Alexander Berry

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.

Business dealings with the New South Wales Rum Corps

Upon arrival in Sydney, Berry became acquainted with the officers of the Rum Corps, who were running a cartel on trade into the colony of New South Wales. He allotted his cargo of 22,000 gallons of spirits to them and dined with their leaders, Captain John Macarthur and Major George Johnston. He did not interfere when they conducted the Rum Rebellion, where the Rum Corps mutinied and detained the Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, which occurred while Berry was in Sydney. In return, Berry was offered a £2,000 contract by the officers to transport settlers and convicts from Norfolk Island to Van Diemen's Land. Although Berry completed the job, he demanded £3,600 for it and refused to accept a lesser payment in cash. Berry then decided to go to Fiji to obtain a cargo of sandalwood. Even though he was taken as a hostage by chief at Taveuni, he was later released and able to acquire 50 tonnes of sandalwood.

Berry was appointed by Governor Darling as a member of the Legislative Council in 1828. He continued to be re-appointed by various governors for the next 33 years until his retirement in 1861. He was never an elected representative.

Berry was a strict social conservative, opposing all moves towards democracy or representative government. He held reformers in contempt, often labelling them "blackguards" or "ruffians". In return, as representative government in New South Wales became stronger despite Berry's efforts, he was generally regarded as antiquated and foolish by fellow parliamentarians.

Upon the establishment of local government in the Shoalhaven area, Berry was of the opinion that it was a "nefarious" outcome, saying:"the poor country people seem to be a set of asses only fit to be the negroes or slaves of the town … I cannot help laughing at the absurdity of the abolition of negro slavery when I perceive the Country people of New South Wales anxious to become the White Negroes of the Jews and publicans of Towns and Villages. All the inhabitants of the Gerringong ward are the niggers of the people of Kiama" Essentially Berry thought that only property-owning men should be allowed to govern themselves. In his view, country people were foolish for wanting local government, which would cause them to become oppressed servants of Jews and publicans (business owners), not unlike African-American slaves.

He refused to pay rates on his Shoalhaven Estate after the incorporation of a Shoalhaven Municipality, arguing that his property should not form part of the local government area. He was successful in his claim against the payments in the Supreme Court and in the subsequent Privy Council appeal brought by the Municipality.

William Charles Wentworth summarised Berry as someone who: "...had been so long accustomed to get both land and labour for nothing, he felt a natural repugnance in beginning to pay for it now...Under this system he had acquired a princely state of 20,000 or 30,000 acres of land and had enjoyed the fruits of the labour of hundreds of convicts..."

Berry described the colonisation of Australia as "the cheapest conquest ever made by England".