Famous Scots. Alexander Berry.

Alexander Berry (30 November 1781 – 17 September 1873) was a Scottish-born colonist and merchant who, in 1822, was given a large land grant of 10,000 acres (40 km2) with 100 convicts to establish an estate on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

This land grant was the Coolangatta Estate, which has now developed into the area known as the Shoalhaven Region that includes the modern-day towns of Berry (named in honour of Alexander and his brother David), Gerringong, Bomaderry and Nowra.

Berry also came into possession of another significant land grant on the north shore of Sydney, called Crows Nest.

He was one of the wealthiest and largest landholders in colonial New South Wales. Berry was notable for his antiquated views on society and for his establishment of a feudal-like system of tenancy on his estates.

Early life

Berry was born to parents James Berry and Isabel Tod at Hilltarvit Mains farmhouse, near Cupar in Fife, Scotland where his father was a tenant, during a blinding snowstorm on the evening of 30 November 1781 (St Andrew’s Day, the national day of Scotland). He was baptised on 6 December.:  He was one of nine siblings.

Berry was educated at Cupar grammar school, where he was a contemporary of the artist Sir David Wilkie, and later studied medicine at St Andrews University from 1796 until 1798 and the University of Edinburgh from 1798 to 1801. His youthful intentions were to join the Royal Navy, but he was dissuaded from doing so by his father, and he became a surgeon’s mate for the East India Company instead.: 

Ship’s surgeons were permitted to take a substantial amount of cargo, so his responsibilities were both medical and mercantile. He travelled first to China and then to India, aboard the Lord Hawkesbury. The second voyage was profitable for Berry.

He decided to quit the medical profession, as he hated the whippings he was obliged to attend, and was also attracted to the commercial possibilities of shipping.