to New South Wales after resigning his commission to avoid being posted to Norfolk Island, he persuaded Hannibal to join him. Hannibal arrived at Sydney on 9 June 1805.

He left New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 in 1808 for England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 by way of China and the Philippines where he unsuccessfully traded sandalwood for his uncle John, arriving home in 1810.

Return to New South Wales

Hannibal arrived back in Sydney in August 1812 per his uncle's ship, the Isabella with a cargo for sale in the colony and to help his uncle's wife, Elizabeth Macarthur

Elizabeth Macarthur

Elizabeth Macarthur was born in Devon, England, the daughter of provincial farmers, Richard and Grace Veale, of Cornish origin. Her father died when she was 7; her mother remarried when she was 11, leaving Elizabeth in the care of her grandfather John and friends. Elizabeth married Plymouth...

 in John's absence.

He gained recognition while caring for his uncle's merino

Merino

The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...

 sheep during his absences, and by 1817 was able secure land for his own merino flocks, and run a trading store. He actively participated in the intrigues of the time and through his connections became prominent in the community and local politics. He joined the New South Wales Legislative Council

New South Wales Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

 in 1830, representing the conservatives in the nominated, and then part-elected Council for Parramatta

Parramatta, New South Wales

Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...

 until 1848.

He also had a directorship

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 in the newly-created Bank of Australia

Bank of Australia

The Bank of Australia was a failed financial institution of early colonial New South Wales formed in 1826 by a producers' and merchants' group as a rival to the Bank of New South Wales. It was dubbed the "pure merino" bank because its share register included the plutocracy of the colony but...

, but at its collapse in 1843 Macarthur became insolvent, lost most of his property, and relocated to Ipswich

Ipswich, Queensland

Ipswich is a city in South-East Queensland, Australia. Situated along the Bremer River Valley approximately 40 kilometres away from the state's capital Brisbane. The suburb by the same name forms the city's Central Business District and administrative centre...

, in the Moreton Bay District of the Colony of New South Wales where he was given a commission as police magistrate in 1852.

Family

One of his daughters, Elizabeth (17 May 181527 November 1899), married Philip Gidley King, son of Philip Parker King

Philip Parker King

Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN was an early explorer of the Australian coast.-Early life and education:...

, another Anna (7 December 181623 June 1852) married John Clements Wickham

John Clements Wickham

John Clements Wickham was a naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was a Lieutenant on HMS Beagle during her second survey mission from 1831 to 1836, which took the young naturalist Charles Darwin on what became the subject of his book, The Voyage of the Beagle...

 and a third, Catherine (14 June 181810 April 1894) married Patrick Leslie

Patrick Leslie

Patrick Leslie was a Scottish Settler in Australia. Leslie and his two brothers were the first to settle on the Darling Downs, and he was the first person to buy land in Warwick.-Early life:...

.

Later years and death

On the death of his wife in 1853, he returned to England, where he died at Norwood on 21 October 1861, and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery

West Norwood Cemetery

West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...

.