With the powers of a virtual dictator and with a military commander’s expectation of unquestioning obedience, Macquarie was resented by a number of free settlers. They conducted a campaign of letter writing to highly placed sympathisers in the British government and opposition that undermined Macquarie and often misrepresented his efforts. The complaints contributed to a decision by the government to appoint a Royal Commission into the state of the colony of New South Wales, headed by John Thomas Bigge under instruction from the Earl of Bathurst, who was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.

In a private letter to Commissioner Bigge, Lord Bathurst wrote, ‘The Conduct of the Governor … has drawn down upon him the Hostility of many persons, who hold associations with Convicts under any circumstances to be a degradation. Feelings of this kind are not easily overcome’.