Major-General Lachlan Macquarie "I think my name will not be readily forgotten after I have left.... I would be happy to have you as my successor, appointed Governer in Chief of New South Wales and its Dependencies! What a proud thing it would be to have two brotherrs succeed each other as Governor of this immense Continent." -- Major-General Lachaln Macquarie to Lt-Colonel Charles Macquarie

• Major-General Lachlan Macquarie was Governor of New South Wales during the convict period, and under his wise government the colony prospered. He laid out the city of Sydney, and returned home in 1821, to the great regret of the colonists. His name is commemorated in Macquarrie Island and other place-names.

In 1964 the Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Edinburgh drew attention to the fact that although Lachlan Macquarie had used a particular coat of arms on many items of personal property (furniture, chinaware, carriages, wax seals) throughout his life, he had never formally matriculated them and he was not, legally speaking,entitled to use them. The Lord Lyon advised that for a fee the University could matriculate Macquarie's arms for him. This would give the University the exclusive right to display Macquarie's coat of arms on his behalf.

As a consequence the University Council resolved to proceed with such an application "as a gesture of respect to the man whose name it had taken". On 6 February 1967 Macquarie University petitioned the Lord Lyon, King of Arms, for a determination of Macquarie's arms. This determination of Macquarie's ancestral arms is by the authority of the Scottish King of Arms acting under a Scottish Act of Parliament.

THAT there is reason to believe that the said Major General Lachlan Macquarie was a cousin of Lachlan Macquarie, XVIth and last Laird of Ulva; THAT Ensigns Armorial were used anterior to 1672 by the Family of Macquarie of Ulva; AND the petitioner having prayed that the foresaid Ensigns Armorial might be matriculated of new in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland in name of the said Major General Lachlan Macquarie with a suitable difference, the Lord Lyon King of Arms by Interlocuter of date 6th February 1967 Granted Warrant to the Lyon Clerk to matriculate in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland for and in memory of Major General Lachlan Macquarie the following Ensigns Armorial, videlicet: Quarterly, embattled; 1st and 4th, Vert, three towers in chief Argent masoned Sable; 2nd, Gules, three cross-crosslets fitchee Argent; 3rd, per fess Azure and Vert, a lymphad sails furled in chief, and a fish naiant in base, both Argent. Above the shield is placed an Helm befitting his degree, with a Mantling Vert doubled Argent and on a Wreath of the Liveries is set for Crest issuant from a tower-head embattled and crenellated Argent, a dexter arm in armour embowed, the hand grasping a dagger projected fessways all proper, and in an Escrol over the same this Motto TURRIS * FORTIS * MEUS * MIHI * DEUS *

Matriculated the sixth day of February 1967. Extracted furth of the 93rd page of the 49th Volume of the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland this twenty-seventh day of April 1967.

Malcolm R. Innes of Edingight, Lyon Clerk

** Quoted in part from Clan MacQuarrie, A History by R.W. Monro and Alan Macquarrie. There is much more information in the same book and I recommend you buy it. Contact: