One of Governor Macquarie’s chief instructions was to improve the moral fibre of the colony, which was widely viewed as disreputable by critics at home. In his swearing-in speech, reported in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on 7 January 1810, Macquarie said, ‘I must strongly recommend to all Classes of the Community a strict Observance of all Religious Duties, and a constant and regular Attendance at Divine Worship on Sundays, and other Holidays set apart for that purpose’. He followed this with a proclamation that forced public houses to close on Sundays.
According to a report from the Select Committee on Transportation in 1812, two-thirds of children born during Bligh’s governorship were illegitimate. Macquarie issued a proclamation on 24 February 1810 addressing ’the scandalous and pernicious Custom so generally and shamelessly adopted throughout this Territory, of Persons of different Sexes COHABITING and living together, unsanctioned by the legal Ties of MATRIMONY’. The proclamation declared this to be ‘a Scandal to RELIGION, to Decency, and to all Good GOVERNMENT’, and refused any cohabiting woman the right to inherit the property of her partner, should he die intestate.