Father Therry : Pioneering Priest

The forty-four years in which Father John Joseph Therry (pronounced "Terry") laboured as a missionary in colonial Australia may be summarised in several paragraphs, but how inadequate such a summary would be in encompassing the fundamental contribution he made in planting and nourishing the tree of the Catholic Church in Australia from the time of his arrival in 1820.  

We must start somewhere, however, and the following article, giving an outline of the course of his life and work, is a comprehensive and fair account.  It was written for the Australian Dictionary of Biography in 1967 by the historian Father John Eddy SJ.  Father Eddy's article has been substantially edited for inclusion here.  Over a period of time, further articles about Father Therry will be posted to this blog, which we hope will tell anew the remarkable story of this indefatigable Apostle of Australia.

ARCHPRIEST THERRY
a photograph taken in the early 1860s.
Digital restoration by the Saint Bede Studio

John Joseph Therry was born in the city of Cork, Ireland in 1790, and was educated privately before he studies for the priesthood at St Patrick's College, Carlow.  Ordained a priest in 1815, he was assigned to parochial work in Dublin and then Cork, where he became secretary to the bishop, Dr Murphy. Father Therry’s interest in the colony of New South Wales, aroused by the transportation of Irish convicts and the publicity surrounding the deportation from Sydney of Father Jeremiah O'Flynn in 1818, came to the notice of Bishop Edward Bede Slater, the Vicar-Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, Mauritius, and New Holland with the adjacent islands. At the same time, the British Colonial Office had consented to send two official Roman Catholic chaplains to New South Wales. Recommended by his own bishop as a capable, zealous and “valuable young man”, Father Therry sailed from Cork with Father Philip Conolly, in the Janus, which carried more than a hundred prisoners. They arrived in Sydney, authorised by both Church and State, on 3rd May 1820.

Father Therry described his life in Australia for the next forty-four years as “one of incessant labour very often accompanied by painful anxiety.” Popular, energetic and restless, he appreciated from the beginning the delicacy of his role. He had to be at once a far-seeing pastor making up for years of neglect, a conscientious official of an autocratic British colonial system, and a pragmatic Irish supporter of democratic freedoms. Though respectful of authority and grateful for co-operation, he was impatient of any curtailment of what he considered his own legal or moral rights as a Catholic priest in a situation governed by extraordinary circumstances. The two priests immediately immersed them in their duties of instruction, visitation and administration of the sacraments.

The Colony’s Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, although not hostile, was initially abrupt in his regulation of the activities of the two priests. In 1821, Father Conolly, after a series of disagreements with Father Therry, left Sydney for Hobart, leaving Father Therry for five seminal years as the only priest in the Colony. 

A panorama of Sydney in 1821 looking north from Observatory Hill.
Fathers Therry and Conolly arrived in a well-established township.
Image : The State Library of NSW. 

Articulate and thorough, Father Therry set himself the task of attending to every aspect of the moral and religious life of the Catholics. He travelled unceasingly, living with his scattered people wherever they were to be found, sometimes using three or four horses in a day. His influence was impressive among the Protestant settlers and outstanding among the convicts. His correspondence shows the trust they placed in him. For the rest of his life he was banker, advisor and arbitrator to many of them as well as spiritual director and community leader. He also early formed a lasting interest in the Aboriginals, who became very attached to him. He also pleaded the cause of aboriginal education to a later Governor, Sir Ralph Darling.

The building of a church in Sydney, planned from the first days of the chaplaincy, was one of Father Therry's main preoccupations. The assistance or substantial tolerance of the leading colonists was assured, and on 29th October 1821 Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone of St Mary's chapel on a site he had assigned at the edge of Hyde Park, near the convict barracks. The convict artist and architect Francis Greenway made himself available for consultation on the architecture and construction. Government help was promised, but Father Therry was criticised for the elaborate design and size of the building, and the project quickly got out of hand financially. His accounts - never very coherent though always scrupulously maintained - became progressively more chaotic as his charities multiplied and the financing of schools and churches in Sydney, Parramatta, and the outlying townships involved him in attempts to raise funds by farming and stock-breeding. The scattered and casual nature of his dealings, the absence of a reliable and able book-keeper and his own sanguine character made financial crisis inevitable. His failure to separate private and public matters hampered and indeed later crippled his apostolate. But demands for his service came from the hospital, gaols, farms, the government establishments, his own day and Sunday schools, and from road-gangs and assigned convicts. He went, whenever summoned, to Wollongong, Goulburn, Maitland, Bathurst, Newcastle with their neighbouring districts.

The Hyde Park Barracks  : a watercolour from 1820.
This place of confinement for the settlement's convicts was built in 1817.  All the pioneers priests
(including Bishop Polding) regularly visited this Barracks to bring Christ to those imprisoned.
Image : State of Library NSW

Oppressive behaviour by officials or settlers towards the soldiers or convicts angered him, particularly where religious issues were involved. He was bitterly resentful of his exclusion from certain government institutions, especially the Orphan School, where he was unhappy about children whose parents were Catholic being baptised and instructed by the Anglican chaplains. By 1824, however, the patronage of Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane and his own growing experience encouraged him to hope for impartiality and support. He was confident that, with the arrival of new priests to share his work, a remarkable expansion of Catholic practice and activity was possible. With the aid of his committees, trustees and friends, and the advent of what he termed “a free, liberal and talented press”, he began to feel secure. Father Therry had even been held up by the Governor as a model of discrimination and good judgment to the zealous (and horrified) Presbyterian minister, John Dunmore Lang.

The formal withdrawal of Government support for his ministry in 1825 – the result of his being misquoted in the press in his opinion of Anglican ministers - caused Father Therry continual prohibitions and hindrances in the exercise of his priestly work, especially in the visitation of the sick and dying in gaols and hospitals, and in the celebration of marriages. Nevertheless, Father Therry remained their pastor in the eyes of the colony’s Catholics.

In December 1826, another Catholic Chaplain arrived from Ireland, Father Daniel Power. The two priests had more work than they could deal with, but Father Therry's impetuosity and Father Power's inadequate health led them into a series of collisions, particularly when the building of St Mary's Chapel came to a standstill and Father Therry demanded more vigorous action. Father Power died in March 1830 and Father Therry was again left alone with his mounting debts and worries. His genius for publicity and organisation is illustrated in the repeated representations made on his behalf by the principal officials and magistrates, and supported in March 1830 by over 1400 householders. The Colonial government permitted him to continue to act as chaplain – but without status or salary. A further Chaplain, Father Christopher Dowling OP, arrived from Ireland in September 1831.

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral (at right) founded by Father Therry and Governor Macquarie in 1821.
The adjacent buildings of the Hospital & Hyde Park Barracks are also shewn in this 1840 aquatint.
Image : The Sydney Museum.

The arrival of Sir Richard Bourke as the new Governor of the Colony (1831), the news of the British Government’s Catholic Emancipation Act (1829), and the appointment of the Irish Catholics Roger Therry as Commissioner of the Court of Requests (1829) and of John Hubert Plunkett as Solicitor-General (1832), both loyal friends of Father Therry, offered new opportunities for Catholic progress. Yet Father Therry was still frustrated and unrecognised when a further Chaplain, Father John McEncroe arrived in June 1832. Father McEncroe was quite capable of managing the indomitable but stubborn veteran and the two became lifelong colleagues and confidants. A dispute about the land on which St Mary's Chapel was being built had become deadlocked through Father Therry's obstinacy. Disastrous litigation was in prospect when Bishop Morris, the Vicar-Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, Mauritius, and New Holland, appointed the English Benedictine, Father William Ullathorne, as his Vicar-General in the Colony. Despite his youth, Father Ullathorne's confidence and ecclesiastical authority enabled him to take over the reins from Father Therry when he arrived in February 1833. The first bishop, John Bede Polding, came in 1835 and Father Therry went willingly as pastor of Campbelltown, with an area extending beyond Yass in his immediate care. By Governor Bourke's Church Act of 1836, the principle of religious equality had been accepted in the Colony, and in April 1837 Father Therry was restored to a government salary.

Since by 1838 several others priests had arrived to minister to the Colony’s Catholics, Bishop Polding was able to send Father Therry to Van Diemen's Land as Vicar-General. In Hobart, Father Conolly had become estranged from his people, and the all-too-common difficulties about jurisdiction, salaries and the deeds of church land had arisen. Father Therry reconciled Father Conolly before the latter's death in August 1839. He visited the interior of Tasmania and attended to the convicts. His church building at Hobart and Launceston was assisted by the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John Franklin's spasmodic patronage, but on St Joseph's Hobart, and on the schools demanded by the free settlers, he overreached himself. Loneliness, responsibility, illness and debt pressed heavily on him and he found himself again struggling for justice and religious equality in the government institutions. In July 1841 he visited Sydney briefly to get help and to try to clear up some of his business entanglements. There he was consulted by Caroline Chisholm, whom he was able to help and advise about her first plans to work among the emigrants. Though sick, he was thinking of a mission to New Zealand and perhaps the Pacific Islands, and formed an interest which in 1860 prompted him to implore Governor Sir William Denison to put an end to the Maori wars and to offer his own services as mediator.

Robert Willson arrived as first Bishop of Hobart Town in May 1844. He had not expected the church debts to be so great or so complicated, and he and Father Therry fell out. A long and dreary dispute arose, defying resolution and the efforts of a number of intermediaries. In September 1846, Father Therry went to Melbourne as pastor and remained there until April 1847.

The old church of Saint Augustine at Balmain circa 1870.
This was Father Therry's last Parish and he died in the adjacent presbytery in 1864.
Image : The State Library of NSW
Digital restoration by the Saint Bede Studio.

Father Therry was at Windsor NSW as pastor until June 1848 when he returned to live in Tasmania for a further six years. His efforts to settle affairs there were unsuccessful and he subsequently was appointed in May 1856 to Balmain where he spent the rest of his life. Mellowed and serene, he continued to be an energetic pastor, watching the growth of the church in whose establishment he had played such a definitive part, the coming of the Religious orders, and the enlargement both of the Pugin-designed church at Balmain and of the first St Mary's Cathedral, generously contributing whenever he could to every new development. He became spiritual director to the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent's Hospital, and in 1858 he was accorded the dignity by Pope Pius IX of Archpriest. In 1859 he was elected a founding fellow of the Council of St John's College within the University of Sydney. He had been given or had bought a number of properties which he tried to develop for the provision of more schools and churches for the growing Catholic community. Notable among these were his farms at Bong Bong and Albury, another property, which is now the suburb of Lidcombe, and 1500 acres (607 ha) at Pittwater, where he tried unsuccessfully to mine coal.

This Gothic Revival monument
was erected over the graves
of Archpriest Therry and 
Archdeacon McEncroe in
the former Devonshire Street
Cemetery.
Both priests are now buried in 
the crypt
of Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Simple and unselfish, a firm democrat and a zealous priest, John Joseph Therry was a man of large notions and considerable achievement. He was an unsophisticated man with no clear ideas of social systems or political reform. Yet his energy and persistence proved a continual source of trouble to those who opposed his ideas of what was right or possible. “Pious, zealous, and obstinate”, despite his peculiarities and limitations he undertook many obligations and responsibilities which would in the circumstances have crushed greater men. His enthusiasm and sincerity assure him of a firm place among the founders of the Catholic Church and in the history of civil liberties in Australia. He firmly believed in a distant future for which he built, often regardless of existing conditions. Truly legendary in his own lifetime, Father Therry died peacefully on 25th May 1864, at the Balmain Presbytery and was buried from old Saint Mary’s Cathedral in the Devonshire Street Cemetery (now the area of Central Station). His was the largest funeral Sydney had seen to that date. His remains are now in the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral.

AMDG

NOTES

1. Amongst prominent historians who have written books or articles detailing the life of Father Therry are : Sir Roger Therry, Dean John Kenny, PF Cardinal Moran, Archbishop Eris O'Brien, "John O'Brien", Father James Murtagh, Timothy Suttor, Patrick O'Farrell, James Waldersee, James Hugh Donohoe, Father Ralph Wiltgen, Monsignor Con Duffy. This list is very far from complete.

2. Three photographs of Father Therry are known to have been taken.  The first was a daguerreotype from a sitting at the studio of Wheeler & Co in Sydney in 1853 or 1854. From this daguerreotype, an engraving was made and prints published; consequently, this 1853-54 image is frequently reproduced.  Two photographs were taken in one sitting in the studio of the Freeman Brothers in Sydney.  One of those photographs was in Father Therry's own collection, the other, having been in private hands, is now in the Archives of the Archdiocese of Sydney.  Of the Freeman's Studio sitting, there might have been more photographic prints produced which have since been lost. All these photographic images were used after the time of Father Therry's death to paint portraits of him.  Sad to say, none of the artists was up to the task and the various 19th century paintings of Father Therry are unremarkable.  A more recent effort by Sydney artist Paul Newton is also based on the Freeman Brothers photographs and adorns the walls of Domus Australia in Rome, along with those of other Catholic pioneers.

The venerable church of saint patrick at church hill

 

This is a modern restoration of a professional photograph of Saint Patrick's Church Hill taken in the 1870s.

Image : Collection of the State Library of NSW.

AMDG.

Archbishop Polding writes about war

On this Anzac Day, we are pleased to post this letter which Archbishop Polding wrote to the Faithful of the Archdiocese of Sydney in 1856, noting and asking them to give thanks for the conclusion of the Crimean War.  Although few residents of Australia would ever have seen the Crimea, nevertheless a volunteer force of cavalry, artillery and infantry was formed in and around Sydney and travelled to the Crimea to fight as part of the British Army.  The Crimean War would largely be forgotten now, except for two things : the famous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava; and the heroic work of the English nurse Florence Nightingale "The Lady with the Lamp".  The Archbishop makes reference to the nurses working with Florence Nightingale in the following letter.

Officers and men of Her Majesty's 13th Light Dragoons.
These men were some of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Photographed in 1855 at Balaklava by Roger Fenton.

Dearly Beloved Children in Jesus Christ,

A mighty war has ceased! We have to speak to you of these good tidings. You have already heard and welcomed them – the most joyful news of restored peace. Already, from every worthy heart, the spontaneous outburst of gladness and gratitude has gone forth in congratulations to your fellow men, in thanksgiving before the throne of God. A mighty war, unexampled for its costliness in blood and in treasure, has come to an end. May it have accomplished what is the only legitimate end of war : the security of peace! At this distance from Europe, we have been spared the horrid spectacles of murderous contest; few of us have had to don the sad garb of mourning for the loss of friends and dear relations crushed to death in the miserable strife; but yet, in that United Kingdom which is our common fatherland, to which we still attach the endearing name of home and in the fair realm of noble France, how many hearths lie desolate! How many victims have been sacrificed! And with these sufferings, with these bereavements, we have been constrained to sympathy by the ordinary feelings of humanity, by the charity of the common heart of Christendom. 

Florence Nightingale c. 1858

It is most true, that in the midst of great griefs springs up great consolations; this is God’s gift of compensation by which He deduces good from the dreariest evil. If we have witnessed carnage and mortal agony, we have also been called to honour the greatness of self-devotion and the heavenly endurance of charity. Young men – young solders – who may have taken up their profession, it is like enough, with very inadequate thoughts about it, have been ripened by the stern exigencies of their service, into the deliberate martyrs of duty. Death-beds have been painful and sad enough; and yet, have they not been tended and lightened during this war by the assiduity of the priests of God, whose profession of self-sacrifice was gloriously realised? And by the gentle courage of those heroic women who, some of them marked and honoured in their generation (and many more un-noted in their work, and therefore the more like their Lord), passed from sufferer to sufferer in the busy offices of Christian pity and love? Thank God for these bright and grand spectacles, and thank God also that the necessity of them is over. May we be the men of good will from whose hearts and lives in this renewed peace on earth shall ascend glory to God in the highest.

But, Dearly Beloved, these natural emotions, allowable and even laudable, are simply the occasion which, we trust, will awaken graver thoughts in your minds. … War is the teacher which impresses on the minds of nations, faith in the presence of God. The discipline of our individual lives trains us in the conviction that God is the last end of our respective souls and the collective sufferings of warfare prove to nations that their final cause is not to be sought in any temporal object. Let us then now accept this lesson of Providence. If men in truth desire the salvation of their souls and peace upon earth, consider whether unrestrained indulgence in the sensuous comforts of peace, and the hard-hearted insensibility to the sufferings of fellow-men, which is its unfailing attendant; whether security and pride as the fancied architects of their own fortunes; whether their all-absorbing care for the temporal, and their little anxiety for the spiritual; whether their self-glorification in national prospects, and their few thoughts for the Church of Christ throughout the world, may not have been the last drops in that brimming cup of iniquity which the Almighty Lord of Heaven and Earth has been punishing by war. And if the same causes are at work amongst us, may not similar effects follow? 

The Village of Balaklava with the British Fleet at anchor in the harbour.
Photographed in 1855 by Roger Fenton.

But thank God the war is over … It is over and it is well, if we learn His lesson.  Bearing it in mind, rejoice, Dearly Beloved, but rejoice in the Lord always; let your gladness be tempered by a reverential filial fear.  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts.  He is merciful, but He is also holy, and holiness cannot forever spare the impenitent.  May the blessing of our dearest Lord, the Father of the world to come and the Prince of Peace, abide with you forever. Amen.

+John Bede Polding DD 
Archbishop of Sydney.

NOTES

1. Extracts from Archbishop Polding's Pastoral Letter commemorating the conclusion of the Crimean War as contained in the anthology The Eye of Faith. The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  

2. The Crimean War, which was waged in various theatres between 1853 and 1856, resulted in the deaths of a quarter-of-a-million soldiers. An alliance of British, French and Ottoman forces was arrayed against Russia over its attempt to enlarge its Empire and take control of the Black Sea.  A good summary of this bloody conflict can be read here. 

3. An extraordinary collection of photographs taken in 1855 at the Crimea by the English solicitor-turned-photographer Roger Fenton may be consulted at this website.


AMDG

Historic images of Saint Mary's Cathedral : 3

Saint Mary's Cathedral 1914 - 1917.
Image : State Library of NSW

We continue our series of historic photographs of Saint Mary's Cathedral with this street photograph taken between 1914 and 1917. 

This photograph, taken in Hyde Park and looking south-east, shews the Cathedral as it appeared in its completed state of 1900.  On the right in the middle-ground is the statue of William Bede Dalley, which still stands on this spot in the Park.  On the sunny afternoon in the park, some people are taking their ease, sitting on benches.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

AMDG

NOTES

The photographs in this series are taken from a variety of sources, some in online Archival collections, some from books, some original images in the editor's collection.  They are presented here in a "modernised" digital form, and with as much detail of the structure of the Cathedrals enhanced in order to make them more accessible to a new generation of Australian Catholics.  The original image on which this digital rendering is based is held by the State Library of NSW.  Thanks are due to Special Collections of the State Library for undertaking a search to locate this and other rare images.  Please do not reproduce these unique images without permission. 

The beginnings of the Church in Australia : a brief sketch 1792 - 1834

In previous articles at In diebus illis, we have traced the beginnings of Christianity in the Colony of New South Wales.  We noted the numbers of Catholics who were part of the First Fleet in 1788.  We read a heartfelt letter from an English Catholic priest, asking to be allowed to travel to Botany Bay to minister to Catholic convicts.  We also gained a vivid glimpse into the ministry of the first Christian Chaplain to the Colony, the Reverend Richard Johnson.

The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the events and personages of the Catholic community in the Colony of NSW from 1792 until 1834, the moment when Australia's first bishop, John Bede Polding OSB, was appointed.  For this overview, we use material from the Australian Dictionary of Biography and from some Catholic historians.   EN1   The contents of this post will be elaborated upon with forthcoming articles.  A further article will discuss the varying social conditions of Catholics during the first fifty years of the Colony.

As we have traced in previous articles, the spread of the Gospel was not a focus of the early Governors of the penal colony of New South Wales, still less, support for the practice of Catholicism.  There was no practical interest in religion per se, except as a means of improving the moral tone of the Colony - a struggle which was ongoing.  The absence of any formal Catholic community in Australia before the arrival of the two Catholic chaplains in 1820, also reflected the lack of legal rights afforded Catholics in Britain and the suspicion which British Authority had towards the blend of Irish Nationalism and Irish Catholicism.  Although the largest proportion of Catholic felons transported from Britain and Ireland from 1788 were Irish, not all were and there were also a small number of soldiers and officials of the Colony who were Catholic.  In 1792, a group of Catholics resident in Parramatta petitioned the Governor of NSW to make some provision for the religious sensibilities of Catholics; unsurprisingly, it was ignored, but this was the first moment when Catholics asserted their desire to practise their Religion.

Following the 1798 Uprising against British Rule in Wexford on the west coast of Ireland, many more Irish Catholics were transported to New South Wales and among them were three priests, Fathers JAMES HAROLD, JAMES DIXON, and PETER O'NEIL.  All three were accused - unjustly - of complicity in that Uprising.  They have been known to Australian history as The Convict Priests. The fortunes of these these three in the Colony varied somewhat, and it was only Father Dixon who was was given official permission to offer Mass publicly in 1803. Rome conferred on him the title of Prefect Apostolic of New Holland, which sounded very grand, but had very little benefit to the Catholics of the Colony.  

Father Jeremiah O'Flynn
A sketch which appears in 
The Progress of Catholicity in Australia
published 1886.

What seemed the beginnings of a Catholic community collapsed when discontented Irish convicts took up arms at Castle Hill (near Parramatta) in 1804.  Even though Father Dixon attempted to broker peace between the Castle Hill rebels and the Colonial Authority, Government toleration of Catholicism evaporated and the ministry of Father Dixon came to an official end.  All three priests had left the Colony by 1810, without any permissions granted for a further public ministry.  Seven bleak years ensued when there was no Catholic priest resident in the Colony, and yet, there were prominent Catholics - mainly former convicts - who worked quietly and successfully at building up a Catholic community.  We mention here William Davis and his wife Catherine (nee Miles), Jane Langley, James Dempsey, Michael Dwyer, James Sheedy, Michael Hayes, Edward Doyle, James Meehan, Catherine Fitzpatrick and her family.  

The essential distrust of Irish Catholics held both by the British and successive New South Wales Colonial governors, was not eased by the short ministry in Sydney of the Irish priest, JEREMIAH O'FLYNN.   Father O’Flynn, formerly a Cistercian monk, arrived in Sydney in 1817 with Rome's approbation as Prefect Apostolic.  Always given to imprudence and impetuous behaviour, Father O'Flynn failed to obtain prior approval from the British Government to enter and minister to Catholics in the Colony.  When he arrived - unannounced - he was not made welcome by the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie.  Father O'Flynn assured Macquarie that authorisation for his appointment would be forthcoming from London, but without licence, he ministered in semi-secrecy to the Catholics of Sydney and surrounding districts.  He was eventually arrested and deported by Colonial Authorities to England.  He left behind a Catholic community disheartened by the loss of their pastor, but also a Divine present : the Reserved Sacrament in a pyx guarded reverently in the home of one of the pioneer Catholics of Sydney. 

The notorious case of Father O'Flynn had other significant outcomes so far as the Catholic Community in the Colony was concerned. Upon his return to Britain, there was public distaste for the manner in which Fr O'Flynn had been treated, but perhaps more concern was expressed for the plight of Catholics in the far-off colony who had no chaplain.  Pressure brought to bear on the Government made them more disposed to providing Catholic chaplains, but they also cooperated with Catholic Authorities in Rome and London to facilitate this.  The British Government's continuing unease about Irish Catholicism led them to cooperate with the Vicar Apostolic of London in arranging for a chaplain or chaplains to be sent to NSW.  

Father John Joseph Therry
An aquatint of him painted in
Ireland around 1815.

In 1818, Rome created an Apostolic Vicariate ( a form of Diocese) at the Cape of Good Hope and responsibility for the Catholics of far-off New South Wales was entrusted to the new Vicar-Apostolic, English Benedictine FATHER EDWARD BEDE SLATER. The new bishop's jurisdiction included Mauritius, Madagascar, the Cape of Good Hope, New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. Notwithstanding the British Government's intentions that English Catholic priests be sent to NSW, the incapacity of the English Benedictines to send priests to the outposts of this vast ecclesiastical territory caused Bishop Slater to seek chaplains in Ireland. Two Irish volunteers, Fathers JOHN JOSEPH THERRY and PHILIP CONOLLY, were accepted by Bishop Slater OSB and appointed by the British Government, each with a salary of £100. These two priests were to be the Bishop's missionaries in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. They were responsible both to him and to the Colonial Government. The two chaplains arrived in Sydney in May 1820.  

Embarking on their work with great enthusiasm, unfortunately it became clear very quickly that the two priests did not work well together.  In 1821, within months of the pair's arrival in Sydney, Father Connolly left the mainland to establish a mission in Van Diemen’s Land, specifically in Hobarton, where the small Catholic population was almost entirely convict.  Father Therry was left to minister to the needs of Catholics in all the existing and newly-settled areas of NSW.  Despite his immense energy and missionary zeal, he was barely equal to the demands upon him.  Although admirable for his perseverance in adverse circumstances, his hot-headedness and impatience with Authority led to his too-prominent association with groups opposed to Colonial policies.  A series of aggravating incidents led to the withdrawal of his Government salary in 1826, and a determined effort to expel him from the Colony.  

Father Therry would not be moved, however, and continued his ministry whilst being supported by the Catholic Faithful, who held him in the highest esteem.  Partly because of their regard for him, the Catholic community did not warm greatly to the two Irish priests who replaced Fr Therry in succession as Chaplain from 1826.  These were  FATHER DANIEL POWER and then FATHER CHRISTOPHER VINCENT DOWLING OP.  Notwithstanding these divisions, the priests continued a zealous ministry.  In 1821, the first Catholic school in Australia commenced in Parramatta and the foundation stone of the first Catholic Chapel - subsequently known as Saint Mary's - was laid by no less a personage than Governor Macquarie.

Father John McEncroe
Arrived as a Catholic Chaplain
in 1832

From the late 1820s, as the number of Irish Catholics in the colony continued to rise (though mainly convicts and working class people), a trickle of educated and politically-significant Irishmen migrated to Sydney, notably ROGER THERRY and JOHN HUBERT PLUNKETT, both of whom were appointed to senior legal offices in the Colony.  FATHER JOHN McENCROE accompanied Mr Plunkett as an additional official chaplain (1832).  Father McEncroe, who had previously spent some years working in the American colonies, managed what his two predecessors (Fathers Power and Dowling OP) had failed to do, namely to maintain a good working relationship with Father Therry.  

In the same year, 1832, a new Vicar Apostolic at the Cape of Good Hope appointed FATHER WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE OSB (a monk of Downside Monastery in England) as his Vicar-General in the colony of New South Wales.  This appointment was ratified by the British Government.  Although very young, when Father Ullathorne arrived in Sydney in 1833, he tactfully and capably put the affairs of the Church in order with the assistance of Father McEncroe and sometimes grudging cooperation from Father Therry.  But Father Ullathorne soon saw the infant Church in Australia needed its own resident bishop, and wrote to Rome and England accordingly.  After some consideration and negotiation, the Holy See and the British Government reached agreement and FATHER JOHN BEDE POLDING, another Benedictine monk of Downside Monastery, was appointed the Vicar Apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land in 1834.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Standing on what is now Saint Mary's Road, an artist painted the watercolour shewn above in July 1834, looking towards what we know as the site of the ANZAC Memorial in the southern precinct of Hyde Park.  This watercolour is part of the collection of the National Library of Australia.

In the centre of this painting is Saint Mary's Catholic Chapel, whose exterior walls of light-coloured stone had only been completed in the previous year.  A year later, it would become the Cathedral Church of the newly-arrived Bishop Polding.  The proportions of Saint Mary's are not quite accurately portrayed in this painting : it was of a much more "squat" appearance.

The focus of these paintings is a collection of buildings which were constructed in stages during the 1820s and included a temporary chapel (under the patronage of Saint Joseph), a schoolroom and the residence for the various pioneering priests. 

AMDG

ENDNOTE

EN1  Biographical notes prepared in 1967 by the late Mr Bede Nairn for The Australian Dictionary of Biography were used as the skeleton for this article.

Historic Images of Saint Mary's Cathedral : 2

 

Hyde Park and Saint Mary's Cathedral April 1922.
Image : The Powerhouse Museum Sydney.

We continue our series of historic photographs with this image taken in April 1922.

This photograph, looking south-west, depicts Saint Mary's on the left, during the course of extensions to the nave.  At this point, there was very little visible of what would become the twin-towered southern facade.  

This interesting image shews Hyde Park in a right-old mess, just before the commencement of excavations for the Underground railway.  The  line from Central Station to Saint James and then Museum Station runs directly beneath the central avenue of the Park.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

AMDG

NOTES

The photographs in this series are taken from a variety of sources, some in online Archival collections, some from books, some original images in the editor's collection.  They are presented here in a "modernised" digital form, and with as much detail of the structure of the Cathedrals enhanced in order to make them more accessible to a new generation of Australian Catholics.  The original image on which this digital rendering is based is held by the State Library of NSW.  Thanks are due to Special Collections of the State Library for undertaking a search to locate this and other rare images.  Please do not reproduce these unique images without permission. 

The faltering beginnings of christianity in australia : 1788-1793

Memorial to the first Christian Service held in New South Wales
at the corner of Hunter and Bligh Streets, Sydney.

In a small reserve adjacent to the intersection of Hunter and Bligh Streets in central Sydney is a spired monument in the Gothic style which bears the following inscription :

To the glory of God 

and in commemoration of 

the first Christian Service held in Australia 

February 3rd 1788

Rev. Richard Johnson BA 

the Chaplain 

being the preacher.

The text of the sermon : 

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?

Psalm CXVI 12.

The Service - most probably what was known in The Book of Common Prayer as Mattins or Morning Prayer - took place a week after the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove (1) and beneath the shade of a great tree.  The monument is located on the site of the first church (see below), but not marking the exact spot where the Chaplain conducted the first Divine Service in the new colony.  (2)  A record indicates that a band of soldiers accompanied the singing of hymns at this service.  The full text of Mr Johnson's sermon has not been preserved, but it is most fortunate that the scriptural text he chose as the basis for his sermon has.  It was Psalm 116.  It is most indicative of his own piety and sense of the occasion :

What shall I return unto the Lord for all his bounty unto me?  I will raise the cup of Salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord ... I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.

It is perhaps noteworthy and even indicative that a whole week elapsed before the first Christian Service was celebrated in that area which Captain Arthur Philip had claimed for the British Crown. (3)

An artist's impression of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove, January 1788.

Image : First Fleet Fellowship of Victoria

Let us trace how Richard Johnson came to be appointed as Chaplain to the First Fleet and new Colony.  Most readers will be familiar with the protestant hymn Amazing Grace, written in 1772 by an English parson, the Reverend John Newton.  Mr Newton was a leading figure in the Evangelical revival within the Church of England in the eighteenth century.  His story is, in its own right, most interesting (but beyond our scope here).  In 1786, Newton wrote :

A minister who should go to Botany Bay without a call from the Lord and without receiving from Him an apostolical spirit, the spirit of a missionary, enabling him to forsake all, to give up all, to put himself into the Lord’s hands, to sink or swim, had better run his head against a stone wall.

Mr Newton persuaded the government of the day to send such a Chaplain with the First Fleet and recommended the Reverend Richard Johnson as that man.  At that time, Mr Johnson was in his early thirties and serving as a curate in a London Parish.  A native of Yorkshire, he had been educated at Cambridge.  In the same month that Captain Arthur Philip was appointed to the charge of the First Fleet (October 1786), Mr Johnson was appointed by the British Government to be its Chaplain. (4) He sought a wife to accompany him to New South Wales and they married quickly. 

The First Fleet of eleven ships and approximately 1400 persons - convicts, sailors, marines, officials with wives and servants - left Portsmouth Harbour under the command of Captain Philip in May 1787.  Mr and Mrs Johnson were on board the vessel The Golden Grove.  On The Golden Grove he was able to conduct a service each Sunday, and to read prayers every evening. When the Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro, he visited the other ships to minister to those on board, marines and convicts alike.  It seems obvious that Richard Johnson did not see himself as part of the Authority of the new Colony of NSW, but rather as a preacher of the Gospel, with a zeal for the salvation of souls. (5) A man who wished for comfort or prestige would never have accepted such an appointment.  But a man who fervently lived the Gospels might; and such a man was Richard Johnson.

A portrait of Captain Arthur Philip RN painted in 1786;
Commander of the First Fleet and First Governor of NSW.
The Collection of the State Library of NSW.

Captain Arthur Philip, however, possessed no such fervour, nor saw merit in such a ministry in the Colony of NSW.  He was a navy man and he had his Orders.  After Captain Philip was appointed to command the First Fleet and to establish the Settlement at Botany Bay as its Governor, he had the responsibility of assembling those whom he thought would benefit the establishment of the Colony.  He managed this most effectively.  Arthur Philip foresaw that what began as a settlement for the cast-offs of England would develop into place of great value to the British Crown.  He wrote : "Nor do I doubt but that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made."  Few in the British Government, however, shared this view. Arthur Philip wished to reform the convicts, not simply gaol and punish them.  He also wished to befriend Australia's Indigenous peoples. But Philip's was also a very pragmatic vision; he was no dreamer.

The mental picture formed by those statesmen and bureaucrats in England who planned the Penal Settlement, namely, that Botany Bay (6) was a fertile land where crops would readily grow to support the needs of the residents, were not realised in the land immediately surrounding the settlement at Sydney Cove.  We need only ponder the difficulty of establishing a self-sustaining settlement in an unknown land, completely unlike England, with a harsh climate and its own peoples who had lived on the continent for tens of thousands of years.  At various points in the first two years after settlement, the starvation of both convicts and the troops guarding them seemed a real possibility; there was insufficient to feed those who arrived in January 1788 and subsequently in 1789 and 1790. The planting of crops around Sydney Cove had failed and convicts, sailors, even Mr Johnson himself, went out into Port Jackson in boats to catch fish to feed the Settlement.

A map of the Settlement at Sydney Cove in July 1788 - just six months after the landing - shews clearly a tract of land in approximately the area bounded by the present Harrington, Essex, Grosvenor and George Streets which had been set aside for the building of a church.  From this, we can surmise that the construction of a church had been discussed between Governor Philip and Mr Johnson. (7)

An engraving of the Settlement at Sydney Cove based on a detailed map drawn up
in July 1788.  The ornament and the no. 7 indicate the spot which
had been selected for the construction of a church. 
It was eventually built elsewhere in 1793.

One of the telling aspects of the attitude of the Government of the new Colony, however, was that it took fully five years before a building specifically for the purpose of Divine Service came to be constructed.  And even then - 1793 - it was paid for out of the pocket of the Chaplain, Mr Johnson.  It was also not on the land indicated on the 1788 map.  By the time that church had been completed, Arthur Philip had relinquished government of the colony and returned to England.  A request from Mr Johnson of Philip in 1792 for convict labour and some financial support to build churches both in Sydney and Parramatta was declined by the Governor.

A sketch by the architect and historian Morton Herman of
the first Christian Church in Australia, erected in 1793 on the corner of Hunter
and Bligh Streets Sydney.
The T-shaped building was able to seat a few hundred souls
and was dedicated to Saint Philip.

In five years as the first Governor, Arthur Philip had accomplished much in establishing the settlements of New South Wales from their natural states to a self-supporting colony.  He was a fair man, persevering, determined, just and possessed of courage. He was not capricious, or cruel or readily prone to discouragement. In less steady hands, it is most likely that the Settlement in 1788 would have collapsed, leaving an awkward situation for all concerned.  For all his virtues, however, Arthur Philip seemed not to have been a man of any religious conviction.  He did not approve of the Chaplain's desire to evangelise the convicts of the new Colony, or those in charge of them.  He asked Mr Johnson to focus his attention on instilling a sound morality instead, which was of more obvious social benefit.

In other cultures, in other ages and even other contemporary nations (such as Spain and France), building a temple, a shrine or a House of God would seem a sensible way of seeking God's help for a struggling society.  Men of the Enlightenment, however, such as Governor Philip and his officers, lacked such a sensibility.  Mr Johnson conducted Divine Service initially in a tent and sometimes in rooms which were made available on a Sunday.  In those earliest days, no one was compelled to attend and evidence is lacking as to how many of the Settlement's inhabitants actually did.

In the next posts in this series, we shall further discuss the Christian ministry of the Reverend Richard Johnson in the infant Colony; the landing of Count La Perouse at Botany Bay, the Catholic convict James Ruse and the stirrings of Catholicism in those early years.

AMDG

NOTES

1. Sydney Cove includes the spot we now refer to as Circular Quay. 

2. It would seem doubtful that the site of the Memorial marks the spot of the first Christian Service, which was more likely closer to the Sydney Cove. A map of the Settlement made in March 1788, indicates that the corner of the present Hunter and Bligh Streets was an area outside the Settlement. There does not seem to be documentary evidence to be definite about this point. The Memorial, however, certainly indicates the place where Rev'd Mr Johnson built the first church in 1793.

3. The new colony of New South Wales initially comprised all of the Eastern half of the continent, as far as what is now South Australia.

4. Some early historians, repeated by others over the years, have asserted that the inclusion of a Chaplain to the First Fleet was an after-thought, decided upon not long before the Fleet sailed from England.  This is completely inaccurate, since both the Chaplain and the Commander of the First Fleet were both appointed in October 1786, when the matter was still in the planning stages.

5. In the language of the Church of England, Mr Johnson would be described as an Evangelical, but one of the Officers of the new Colony, Lieutenant Tench went so far as to describe him as a "Methodist".

6. In August 1788, Captain Philip wrote to the Authorities in England, describing in detail the map of July 1788.  All the buildings he planned and his intentions for the laying out of streets &c. are mentioned in this letter.  But there is no mention of the construction of a church in the letter.

7. Based upon Captain Cook's discovery in 1770, and the observations of the botanist on that voyage, Sir Joseph Banks, the British Government had settled upon Botany Bay as the place for the Penal Settlement.  Often New South Wales was referred to colloquially as Botany Bay.  But when the First Fleet reached New South Wales and Captain Philip assessed Botany Bay, he found it not in the least suited to the needs of a large new settlement.  A short expedition Northward in a long boat lead to the discovery of Port Jackson (which we now refer to as Sydney Harbour) and, in particular Sydney Cove.  Captain Philip sailed the Fleet into Port Jackson and landed at Sydney Cove, claiming it for the British Crown on 26th January 1788.


REFERENCES

The following online articles give useful accounts of the lives of Arthur Philip and Richard Johnson.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/phillip-arthur-2549

http://acl.asn.au/resources/richard-johnson-first-chaplain-to-australia/

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogI-K.html#johnson1

The following monographs were used in preparing this article :

Cedric Flower The Illustrated History of NSW, Rigby Publishers Limited, Sydney, 1981.

GB Barton The History of New South Wales from the Records, volume 1 Governor Philip 1783-1789, by Authority, Sydney,  1889.

Old Saint Mary's and the Benedictine Monastery

Image : Sydney Archdiocesan Archives

This engraved sketch was drawn in Hyde Park in or shortly after 1840.  

Engraved by William Baker of King Street, Sydney, it is a quite accurate depiction of the Cathedral precinct at that time.  

Standing at the fence of Hyde Park and centrally positioned, are two figures in black, who are Benedictine monks; their religious habit is shewn very clearly.  On the left of the image is depicted the buildings commenced by Father Therry for a residence, schoolhouse and chapel, but which were subsequently used for the Benedictine Monastery.  Between these buildings and the Cathedral, is a small market garden and a figure can just be made out at work there.  

The engraving, in the collections of the Sydney Archdiocesan Archives, was photographed by Giovanni Portelli and digitally enhanced for presentation in this post. 

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

AMDG.

Historic Images of Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney

Saint Mary's Cathedral from Hyde Park, 1930.
Image : The Saint Bede Studio.

This photograph was taken in 1930 by an amateur photographer.  Looking south-east, it shews the Cathedral in its completed state after the additions which were constructed between 1914 and 1928.  

In order to depict what is in the photograph more clearly, we include the photograph below, which depicts the additions in the early stages of their construction. It is taken from almost the identical angle to the 1930 photograph.  Hyde Park also has changed in those eight or nines years : trees have grown up, but other trees and landscaping have disappeared.  This was the consequence of much of the centre of the Park being dug up in the early 1920s during the extension of the City Circle underground railway.

Saint Mary's Cathedral circa 1921.
Image : State Library of NSW

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

AMDG

NOTES

The photographs on this blog are taken from a variety of sources, some in online Archival collections, some from books, some original images in the editor's collection.  They are presented here in a "modernised" digital form, and with as much detail of the structure of the Cathedrals enhanced in order to make them more accessible to a new generation of Australian Catholics.  The original image on which this digital rendering is based is held by the State Library of NSW.  Thanks are due to Special Collections of the State Library for undertaking a search to locate this and other rare images.  Please do not reproduce these unique images without permission.