Brisbane, Thomas Makdougall (1773 - 1860)

Summary

Thomas Brisbane was Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825, a respected and successful soldier, and an well-known astronomer. After studying astronomy and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, he had a distinguished military career, serving in the West Indies and the Peninsula war. In 1808, while on leave, he built an observatory at Brisbane House. Brisbane arrived in New South Wales in November 1821. As Governor he worked assiduously worked to implement the recommendations of John Bigge relating to administration of the colony, to improve the land grant system, and to reform the colony's expenditure. Initially his relations with the Colony's Secretary, Frederick Goulburn, were cordial, but this did not last. Both were recalled in 1825. Brisbane was noted for his encouragement of the scientific endeavours of the colonists. He was President of he Philosophical Society of Australasia and Patron of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales. Experiments he conducted in growing cotton, tobacco, coffee and New Zealand flax were largely unsuccessful. The observatory Brisbane established at Parramatta was staffed by the astronomers who accompanied him to New South Wales: Charles Rümker and James Dunlop. It was here that they made the first survey of southern stars since that made by Lacaille in 1751 - 1752. On his return to Scotland Brisbane he declined further military service, and continued his astronomical work. The "Brisbane catalog" of southern stars was published in 1835. His observatory continued to operate until 1855. Brisbane was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 1810, and served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1832 and the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1833.

Details

Chronology

1798 - 1817

Military service - Served with the British Army

1810 - 1860

Award - Fellow, Royal Society, London

1814

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB)

1817

Award - Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH)

1821 - 1825

Career position - Governor of the Colony of New South Wales

November 1821 - 1822

Career position - President, Philosophical Society of Australasia

1822 - 1825

Career position - Inaugural Patron, New South Wales Agricultural Society

1828

Award - Gold Medal, Royal Astronomical Society

1831

Award - Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order (GCH)

1832

Career position - President, Royal Society of Edinburgh

1833

Career position - President, British Association for the Advancement of Science

1836

Award - Created Baronet (Kt)

1837

Award - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB)

1848

Award - Keith Medal, Royal Society of Edinburgh

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Christian Carl Ludwig Rümker - Records, 1825 - 1845, MS Q569; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - Records, 1715 - 1860, MS 1191; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - Records, 1812 - 1837, FM 4/1626-7; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - Records, 1818 - 1849, ML MSS 419; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - Records, 1824 - 1836, A2166; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - Records, 1812 - 1858, MS 4036; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Brisbane, Thomas, Reminiscences of General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane : of Brisbane and Makerstoun, Bart (Edinburgh: Thomas Constable, 1860), 128 pp. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 12 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1998). Details

Book Sections

• Heydon, J. D., 'Brisbane, Sir Thomas Makdougall (1773 - 1860), governor' in Australian dictionary of biography volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 151-5, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brisbane-sir-thomas-makdougall-1827. Details
• Sweetman, John and Mcconnell, Anita, 'Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1773-1860' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

• Bhathal, Ragbir, 'A Governor's Observatory', Astronomy & Geophysics, 52 (2) (2011), 2.31, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4004.2011.52231.x/full. Details
• Bhathal, Ragbir, 'Some Scientific Aspects of Parramatta Observatory', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 145 (2012), 111-27. Details
• Brisbane, T., 'An account of experiments made with an invariable pendulum at New South Wales, by Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, K.C.B., F.R.S.', Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 113 (1823), 308-25. Details
• Brisbane, T., 'Observations on the temperature of the Earth at Paramatta, New South Wales', Edinburgh philosophical journal, 10 (1824), 219-22. Details
• Brisbane, T., 'On the meteorological tables kept in 1822 at Macquarie Harbour and Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land', Edinburgh philosophical journal, 12 (1825), 75-7. Details
• Herschel, J. F. W., 'An address delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Astronomical Society of London, on February 8, on presenting the honorary medals to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane and James Dunlop, Esq.', Memoirs of the Astronomical Society of London, 3 (1829), 403-4. Details
• Liston, Carol, 'Sir Thomas Brisbane - a man of scientific method', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 145 (2012), 136-45. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Portraits of Scientific Men of New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xliv (1912), 17-20. Details
• Morrison-low, A. D., 'The Soldier-Astronomer in Scotland: Thomas Makdougall Brisbane's Scientific Work in the Northern Hemisphere', Historical Records of Australian Science, 15 (2) (2004), 151-176. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR04008. Details
• O'Hagan, J. E., 'Sir Thomas Brisbane, FRS, A Founder of Organised Science in Australia.', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vi (1960), 594-603. Details
• Russell, H.C., 'Astronomical and Meteorological Workers in New South Wales, 1778-1860', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1888), 45-94, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813133. Details
• Saunders, Shirley D., 'Sir Thomas Brisbane's Legacy to Colonial Science: Colonial Astronomy at the Parramatta Observatory, 1822-1848', Historical Records of Australian Science, 15 (2) (2004), 177-209. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR04009. Details
• Tyler, Peter J., 'Seeing Stars in the City: a History of Early Astronomy in Sydney', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 142 (3/4) (2009), 1-14. Details
• Tyler, Peter J., 'Sir Thomas Brisbane - Patron of Colonial Science', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 145 (2012), 128-35. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94380103. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q376367. Details
• 'Brisbane, Thomas (1773-1860)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-615751. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Brisbane, Thomas Makdougall', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000262p.htm. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_b.html. Details
• Bergman, George F. J., 'Rümker, Christian Carl Ludwig (1788-1862), astronomer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 403-404. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020359b.htm. Details
• Goodin, Vernon W. E., 'Parramatta Observatory: the story of an absurdity', Journal and proceedings. Royal Australian Historical Society, xxxiii (1947), 173-187. Details
• Haynes, Raymond, Haynes, Roslynn, Malin, David and McGee, Richard, Explorers of the Southern Sky: a History of Australian Astronomy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 540 pp. Details
• Richardson, William, A catalogue of 7385 stars: chiefly in the southern hemisphere, prepared from observations made in the years 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825 and 1826, at the observatory at Paramatta, New South Wales, founded by Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the computations made, and the catalogue constructed by William Richardson (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1835), 311 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details