The Lindesay House - Australia
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The Lindesay HouseAs ships glide past the Heads into Sydney Cove, Australia,
they pass six colonial houses built on the southern shore of the harbour.
One of these stately homes is Lindesay.
The original owner of the house, Campbell Drummond Riddell, acquired 6.5
hectares of land at the north-eastern end of Darling Point where he built Lindesay
in 1834. Riddell named the house
after Sir Patrick Lindesay. Sir Patrick Lindesay played a role in the early history of
the Colony of New South Wales. Born in 1778 at Musselburgh, Scotland, the son of a
lieutenant-colonel, he came to Sydney as brevet-colonel of the Buffs in command
of the local garrison. He served
for brief periods in both the Legislative and Executive Councils of New South
Wales, and was Acting Governor of the Colony from 22 October to 2 December 1831. His assistance to the explorer Captain Charles Sturt was
acknowledged in the name of the Lindesay River.
His work as a naturalist was of a sufficiently high order for the
Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh to name the scrub turkey of Australia
after him, giving it the name of Meleager’s
Lindesayi. On his return to
England in 1836 he was promoted to the rank of major-general and received a
knighthood. He died on 14 March
1839. Source: Dinah
Dysart and Helen Proudfoot (Editors), 1984:
Lindesay – a Biography of the House. The National Trust of
Australia, Sydney, 78pp. Our thanks go to Chris Lindesay (chris.lindesay at Lindesays.co.uk ), Canberra, Australia for providing this narrative. |