D'Arcy Wentworth Jr.

He was born Dorset Crowley on Norfolk Island to D'Arcy Wentworth, a surgeon who was distantly related to the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, and Catherine Crowley, a convict from Staffordshire. They had met on board the Neptune, with D'Arcy being the ship's surgeon and Catherine being transported, which was part of the notorious Second Fleet.{{cite web |last1=Gilchrist |first1=Catie |title=Catherine Crowley: A Convict Sea Wife |url=https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/catherine-crowley/ |website=St. John’s Online |access-date=14 June 2022}}

The family left Norfolk Island and sailed for Sydney on board HMS Reliance in February 1796.{{cite book |last1=Flynn |first1=Michael C. |title=The Second Fleet : Britain's grim convict armada of 1790 |date=2001 |publisher=Library of Australian History |location=North Sydney, N.S.W. |isbn=9780957952416 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8479345/version/40452185%2041855849?keyword=The%20Second%20Fleet%3A%20Britain%27s%20grim%20convict%20armada%20of%201790}} After his mother's death in January 1800, his father changed the then six-year-old's Dorset Crowley's name to D'Arcy Wentworth, and his younger brother Matthew's name to John Wentworth (1795-1820). He and his brothers William Charles Wentworth and John were sent to England for schooling in 1802, which began in October 1803.{{cite NSW Parliament |title = Major D'Arcy Wentworth (1793-1861) |id=248 |former=Yes |accessdate=21 May 2019}}

Wentworth enlisted in the army in England in 1811, as an ensign in the 63rd Regiment. His regiment was sent to Ceylon in 1814. He later returned to New South Wales, rising to the rank of captain in 1825.

On 27 April 1826, he married Scottish born Elizabeth Macpherson, third daughter of Major Charles Macpherson (1751-1820) of Gordonhall in Badenoch, barrack-master general of Scotland{{cite web |last1=Macpherson |first1=Alan G. |title=Daniel Macpherson: Highland emigrant, Loyalist soldier, Gaspesian merchant-settler and Canadian seigneur |url=https://www.clan-macpherson.org/museum/documents/alang11.pdf |website=Clan Macpherson |publisher=Canadian Genealogist |access-date=23 January 2022}} and Margaret MacPherson of Inverhall near Killiehuntly,{{cite web |title=Macpherson of Benchar |url=http://redbookofscotland.co.uk/macpherson-of-benchar#_ftnref9 |website=Red Book of Scotland |publisher=The Red Book of Scotland |access-date=23 January 2022}} at St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh; they had no children.{{cite web |last1=Gilchrist |first1=Catie |title=D'Arcy Wentworth: A Gentleman Rogue |url=https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/darcy-wentworth/ |website=St John's Online |date=9 May 2019 |access-date=23 January 2022}}

Wentworth was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Van Diemen's Land on 9 September 1830.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8645344 |title=COLONIAL TIMES |newspaper=Colonial Times |volume=15 |issue=750 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=10 September 1830 |accessdate=23 January 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} Between 7 October and 24 November 1830, he was one of three commanders of a force of 2200 men, 550 soldiers and 1650 convicts and volunteer colonists, separated into three divisions. Wentworth led detachments of troops from Bothwell and Hamilton, as well as civilian volunteers, towards the Great Lake and the banks of the Ouse, Shannon and Clyde rivers. The operation was known as the Black Line.,{{cite thesis |last=Connor |first=John Stephen |date=1999 |title=Armed conflict between Aborigines and British armed forces in Southeast Australia, 1788-1831 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/60634 |degree=Masters Thesis |pages=131-133 |publisher=University of New South Wales |oclc= |access-date= 2024-01-31|doi=10.26190/unsworks/6704}} its purpose was to "...capture those hostile Tribes of Natives which are daily committing renewed atrocities upon the Settlers..."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4206949 |title=GOVERNMENT ORDER. |newspaper=The Hobart Town Courier |volume=III |issue=154 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=25 September 1830 |accessdate=23 January 2022 |page=3 (Supplement to the Hobart Town Courier.) |via=National Library of Australia}} This occurred as part of what has become known as the Black War in Tasmania.

While in Van Diemen's Land, Wentworth served as police magistrate in Bothwell, where he built a significant Georgian sandstone house. It was started in 1830 and was originally called Inverhall but is now known as Wentworth House.{{cite book |author1=Australian Heritage Commission |title=The Heritage of Tasmania : the illustrated register of the National Estate |date=1983 |publisher=Macmillan in association with the Australian Heritage Commission |location=South Melbourne |isbn=0333356322 |pages=10–12 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21415914}} He sold the house in 1833 to Charles Schaw, assistant police magistrate for Bothwell.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last1=Smith |first1=Julie Carington |title=Schaw, Charles (1785–1874) |id2=schaw-charles-2634 |access-date=23 January 2022}}

From 1843 to 1845 he was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Northumberland boroughs, comprising East and West Maitland and Newcastle.{{cite news |title=THE ELECTION |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article660750 |access-date=23 January 2022 |work=The Maitland Mercury And Hunter River General Advertiser |issue=25 |publisher=National Library of Australia |date=24 June 1843 |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=4}}

He died at Launceston on 21 July 1861 and was buried with his parents at St John's Cemetery, Parramatta, on 6 August 1861. His funeral was attended by some of the colony's most celebrated and distinguished citizens.

Political families of Australia: Wentworth/Hill/Griffiths/Scott/Cooper family

{{reflist}}

• [https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99183959420902061 Colonial Secretary's papers 1822-1877], State Library of Queensland- includes digitised letters written by Wentworth to the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales

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Category:1793 births

Category:1861 deaths

Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council

Category:19th-century Australian politicians