Duncan Mackellar, Junior

Lieutenant Duncan Mackellar or Duncan Mackellar, Junior (1795–1838) was an officer in the Royal Navy and, subsequently, a colonial settler, of New South Wales. With his uncle, Captain Duncan Mackellar, he is associated with the early days of colonial settlement of the district around what is now Braidwood.

Biography Duncan Mackellar, Junior, was born in Sydney, during the time that his father, Neil Mackellar (1769–1802) was stationed there, as an ensign of the New South Wales Corps. His father was a nephew of Colonel Patrick Mackellar (1717–1778) and a first cousin of Colonel Mackellar's eldest son, John, later Admiral Sir John Mackellar (1768–1854). His mother was a convict woman, Sarah Cooley. In 1800, his father had reached the rank of Captain and became secretary and aide-de-camp to Governor Philip Gidley King. His father sailed to New Bedford, en route to England bringing dispatches, in the American schooner Caroline. After August 1802, no news had been heard of that vessel, and he was presumed to have been lost at sea.

Mackellar joined the Royal Navy, on 1 June 1808, joining the crew of HMS Porpoise in Sydney. Porpoise was the ship which had carried William Bligh to take up his appointment as Governor of New South Wales. He was a Midshipman, aboard HMS Guadeloupe, on 27 June 1811, when, outgunned and outnumbered, over an hour and 35 minutes, the brig successfully fought off the French corvette Tactique and armed xebec Guêpe, off the French town of Port-Vendre.

In 1815, he served on Salisbury, commanded by Captain John Mackellar,

His sister Lilias was involved in a scandal, in Hobart in 1817, culminating in her trial and acquittal on a charge of murdering a child who was conceived as a result of her adulterous relationship with John Drummond, husband of her sister, Elizabeth. Drummond and a servant woman, Mary Evers, were also charged, tried and acquitted. By order of Governor Macquarie, at Drummond's request, details of the trial were suppressed, by not being published in the Sydney Gazette, to avoid embarrassing Drummond's family in Britain. of Edinburgh and Leith, in Scotland.

Mackellar's wife (Janet Jane née Leitch) was murdered, by an assigned convict, in the district of 'Upper Minto' (which extended as far south as modern-day Appin ), near the Cowpastures, in 1828, while her husband was away at "the New Country". The New Country probably refers to the newer areas of settlement, at the time, which would include Braidwood where Mackellar was preparing to move onto the land granted to him. As a consequence of his loss and the earlier destruction of his house in a fire, Mackellar was given a second land grant by Governor Darling.

Mackellar took up, with his uncle, Duncan Mackellar, a combined total of 3250 acres of land, near what is now the town of Braidwood, in 1829. His uncle's land, 'Strathalan', was sold, in 1836, to another sea captain who became a settler, Captain John Coghill, former captain of the East India Company's convict transport ship Mangles. Coghill later built 'Bedervale'''. Mackellar, Junior's, own two land grants, Jinglemoney and Gingamona,'' of 640 acres each, were west of the Shoalhaven River, in the vicinity of Bombay, in the County of Murray.

A "Duncan McKellar", of the County of Murray, died in Sydney on Friday, 2 November 1838. After his death, Mackellar's landholdings were held in trust for his three sons.

One of his sons was Alexander Mackellar (1821–1904), who was associated with the Australian Jockey Club and the foundation of Randwick Racecourse.

It is likely that two streets in Braidwood, Duncan Street and Mackellar Street, are named after Mackellar and his identically named uncle.