Redfern's status was further enhanced following the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810. Macquarie was keen to rehabilitate emancipated convicts, noting that "emancipation, when united with rectitude and long-tried good conduct, should lead a man back to that rank in society which he had forfeited." Few among the emancipated convicts were suitable for this elevation, with Macquarie observing that he had "admitted only four men of that class to his table", of whom Redfern was one. In 1814 Redfern reported to Macquarie on the sanitary problems of the ships transporting convicts to New South Wales. As a result of this report the conditions were greatly improved. In 1817 he became one of the founders of the Bank of New South Wales. In 1811, he married Sarah Spencer Wills.