Clan MacQuarrie
also Macquarie
Of Ulva — and the Father of Australia.
Motto
Turris fortis mihi Deus
— God is to me a tower of strength
What does the MacQuarrie name mean?
From Gaelic — possibly 'son of Guaire' (the proud or noble). Ancestral seat is the tiny Inner Hebridean island of Ulva.
The history of Clan MacQuarrie
The ancestral home of Clan MacQuarrie is the small Inner Hebridean island of Ulva, off Scotland's north-west coast. The first recorded chief was John MacQuarrie of Ulva, who died in 1473.
In 1651 the clan suffered heavily at the Battle of Inverkeithing, where Royalist Scots were decimated by Cromwell's New Model Army. Allan MacQuarrie of Ulva, chief of the clan, was killed alongside most of his followers.
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie joined the Black Watch in 1777, and after service in North America, India and Egypt was appointed Governor of New South Wales. He found the colony in crisis and left it transformed — laying out Sydney and earning the title 'Father of Australia'. Ill health forced him home in 1821.
Notable bearers of the MacQuarrie name
- Maj.-Gen. Lachlan Macquarie, 'Father of Australia'