James Mario Matra (Magra)
Matra was one of three American born members of the ships company aboard the “Endeavour” on Cooks voyage of 1768/1771. Born in New York in 1746 he settled inLondon.
He signed on as a midshipman for the voyage. He became lifelong friends with Mr. Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Banks, the leader and financier (he put up the £10.000. required ) of the expedition to chart the ‘Transit of Venus’ of 1769 from Tahiti.
It was Matra who put forward the proposal to set up a penal settlement in New South Wales. He also had plans for ‘loyal’ Americans to leave the newly formed United States of America, to join in the settling of the new colony.
Not being averse to a little bit of money he petitioned the King to change his name back to Magra to enable him to cash in on a Corsican inheritance. His father migrated from Corsica to Ireland and then on to New York where he changed the name to Matra.
James Magra was British Consul at Teneriff in the Canary Isles and later Tangier, Morocco. He didn’t marry ’til late in life; he was 47. He died in Tangier at age 62, he left no issue.
He is vaguely remembered in Australia by the township of Matraville situated on Botany Bay.
No comments:
Post a Comment