LIEUT. JOHN WATTS; AIDE-DE-CAMP & ARCHITECT

LIEUT. JOHN WATTS; AIDE-DE-CAMP & ARCHITECT

Mention the term  ’colonial architect’ in New South Wales and most people would respond with the name Francis Greenway. That is quite understandable, but let’s bring another deserving character out of the shadows. Who better to speak of John Cliffe  Watts’ ability and character than Elizabeth Macquarie?

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THE FRIENDS OF MRS MACQUARIE PART II – A NEW WORLD

THE FRIENDS OF MRS MACQUARIE  PART II - A NEW WORLD

At the end of  PART ONE of this story, we left  Miss Elizabeth Campbell  fretting over her fiance Lachlan Macquarie’s lack of eagerness to return from army duties in  India.  Clearly something  had to be done. Fortuitously, Henrietta Meredith had a friend and family connection by the

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MRS MACQUARIE AND THE MYSTERY OF ST JOHN’S TWIN SPIRES

MRS MACQUARIE AND THE MYSTERY OF ST JOHN'S TWIN  SPIRES

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE, THIS STORY IS A BIT COMPLICATED! When St John’s church at Parramatta  (New South Wales)  was being remodelled circa 1817, Elizabeth Macquarie offered some advice to the project’s architect, Lieutenant John Watts (1786-1873). In 1895 Watts’ daughter, Mrs Margaret Elizabeth Bagot wrote; ‘Mrs Macquarie

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