Alexander Berry (30 November 1781 – 17 September 1873) was a Scottish-born colonist and merchant who, in 1822, was given a large land grant of 10,000 acres (40 km2) with 100 convicts to establish an estate on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.
This land grant was the Coolangatta Estate, which has now developed into the area known as the Shoalhaven Region that includes the modern-day towns of Berry (named in honour of Alexander and his brother David), Gerringong, Bomaderry and Nowra.
Berry also came into possession of another significant land grant on the north shore of Sydney, called Crows Nest.
He was one of the wealthiest and largest landholders in colonial New South Wales. Berry was notable for his antiquated views on society and for his establishment of a feudal-like system of tenancy on his estates.
Early life Berry was born to parents James Berry and Isabel Tod at Hilltarvit Mains farmhouse, near Cupar in Fife, Scotland where his father was a tenant, during a blinding snowstorm on the evening of 30 November 1781 (St Andrew's Day, the national day of Scotland). He was baptised on 6 December.Births (OPR). Scotland. Cupar, Fife. 30 November 1781. BERRY, Alexander. 420/00 0030 0028. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 13 July 2014. He was one of nine siblings.
Berry was educated at Cupar grammar school, where he was a contemporary of the artist Sir David Wilkie, and later studied medicine at St Andrews University from 1796 until 1798 and the University of Edinburgh from 1798 to 1801. His youthful intentions were to join the Royal Navy, but he was dissuaded from doing so by his father, and he became a surgeon's mate for the East India Company instead.
Ship's surgeons were permitted to take a substantial amount of cargo, so his responsibilities were both medical and mercantile. He travelled first to China and then to India, aboard the Lord Hawkesbury. The second voyage was profitable for Berry.
He decided to quit the medical profession, as he hated the whippings he was obliged to attend, and was also attracted to the commercial possibilities of shipping.
Voyage of the City of Edinburgh His first commercial voyage for profit was to the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. On arrival, he heard that New South Wales needed provisions. He purchased a ship, , with medical student Francis Shortt, to take provisions to the colony. While travelling as supercargo, he encountered storms which damaged his ship, so he stopped in Tasmania at Port Dalrymple, close to modern day Launceston. He sold half his provisions there and the remainder in Hobart. He then continued to Sydney, where he arrived on 13 January 1808 with only spirits remaining to sell.
Business dealings with the New South Wales Rum Corps Upon arrival in Sydney, Berry became acquainted with the officers of the Rum Corps, who were running a cartel on trade into the colony of New South Wales. He allotted his cargo of 22,000 gallons of spirits to them and dined with their leaders, Captain John Macarthur and Major George Johnston. He did not interfere when they conducted the Rum Rebellion, where the Rum Corps mutinied and detained the Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, which occurred while Berry was in Sydney. In return, Berry was offered a £2,000 contract by the officers to transport settlers and convicts from Norfolk Island to Van Diemen's Land. Although Berry completed the job, he demanded £3,600 for it and refused to accept a lesser payment in cash. Berry then decided to go to Fiji to obtain a cargo of sandalwood. Even though he was taken as a hostage by chief at Taveuni, he was later released and able to acquire 50 tonnes of sandalwood.
Rescuing survivors of the Boyd massacre In 1809, Berry sailed from Fiji and stopped at the Bay of Islands in New Zealand to load a cargo of spars. News came through of the massacre of the crew and passengers of the ship Boyd by local Māori at nearby Whangaroa. The City of Edinburgh, with Berry, set sail for Whangaroa, where he rescued four survivors and the ship's papers by holding two chiefs hostage. He wrote in a letter to Governor Macquarie that he released the chiefs because "there was no opportunity of sending the chiefs to Port Jackson" (i.e. Sydney). He wrote in the Edinburgh Magazine that he had released them on condition that they lose their rank with their people, although he never expected that to happen.
Shipwreck of the City of Edinburgh Berry sailed eastwards from New Zealand with his cargo to the Cape of Good Hope, however a broken rudder forced him to make repairs in Valparaíso, and then travel to Lima. He found a buyer for his cargo, and secured another cargo from Guayaquil for Cádiz and began the journey in 1811. After calling in at Rio de Janeiro Berry was forced to abandon the City of Edinburgh during storms near the Azores. He made his way to Lisbon, Portugal. It was on the trip from Lisbon to Cádiz that he met the English businessman Edward Wollstonecraft.
Partnership with Edward Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft proceeded to London as Berry's agent, and Berry remained for a time in Cádiz before also proceeding to London. Berry set up a partnership with Wollstonecraft (Berry and Wollstonecraft) and they decided to become merchants in New South Wales.
Berry's early business partner in the vessel City of Edinburgh, Francis Shortt, claimed that Berry's partnership with Wollstonecraft was invalid. Shortt had been declared insolvent and died in 1828 before the case was settled.
Merchant and Colonist in New South Wales They sailed to Sydney in 1819. Berry sailed as supercargo aboard , leaving England January 1819, and arriving in Sydney in July. He was shortly followed by Wollstonecraft aboard the Canada. They set up as merchants on George Street in The Rocks area. Berry utilised his old Rum Corps connections to make Captain John Piper (who was the current chief of customs in Sydney) his agent.
Berry began to plan a trip to England to expand their commercial connections and returned there aboard Admiral Cockburn in February 1820. Wollstonecraft obtained a land grant on Sydney's Lower North Shore in Berry's absence, which he named Crow's Nest.
While in London, Berry was informed that a land grant in New South Wales had been given to him by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He subsequently chartered the Royal George and returned to Sydney in November 1821 with an "extensive assortment of merchandise" for sale at their George Street store. Significantly for Berry's business dealings, also aboard this ship was the new governor of New South Wales, Thomas Brisbane with his staff and family. Arriving in Sydney with the new governor, Berry began the search for ideal land to claim his grant.
In early 1822, Berry went with Hamilton Hume and Lieutenant Robert Johnson on a journey of exploration down the coast of New South Wales aboard the Snapper. During the journey he investigated the land in Shoalhaven area and decided to lay claim to it. He returned to Sydney and applied for a grant of 10,000 acres. The British colonial policy at that time heavily favoured wealthy "respectable emigrants" and the Berry and Wollstonecraft partnership were duly granted by Governor Brisbane with 100 convicts free of charge to labour for them.
Establishing the Coolangatta Estate In June 1822, Berry and Wollstonecraft purchased a small cutter, the Blanche, and Berry returned to the Shoalhaven with Hume and assigned servants (convicts) to develop his land grant there.
While attempting to cross the bar into the river in a small boat, two people drowned, including Davison, who was the boy that Berry had rescued from the 'Boyd'. Given the danger, Berry arranged to drag the Blanche across a swamp that separated the Shoalhaven River from the Crookhaven River, with the Crookhaven entrance offering a safer passage. In order to provide safe boat access, Berry had Hamilton Hume to oversee his convicts dig a canal through the swamp using only hand tools. The convict labourers cut a 209-yard canal linking the Shoalhaven River to the Crookhaven River in four weeks and in doing so, constructed the first land navigable canal in Australia.
Berry named and established the Shoalhaven land grant as the Coolangatta Estate, while Wollstonecraft stayed in Sydney to look after business there. The name Coolangatta is derived from the local Dharawal word, Cullunghutti, which describes the dominant mountain in the area. Berry was able to conciliate with the resident Indigenous clans on his arrival, who became useful workers for him. A local Indigenous man, whom Berry assigned the name Broughton, was particularly important to Berry as a guide and interpreter during these early stages. Berry named Broughton Creek after him.
Around a dozen local Aboriginal men also became acquainted with John Batman, whose father had a contract felling cedar in the Shoalhaven. These men, such as Yunbai and Warroba, travelled with Batman to Sydney, Van Diemen's Land and the Port Phillip District, where they played integral roles in such things as roving parties against Aboriginal Tasmanians and in the Batman Treaty. Berry also became interested in collecting the remains of Aboriginal Tasmanians, and contracted Reverend Robert Knopwood of Hobart to send him at least two skulls.
Berry later secured two additional land grants in the Shoalhaven of each. Together with purchases, the size of the estate grew to in the early 1840s.
Berry used his convict labour to cut down the immense groves of cedar trees on his property, the timber products of which were transported and sold in Sydney for significant profit. In 1826 alone, 625,000 feet of timber was exported from Coolangatta. Convicts also drained the swamps to increase the size of his arable land which produced maize, tobacco, wheat, barley and potatoes. Cattle and pigs were also reared and shipped to the markets in Sydney. Berry and Wollstonecraft purchased vessels for this trade and had several ships built at Shoalhaven. The partners were also involved in exporting coal and seal-skins.
To ensure the compliance of the convicts and the Aboriginal population in the area, a small military detachment was sent to Coolangatta in 1825 where they were stationed for several years.
"The Laird of Shoalhaven" In the late 1820s when the colony was under the reign of Governor Darling, Berry and Wollstonecraft appear to have obtained very favourable treatment by the introduction laws that gave their partnership a virtual monopoly in the cedar and tobacco trades.
When his business partner, Edward Wollstonecraft, died in 1832, the entire Coolangatta and Crows Nest estates passed to Alexander Berry, who had married Elizabeth Wollstonecraft, the sister of Edward, on 21 September 1827. The George Street stores had already shut in 1828, therefore Berry spent most of his time running the Coolangatta Estate. The enormous profits of the estate, which came mostly from the extraction and selling of cedarwood, were now solely controlled by Berry, who came to be described as "The Laird of Shoalhaven".
By 1836, at the age of 55, Berry decided to retire to his Crows Nest estate, which at that time covered hundreds of acres of prime Lower North Shore Sydney real estate, including what are now the modern suburbs of Waverton, Wollstonecraft and North Sydney. He left the on-the-ground management of Coolangatta to his brothers, David and John, whom Berry had strongly encouraged to migrate from Scotland. David ran the estate alone following John's death in 1848.
Although Berry now resided mostly in Sydney, he was still the owner of Coolangatta and maintained his authority in its operation. He was accused of mistreating his convict labourers by not providing adequate clothing and enforcing excessive floggings as punishment. However, many convicts remained at Coolangatta for decades indicating that his overall treatment of them was not severe.