John Laurie and the Rum Hospital

2016 is the bicentenary of the opening of Sydney’s ‘Rum Hospital.’ It earned its name from the partial monopoly Governor Macquarie granted to three local merchants to import rum in return for building it Prior accounts of the Hospital’s origins focus on Macquarie, the merchants and their disputes. Yet John Laurie, the contractor’s clerk of works, was also an interesting figure. Transported for larceny, he became a wealthy trader only to lose his fortune, become embroiled in a constitutional...