This precious object was given in 1825 by James Drummond, Viscount Strathallan, to his godson and protégé, the eleven-year-old Lachlan Macquarie the younger, Sydney-born son of the greatest early governor of New South Wales. The gift, with its affectionate engraved inscription, made in the year following Governor Macquarie's death, may well have been to mark the beginning of Strathallan's guardianship of the young boy.

This precious object was given in 1825 by James Drummond, Viscount Strathallan, to his godson and protégé, the eleven-year-old Lachlan Macquarie the younger, Sydney-born son of the greatest early governor of New South Wales. The gift, with its affectionate engraved inscription, made in the year following Governor Macquarie's death, may well have been to mark the beginning of Strathallan's guardianship of the young boy.

"Undoubtedly the high moment of Macquarie's stay in the colony and perhaps of his life, was the birth on 28 March 1814… of his son whom he gently allowed Elizabeth to name Lachlan after him. Their happiness on earth, he noted in his memorandum book, was now complete. For the last decade of his life Macquarie found a happy refuge from his worries in the role of doting father" (N. D. McLachlan in ADB). Two delightful portraits of the child (State Library of New South Wales), one of them by Richard Read senior, have often been exhibited or reproduced.

James Drummond (1767-1851), restored in 1824 to the viscountcy of Strathallan (it had been attainted after the battle of Culloden in 1746), was a close friend of Macquarie, and one of those who had defended the governor after the damaging release of the Bigge report. The two men had met in Macquarie's Indian days, and kept close contact over the ensuing decades. When Macquarie died in 1824 his estate passed into the hands of his son, under the administration of Strathallan, executor of Macquarie's estate as well as guardian of his son, then ten years old. Lachlan junior became a close friend of his guardian's own son William Drummond, "Master of Strathallan".

"During his final years, all the old Governor's hopes and dreams had centred on his son and heir" (Pauline Conolly), but Lachlan junior eventually had to borrow extensively from his friend the Master of Strathallan to fund a wayward lifestyle, ultimately needing to alter his will to meet his debts. At his death the will was challenged, in a bitterly contested court battle, but in the end most of his estate went to repay Strathallan and thus passed into the Drummond family. Various possessions remained in Strathallan Castle, with gradual dispersals over the last century. Perhaps the most famous object to have that provenance is the consequently named Strathallan Chest or Cabinet (also known as the Macquarie Collector's Chest), today one of the treasures of the State Library of New South Wales.

Lachlan Macquarie was buried alongside his parents and his infant sister in 1845. In 1851, the year that he inherited the viscountcy, Strathallan had the mausoleum constructed that stands today on the Isle of Mull. 'It is believed the Macquarie mausoleum was erected by Viscount Strathallan soon after the court case, as a tribute to his friend and as a symbolic finis to the drawn-out battle over the inheritance…' (Pauline Conolly).