Seeking the Bishop's Likeness

Figure 1.
The illustration of Bishop Davis
which appears in Cardinal Moran's
History of the Catholic Church in Australasia.

Making an occasional appearance on this blog is the English Benedictine who assisted Archbishop Polding as coadjutor in Sydney between 1848 and 1854. Charles Henry Davis (1815-1854 ) was born into an old Welsh Catholic family and became a monk of the Benedictine Community in Downside (Bath) before being selected as the first Bishop of Maitland and coadjutor-bishop of Sydney. He arrived in Sydney at the end of 1848. Unfortunately, the Australian climate did not suit the bishop and he was plagued with serious illness leading to his untimely death from heart disease at the early age of 39.

I came to know about Bishop Davis whilst I was still a school boy with a keen interest in history. Over the years, I have admired and studied the life of this kindly, scholarly, talented and pious man and met others who have also admired him. At another post on this blog may be found a summary of his life. A further post describes his claim to be the first Bishop of Maitland. We do hope to publish further articles on this blog about this saintly bishop whose memory should be reverenced by Australian Catholics.

This article describes my quest to determine the authentic likeness of Bishop Davis.  The several likenesses which exist are illustrations and a painting; but there is no extant photograph of him. If a photograph did exist, it disappeared more than a 130 years ago.

Figure 2.
The illustration of the Bishop in
Dom Henry Norbert Birt's study
Benedictine Pioneers in Australia.

In addition, a number of older historical studies feature images of the bishop. An illustration, for example is found facing page 118 in the second volume of Dom Henry Norbert Birt’s book Benedictine Pioneers in Australia (1911).

Another illustration appears facing page 88 in Cardinal Moran’s History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (1895), which opens this article.

The illustration found in Dom Birt’s work is a re-drawing of an earlier likeness of the bishop. The same also applies to the image found in Cardinal Moran’s history.  This will be further discussed.

Also well-known is the beautiful stained glass window in the eastern transept of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. This depicts +Charles Davis as a mediaeval bishop vested in pontificals.  The bishop's  fellow-Benedictines  +John Bede Polding  and  +William Bernard Ullathorne  are also depicted.  Never intended to be seen at close-range, this window - produced by the English producer of stained glass Hardman - gives a fair likeness of the three bishops in a compressed form.

Figure 3.
The stained glass window in S. Mary's Cathedral
Sydney depicting Charles Henry Davis OSB.
Image : Giovanni Portelli.

THE THREE PRINCIPAL LIKENESSES

Amongst the handful of portraits of Bishop Davis only three are thought to be portraits “from life”. I define this as an image produced by a person who is looking at, or who had previously sketched, the subject. The first of these is a framed oil painting in the Benedictine Abbey at Downside England. This was commenced (but not necessarily completed) before the bishop left England for Australia in August 1848. Nothing is known of the artist who painted this portrait since a signature was not left on the painting. Documentary evidence concerning its production do not exist at Downside Abbey. We may observe that the artist was neither well-known nor particularly talented at portraiture. This portrait is very dark and the facial details, although well-outlined, lack sufficient definition or texture.  The Benedictine historian mentioned above, Dom Henry Norbert Birt (1861-1919), described it as "a poor portrait."  

Figure 4.
The anonymous oil painting of the Bishop, 1848.
A contemporaneous portrait kept by 
Downside Abbey UK.
Image : Downside Abbey.

Another likeness, held both by Downside Abbey and the Abbey of Benedictine religious sisters in Jamberoo NSW, is a print of an engraving made by the famous London lithographer Thomas Fairland. It was printed and published by M & N Hanhart before the bishop left for Australia. This lithograph was the basis for the illustration that appears in Henry Birt’s history (see above). This is a very clear illustration, the face containing better detail than the oil painting. The lithograph bears the Bishop’s seal, signifying that he personally approved its publication.

Figure 5.
The 1848 engraving of Bishop Davis by Thomas Fairland.
This was prepared as a reverse image and printed for publication.
Image : Downside Abbey.

A third likeness was engraved in Australia in Sydney between 1852 and 1854 by Walter George Mason. It is the least clear of the originals portraits, which is a puzzle, given that Mason was a well-respected engraver from a family of artists who produced very fine engraving work. A copy of this portrait – which was most likely carved on wood - is kept in the State Library of NSW. As yet, I have been unable to trace the provenance of the engraving or verify whether its publication commemorated the death of the Bishop in May 1854. 

Figure 6.
The 1852-54 engraving by Walter George Mason of Sydney.
This is a good likeness of the Bishop, but prepared with
minimal facial details.
Image : State Library of NSW.

Comparing this engraving with the illustration in Cardinal Moran’s history (previously mentioned), it seems to be the case that the Mason engraving was the basis for Cardinal Moran’s illustration. But the Moran illustration includes much more facial detail than the face of the old engraving.  

Figure 7.
The Mason engraving compared with the illustration (right) in
Cardinal's Moran's History of the Catholic Church in Australasia.

SIMILARITIES IN THE PORTRAITS

Certain features are shared in common with the three portraits. We see the shape of his head; the dark colour of his eyes; the dark colour of his hair and his receding hairline. He has dark, thick and arched eyebrows. He has distinctive lips. Many of these features are common among people of Welsh ancestry. The bishop’s bodily frame was very slight and his shoulders sloping. He wears small oval-shaped metal spectacles. There is no record of his height.

A physical peculiarity of the Bishop came about as a result of an accident with a horse when a boy.  The fourth finger of his left hand was severed at the metacarpal joint. The Downside oil painting and the Mason engraving disguise the missing finger by the careful placement of the Bishop's hands.  The Fairland engraving, being a reversed image, works a sleight of hand and the Episcopal ring is placed on the wrong hand, carefully avoiding shewing the missing part of the finger.

In each likeness we also see that the bishop is depicted sitting and dressed in the choir dress of a Benedictine bishop, namely black cassock, with a bishop’s surplice (or rochet) and black mozetta. The rochet is different in each portrait. In one likeness he is wearing a black skull cap or zucchetto; in another a biretta; in the third, no headdress.

FACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE PORTRAITS

The complication arising from these three images is that the facial appearance of the bishop in each case differs one from the other, to a greater or lesser degree. Although the three portraits have common features (as described above) the differences between them make it difficult to judge at first glance which is an accurate likeness of the man.

Somewhat different in each portrait is the shape of the mouth, in particular the upper lip. The nose and ears in each portrait also have discernible differences.

Of the three portraits, the oil painting at Downside gives clearest details of the bishop’s Benedictine choir dress, his pectoral Cross and his episcopal ring, the style and colour of his hair, his complexion, the colour of his eyes, but the facial features are not particularly well captured, including the shape of the face.

The engraving made in Sydney does not clearly show the facial features of the bishop, but perhaps it does illustrate the face of an older man in poor health. It has strong contrast and is typical of those basic engravings or wood-cuts which were made to illustrate newspaper and printed journals of the earlier 19th century. It was common for such engravings to be made from a sketch. In this instance the sketch might have had more detail than was transferred in the engraving process. It might have survived and was used for the illustration in Cardinal Moran’s history. This is speculation, however.

ENGRAVINGS & THE THEORY OF A LOST DAGUERREOTYPE

The distinctive characteristics of the 1848 Fairland lithograph suggest that it was engraved from a daguerreotype photograph taken after his consecration as bishop in February 1848. I must qualify this theory by indicating that there is no documentary evidence of the existence of a daguerreotype.  This does not preclude it always having been in private hands rather than a collection.

At this point, I wish to describe the term engravings, which has been used above. Engraving was a process whereby an artisan (usually also an artist) would engrave an image onto stone or steel or wood. It was a time-consuming and sophisticated process. The process was developed to create images intended to be reproduced in a book as an illustration, or as a stand-alone prints . The same process was used to create plates to print paper currency. In the Eighteenth century, long before photography was understood, it became very fashionable to obtain prints. There was a desire among the public to obtain prints of famous people or of beautiful landscapes or monuments, for personal use or domestic decoration. We still do this today, with other mediums.

The daguerreotype photograph was a good fit for the industry of creating prints. Unlike later photography, the daguerreotype could not be could not be reproduced multiple times via a negative image or digital images, as we have today. The daguerreotype was a stand-alone image. The image was unique. If, however, a copy was needed to illustrate a book or to provide numerous prints then the daguerreotype image had to be engraved and then printed.

These daguerreotype photographs, where the image appears on polished metal (protected by glass) rather than photographic paper, are fascinating and much more life-like than the print-based photographs which became commonplace during the 1850s and normative thereafter.

For those who are not familiar with the photographic process termed daguerreotype, I include this link.

The following are images of an actual daguerreotype in its case, and give an indication of their unique character.

Figure 8.
A daguerreotype made in eastern USA in the 1850s.
It is enclosed in an embossed timber and cloth case.

Figure 9.
The opened case reveals the reversed daguerreotype image
behind glass with a facing panel of embossed velvet,
surrounded by a gilded frame.

Figure 10.
An enhanced reproduction of the photograph
flipped horizontally for an accurate depiction of the couple.

There is one further thing that I would like to clarify concerning the daguerreotype process and that is that the image that it produced was a reverse image of the subject : reversed horizontally. This was a limitation of the daguerreotype photographic system, although it does not seem to have troubled people at the time very much. When we look at a daguerreotype we must imagine it flipped horizontally in order to get an accurate likeness of the subject. We know that one side of a person’s face is different from the other; they are not two identical halves. If a photograph of a man is flipped horizontally, he looks somewhat different from the usual way we would see him.

I suggest that the Fairland 1848 lithograph of Bishop Davis is a reversed engraving of a daguerreotype photograph. Unlike the Downside oil painting, the Fairland lithograph was intended to be published and made available to the public in England and Australia. It also bore the bishop’s official seal. It was like receiving an autographed studio-produced photograph of someone, not an happy-snap.

This theory of a lost daguerreotype of the bishop is solely based on the evidence presented in the Fairland lithograph itself, which I describe below in detail.

First, the lithograph shows a reverse image of the bishop (that is horizontally reversed) just as a daguerreotype would be. This is deduced by his hair being parted on the opposite side from the Downside oil painting; by the buttons on his mozzetta (or elbow length cape) not being on the man’s side of dressing; by his elbows being raised into the air as if resting on something which is not illustrated, but which might have been illustrated in an original daguerreotype photograph. Last, I refer to the uncomfortable pose in which the bishop is sitting, quite different from the other two likenesses we have been discussing.

I include here illustrations of the concealed mechanism that was used by photographers in order to prevent the subject from moving during exposure and consequently blurring the image.  Sometimes, sitting for a these earliest photographs required the subject to be motionless for up to a minute (even more).  The awkward pose of the bishop in the Fairland lithograph makes more sense if we consider that his back and neck were being held in place by a metal prop.

Figures 11 & 12.
Two images which illustrate the apparatus used by a
photographer to keep the subject motionless 
during the process of making a photographic exposure.

Together, these make a compelling case for the lithograph being engraved directly from a very early photograph which no longer exists or is unknown in private hands.

CONCLUSIONS & PREPARING A NEW LIKENESS

It is not impossible that another image of Bishop Charles Henry Davis exists which has remained unknown for more than a century, but it seems unlikely.  The survey of likenesses in this article I hope clarifies what has been confusing.  Although no documentation is known to exist of the production of the three portraits "from life", there are nevertheless some other significant clues.

The oil painting at Downside Abbey by the anonymous artist was described by the Downside historian Dom Henry Birt (1861-1919) as "a poor portrait."  Did he mean that it was amateurish attempt or did he mean that it was not a good likeness of the Bishop?  Although Birt was born after the Bishop's death, he might well have known other monks (including the bishop's brothers) who did.  

The other clue is that the engraving by Thomas Fairland held at both Downside and Jamberoo Abbeys, was published under the official seal of the Bishop.  Whilst this does not guarantee he approved every detail of the engraving, surely it suggests that the Bishop was satisfied with the result and approved it for publication.

When we compare Fairland's 1848 engraving with the later engraving made in Sydney by Walter Mason, there are distinct facial similarities, more than there are troubling differences.

Figure 13.
The two engravings of the Bishop compared :
the Mason engraving 1852-54 (left); 
the Fairland engraving of 1848.
Side by side, these engravings illustrate the two halves
of the Bishop's face and obviously depict the same man.

In conclusion I would like to suggest that these two engravings are the most faithful likenesses of the Bishop, whilst the portrait in oils at Downside Abbey captures his face imperfectly.

The illustration in Cardinal Moran's history show are rather different man, with a more severe face, rather than kindly expression shown in other likenesses.  The stained glass window in Saint Mary's Cathedral appears to have transferred facial features from the illustration in Moran.  I regard these as less accurate likenesses of the Bishop.

Setting aside the question of which images of Bishop Davis are better likenesses, it has to be admitted that none of these images is particularly remarkable.  Because of my life-long devotion to the Bishop, I am trying to prepare a new portrait of the Bishop which captures both his kindliness and his sanctity.  To this end, I have been using various digital techniques to combine the images.  This has allowed me to observe which facial features align and how they differ.  I will be using the Mason and Fairland engravings as my principal guide.  

It is not possible to create an ideal portrait when the subject has been dead for 170 years and given the differences in each of the three portraits we have discussed. 

Nevertheless, I hope to prepare an image which is a fair representation, based upon careful assessment, comparison, the opinions of other artists and scholars, but also some prayer for guidance.  The results will be published on this blog in the near feature.

Figure 14.
A section of the title of the published lithograph of Bishop Davis (1848)
The Bishop's seal is reproduced, with his episcopal coat of arms surrounded by the words (in Latin) :
Seal of the Lord [Bishop]
Lord Charles Henry 
Bishop of Maitland.
Image : Downside Abbey.

Written and published by :

Michael Sternbeck

Newcastle NSW

5th July 2026.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank for their advice, information and guidance in preparing this article :

Dr Simon Johnston (Downside Abbey);

Mr Nicholas Beveridge (New Zealand);

Dr Graeme Pender (Victoria)

The Sisters of the Benedictine Abbey Jamberoo NSW.

CITED WORKS :

Dom H N Birt OSB

Downside, London, 1902. 

Benedictine Pioneers in Australia, London, 1911.

PF Cardinal Moran

The History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, Sydney, 1895.

Brian Andrews

Pugin in the Antipodes : Creating a Gothic Paradise, Hobart, 2002.

Ut in omnibus Deus glorificetur.

Historic Images of Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney : 4

Saint Mary's Cathedral 1922.

We continue our series of historic photographs of Saint Mary's Cathedral with this street photograph taken in 1922. 

This photograph, taken in Hyde Park and looking north-east, shews the Cathedral during its enlargement according to William Wardell original design.  The walls and twin southern towers are half-built.  This phase of the building of the Cathedral was completed in 1928.  

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.   Please do not reproduce these unique images without permission. 

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.