A Priest's Plea

Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney
Engraving of a contemporary portrait.
Image : National Library of Australia.

In 1786, the Government of British Prime Minister William Pitt ("The Younger") gave into the hands of the Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, the Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, responsibility for arranging the establishment of a Penal Colony in Botany Bay (also referred to as New South Wales).  This has been described in the previous post.  It was Lord Sydney who chose Captain Arthur Phillip of the Royal Navy to be the first Governor of the colony. When Governor Phillip made his settlement, he named the place Sydney Cove, in honour of Lord Sydney. 

In 1787, whilst the Fleet was being assembled at Portsmouth to commence its voyage to New South Wales, a Catholic priest wrote a heartfelt letter to Lord Sydney.  We are pleased to reproduce this important document in full.  Further details of the priest, Father Thomas Walsh, have been rather hard to find, but we must assume that he had access to the prisoners intended to be transported and indeed had some form of ministry to them.  Father Walsh had no illusions about the type of persons these convicts were, but his moving letter displays a zeal for their reformation.  He wished to help them to become devout Catholics and, consequently, better citizens.

No precise date or address seems to have been noted on the letter, which is found in Cardinal Moran's History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (1895). 

My Lord,

You have been apprised of the desire which two clergymen of the Catholic perfuasion have to instruct the convicts, who are of their faith and who are destined for Botany Bay. I beg leave to inform your Lordship of my sentiments concerning this requeft.  There are not lefs, probably, than 300 [convicts]; ignorant you may imagine, of every principle of duty to God and man.  The number is great, and consequently constitutes an object of consequence to every man who has the happinefs of his neighbours at heart.  That the Catholics of this country are not only inoffensive of principles, but that they are zealously attached to the constitution of it, I may presume, is well known to your Lordship.  For my part, who am one of those clergymen who wish to take care of the convicts of my perfuasion, I beg to acquaint your Lordship that if I be so happy [sic "fortunate"] as to be permitted to go, I truft [that] my endeavours to bring these unhappy people to a proper sense of their duty as subjects and citizens, may be attended with some salutary consequence. They earnestly desire some Catholic clergyman may go with them, and I truft to the known humanity of the Government that a requeft which seems to promise some hopes of their reformation will be not be denied. It is well known that these people will not pay the attention to other ministers which they will to their own. Perhaps, also, the presence of their priefts may be of great use to make them readily obey every order of their Governors, and I have no doubt our conduct will meet the approbation of them.

I sincerely pity those poor people, not so much for the disagreeable situation into which they have brought themselves, as for the mifdemeanours which have made them deserving of it. They may, I truft, if their ignorance be removed, and their obligations as men and Christians be forcibly inculcated [in]to them, that this may be a means under Providence of their becoming useful to themselves, and perhaps afterwards to their country.

At least, this I sincerely wish. Nor do I think I can ever be as happy elsewhere as in the place of their destination, employed in using my endeavours to bring them out of the wretched state of depravity into which they have fallen. I entreat, therefore, most humbly, that this our request may be granted. These poor people will blefs and thank you. I shall take care they they be not forgetful of their obligations to the Governor and Lord Sydney.

I have the honour of subscribing myself,
Your Lordship’s most humble servant,

THOMAS WALSHE, prieft.

PS My Lord. - We are not so presumptuous as to wish support from the Government; we offer our voluntary services. We hope, however, not to offend in entreating for our pafsage.

Catholics and the First Fleet

The famous painting of 1937 by the artist Algernon Talmage
depicting the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove on
26th January 1788.
Image : The State Library of NSW

Every Australian knows about the First Fleet, but how it came about is a tale both interesting and awful.  White settlement in Australia was not primarily about colonising new lands for immigrants, nor to extend English geo-political influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but rather because of the need for the British government to find a solution to the over-crowding of its gaols.  English historians Alan Brooke and David Brandon help us look beyond that fact :

In order to safeguard wealth and property, [English] governments from the 16th to the 19th centuries produced a penal code which, at first glance, was of fearsome severity.  The classes that dominated Parliament used the criminal law and the creation of more and more capital offences to support a redefining of property and the purposes of government.

Brooke and Brandon Bound for Botany Bay, 2005, p.15

Throughout England but especially in London, crime rates increased when ordinary citizens had to turn to petty theft to alleviate extreme poverty. From the beginning of the 18th century, such theft was dealt with the greatest severity in a succession of new laws.  London was a violent melting-pot, awash with vagabonds, villains and organisers of crime, who readily took advantage of the poor to expand their criminal activity.  New laws pertaining to larceny, increasingly comprehensive, sought to bring expanding waves of crime under control.  Although intended to deter crime by the severity of punishment, Justice was also flexible and even merciful in 18th century England.

Contemporary illustration below deck on an 18th century prison hulk.
The convicts transported in the First Fleet would have been confined
in conditions similar to this, except that the height of these below deck cells
would have been significantly lower.
Image : National Library of Australia.

The prisons of England were unable to contain all the felons sent to them and alternative arrangements had to be found.  The settlement of North America provided the British Government with great opportunities to send its unwelcome convicts, and transportation to the Americans colonies continued, on and off, for a century. This came to an abrupt end in 1776, however, when these Colonies collectively declared their independence from Britain, and with the ensuing American Revolutionary War.  These are the years immediately prior to the First Fleet.


In 1770, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy, in a voyage of exploration on behalf of the British Government, chartered the East coast of Australia and most of New Zealand. Of especial interest was the discovery of a coastal inlet which became known as Botany Bay, because of the wide variety of native flora found there. The name "Botany Bay" became synonymous with Australia, even though the greater continent had been known as New Holland since Dutch voyages of discovery more than a century before Captain Cook. It was also regularly referred to as New South Wales.


With some reluctance and having rejected alternatives, the Government of Prime Minister William Pitt determined in 1786 that it was expedient to establish a Penal Colony for England's felons on the far-side of the world - in Botany Bay - and ordered the preparation of a transportation Fleet by the British Home Office, the Treasury and the Royal Navy. Eleven ships comprised this First Fleet, transporting 750 convicts (more than 75% being male) to Botany Bay. They ranged from hardened and violent criminals to foolish but otherwise respectable first-offenders; but they all had fallen foul of the law. Life aboard these ships was harsh for convicts, but not significantly worse than they had experienced in English gaols and the prison hulks, the floating penitentiaries, formerly battleships of the Royal Navy. The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth on 13th May 1787.


The practice of Religion played little part in the lives of those Transportees, except for the formalities of Divine Service required to be carried out by the Government. Aboard were adherents of the Church of England, as well various Protestant Non-Conformists, Jews and - especially of interest to readers of this blog, a significant number of Catholics : perhaps as many as 25% of the Fleet's total. An application in 1787 by Father Thomas Walsh, to provide for the spiritual needs of those Catholics by sailing with the Fleet to Australia was ignored. A young clergyman of the Church of England, the Reverend Richard Johnson, had been appointed in October 1786 to join the expedition as Chaplain. We shall discuss Mr Johnson more in a forthcoming post.

Illustration from Captain Watkin Tench's
Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1789)
Image : National Library of Australia.

Historians debate whether there were particular criteria in the selection of those to be transported to Botany Bay.  It seems clear, however, that the British Government took this opportunity to create a system for ridding itself of those deemed undesirable : hardened criminals, the unskilled (as we would understand the term today), the rebellious, anti-Establishment protestants and papists (a Protestant term derogatory of Catholics) etc.

The archivist and historian James Hugh Donohoe has written :

The Catholic Church in Australia began on the River Thames in London in 1787 when some members of the First Fleet were first embarked ...  95 Irish-named convicts came in the First Fleet.  Another five came as family members, 19 as ships’ crew and 29 as marines.  …  Only 170 of the 800 Catholic convicts on the First and Second Fleets had Irish surnames : a total of 20%. … Of those likely Catholics identified by their Irish or generally Catholic surnames, most were convicted in courts located in coastal western or southern England.

JH Donohoe The Catholics of New South Wales 1788 - 1820, 1988, pp.1 - 4

A contemporary illustration of Sydney Cove in the months following the
arrival of the First Fleet.
Image : National Library of Australia.

It is a myth that the first Catholics in Australia were all Irish and convict and transported to Australia as political prisoners. Mr Donohoe's research reveals that the earliest Catholics in Australia - before 1791 - were largely English, or Irish resident in England. Most of these were convicts, but some were not : some were soldiers or civil servants or their spouses.  No provision was made by the British Government for these Catholics.  We can only surmise, in the absence of evidence, that for those earliest Catholics, the practice of their religion was a private matter and some comfort amidst the harsh life of the new penal colony. 

A following post will discuss the practice of Religion in the early years of the NSW colony.

AMDG

Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney : Old and New

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

After presenting various early drawings depicting the exterior of the old Cathedral of Saint Mary, Sydney and its surroundings, we are pleased to present this rendering, comparing the ground plans of the old and the present Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Shewn in yellow is the floorplan of the old building, as it was when completed in 1833.  Old Saint Mary's is dwarfed by the present structure.  We have attempted to present this floorplan to scale, but there may be a slight inaccuracies, being the result of having to draw the old building from historic plans, rather than actual measurements.

It will be noticed that, although the present Cathedral is aligned North to South, the old building was aligned East to West, facing Hyde Park. Since the old Cathedral was commenced before there were any other buildings in the near vicinity, nor any roads, it is not surprising that it was slightly misaligned from the East to West axis.

A section of a buttress and a masonry wall of the old Cathedral were preserved whilst the new Cathedral was built next to it.  It is indicated on the rendering.  This masonry ruin once formed the north-east corner of the Northern transept of the old Cathedral.  It may be seen and examined to this day.

NEXT POSTS :

In our next series of posts on this Blog, we will outline the beginnings of the Church in the town of Sydney, from 1788 until the arrival of the first bishop, John Bede Polding OSB, in 1835.

Old Saint Mary's : 5

Sketch  of  Saint  Mary's  Cathedral  c. 1835
Image : National Library of Australia.

This rare image, by the artist Robert Russell, was drawn in Hyde Park, looking across to Old Saint Mary's.  It was sketched just at the time that John Bede Polding OSB arrived in Australia as the first Catholic bishop.

This is an eccentric view of the old Cathedral, its squat proportions being presented in a much more "mediaeval" style.  The Australian Dictionary of Biography's essay on Russell reveals that before immigrating to the Colony of NSW in 1833, he had trained and worked as an architect in Edinburgh.  In Australia he worked mainly as a surveyor.

Since the quality of the drawing is quite good, we should assume that the Russell deliberately tried to "improve" the appearance of the building for the purposes of his sketch, by "correcting" the proportions.  In this he succeeded admirably.

In the park, labourers are at work, possibly convicts.

AMDG

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral : 4

Saint Mary's Cathedral in the early 1840sImage : The State Library of NSW.

This watercolour, looking north-east from Hyde Park, shews the Western facade and southern walls of old Saint Mary's Cathedral.  It is the work of an unknown artist, from the early 1840s.  It is not a very sophisticated depiction, but emphasises the plainness of the building and its square proportions.

Beyond the Cathedral can be seen part of the Cathedral residences and Saint Joseph's chapel (a two storey-building), which had been built in the period 1824-1830, before the Cathedral was completed.  In the foreground is the fence separating Hyde Park from the track which would later form College Street.

AMDG.

Hyde Park, Sydney, 1829

Hyde Park, 1829
Image :  Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums

This is an engraving of Hyde Park, Sydney, based on a drawing of 1829 by the artist J Carmichael.  The view is looking northwards across Hyde Park and shews in the distance a number of buildings which are still in existence almost two hundred years later.

The Supreme Court and Saint James' Anglican church are shewn at centre left.  To the right is the Rum Hospital (now the Mint Building) and beside it, the Hyde Park Barracks. To assist with identification, names of the buildings have been digitally added.

On the righthand of the engraving is shewn Old Saint Mary's, still under construction and before it began to be used as a place of worship. The walls are in place and the timber members of the roof, but the actual timber shingles were not in place for a few years more, owing to a lack of money to complete work.  At this time, 1829, the roadway we now know as College Street did not exist, but Saint Mary's Road (as it would later be known), seen in the engraving, was part of a roadway leading to Woolloomooloo Bay.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

AMDG

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral : 3

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral : a drawing of the 1840s.
Image : State Library of NSW.

This lovely coloured drawing (by an unknown artist), dates from the early 1840s, and shews old Saint's Mary's Cathedral, viewed across College Street from Hyde Park.  This is the principal facade (facing west) and the northern transept (on the left), facing what is now Saint Mary's Road.  The stonework appears to be of a greyish colour, unlike the red sandstone of the present Saint Mary's.

This building is very different from ecclesiastical buildings of the later 19th and 20th centuries.  It is of a style termed Gothick or Regency.  Commenced in 1821, the old church took almost 15 years to be built and roofed, and thereafter work on the interior was undertaken.  By the time this drawing was made, the style of old Saint Mary's was already dated.  We see a building which has allusions to mediaeval architecture, but without all the profusion of detail and articulation that the mediaeval churches possess.  All of that is stripped back in the Gothick style.  

Quite a number of Gothick Catholic churches were constructed in Australia in the late 1830s but more particularly, the 1840s.  A number of them are still in existence.

Writing in 1828, when old Saint Mary's was being constructed, Dr Roger Oldfield described the vicinity in these words:

Eastward of this Park [Hyde] without trees is the Catholic Capel and a view of Port Jackson, with its numerous bays and woody shores.  The Gothic edifice, though a plain structure without the usual architraves, fretwork, moulding and sculpture, is a surprising piece of work, standing where it does ... This building, begun in 1820 [sic], and now roofing in, is in the form of a cross having at each corner octagonal buttresses rising above the roof with high-pointed caps, ornamented with turrets ... the whole has a fine effect, and by moonlight, but that the stone is fresh, you might fancy it is some old abbey.

Quoted in S' Mary's Cathedral Sydney 1821 - 1971 edited by Patrick O'Farrell.

There is an interesting insight into the attitudes of the period written on the drawing; the artist titled his (or her) drawing : Saint Mary's Cathedral (Papist).

Please visit this blog again for further posts over the coming weeks on the history and architecture of old Saint Mary's.

AMDG

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney : 2

A drawing of Hyde Park and old Saint Mary's Cathedral, mid-1840s.
Image: State Library of NSW.

This coloured drawing was sketched by John Rae and is dated 1842 *.

It depicts a vast open, treeless space which we now know as Hyde Park.  Many people are shewn enjoying some leisure that afternoon in the Park.  In the distance we see two large structures.  On the left, is a simple tower which was designed by the famous English architect AWN Pugin. It was built in the year 1843 to house a peal of eight bells, obtained from the foundry of Thomas Mears in London.  Running in front of this tower from left to right, is what is now College Street, but was then no more than a track.

In the centre of the drawing is an accurate depiction of Old Saint Mary's, which had been commenced in 1821 and was complete in most respects when this sketch was drawn.  The old Cathedral was cruciform in shape but somewhat squat in its proportions.  It was of a style which is termed "Gothick", being a somewhat less sophisticated imitation of mediaeval architecture, preceding the great Gothic Revival of the 1840s.

Having been installed in the new tower and blessed by the Archbishop, John Bede Polding OSB, these bells - being the first peal of bells in Australia - were heard for the first time on New Year's Day, 1844.

Please click on the image for an enlarged view.

* As can be seen on close examination, the annotation "J Rae 1842" was made in the lower righthand corner of the sketch. This is problematical, since the bell-tower, shewn so clearly on the left of the sketch, did not exist in 1842, being built in the year following, 1843. The drawing might date from the period after 1845.

AMDG

Australian Diocesan Genealogy : part one

Dom William Bernard Ullathorne OSB
Arrived in Australia as Vicar-General
1832.

Between 1819 and 1834, the continent of Australia was part of a new ecclesiastical territory, the Vicariate Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope (Africa), including the territories of the Cape itself, Madagascar, New Holland (as the continent of Australia was known outside of the Sydney colony), Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania), New Zealand and neighbouring Pacific Islands.  In 1832, the Vicar Apostolic of this territory appointed the English Benedictine monk Dom William Bernard Ullathorne OSB as his Vicar-General with jurisdiction over the Australian territories.  Father Ullathorne was resident in Sydney.

Soon, however, it was deemed desirable that the colony have its own bishop and so the Vicariate Apostolic of New Holland was established in 1834. It encompassed the entire continent of Australia (including Tasmania).  Dom John Bede Polding OSB of Downside Abbey, England, was appointed as the Vicar Apostolic and he took up residence at Saint Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.

Fewer than ten years had elapsed, however, before settlement began to expand in parts of Australia other than New South Wales.  Consequently, Rome augmented the arrangement of the Vicariate Apostolic with the establishment of the Archdiocese of Sydney and new Dioceses of Hobarton and Adelaide as suffragan dioceses. This was in 1842.  John Bede Polding OSB became Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australia.

As time progressed and Catholic populations grew, the following were established as suffragan dioceses of the Australian Province :

The Diocese of Perth, in 1845.
The Dioceses of Maitland and Melbourne, in 1847.
The Diocese of Port Victoria (now Darwin NT), in 1848.
The Diocese of Brisbane, in 1859.
The Dioceses of Goulburn and Armidale, in 1862.
The Diocese of Bathurst, in 1865. 

An engraving depicting the Hierarchy of Australia in 1869.
from left to right :
Upper row:
Bishops Murray of Maitland, Lanigan of Goulburn and Matthew Quinn of Bathurst
Middle row:
Bishops Goold OSA of Melbourne, Archbishop Polding and Bishop Shiel of Adelaide
Lower row:
Bishop Murphy of Hobart and Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane.
Image : Maitland Diocesan Archives

As the population and economic standing of the Colony of Victoria grew, it was thought fitting that the Diocese of Melbourne be separated from Sydney in 1874, becoming a Metropolitan Archdiocese with the new Dioceses of Ballarat (Vic) and Sandhurst (Vic) established as suffragan dioceses. Its bishop, James Goold OSA, became Archbishop, of the same ecclesiastical rank as the Archbishop of Sydney.

Cairns (Qld) was established as a Vicariate Apostolic in 1877.

The Diocese of Rockhampton (Qld) was established in 1882, as a Suffragan of Sydney.

In 1887, as a consequence of deliberations of a Council of Australian bishops in 1885,  new Ecclesiastical Provinces were established, further dividing the territory of the Archdiocese of Sydney :

The Archdiocese of Adelaide
The Archdiocese of Brisbane.

In 1887, these new Dioceses were also established :

The Diocese of Grafton (now Lismore NSW)
The Diocese of Broken Hill (now Wilcannia & Forbes NSW)
The Diocese of Sale (Vic)
The Diocese of Port Augusta (now Port Pirie SA)
The Vicariate Apostolic of the Kimberleys (WA)

In 1898 the Diocese of Geraldton (WA) was established, being a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.



NOTE:

Suffragan Dioceses

From Wikipedia and the Code of Canon Law:

A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses that constitute an ecclesiastical province. Although such a diocese is governed by its own bishop or ordinary (who is the suffragan bishop), the metropolitan archbishop has certain rights and duties of oversight pertaining to the suffragan dioceses. The Metropolitan has no power of governance within a suffragan diocese, but has some limited rights and duties to intervene in cases of neglect by the authorities of the diocese itself.

AMDG.

This Blog on our Catholic History

Coat of arms of Archbishop Polding

This Blog has been established in conjunction with the Facebook page

Archbishop John Bede Polding OSB

It is intended to make available here articles on the history of the Church in Australia during the 19th century, together with extracts from primary sources, photographs etc., particularly focussing on the life and ministry of Archbishop Polding and his contemporaries.  Sometimes our posts will be very brief, sometimes with a lot of written content, but we hope to make it interesting to a wide readership.

This is a difficult moment in the history of the Catholic in Australia and worldwide.  Our blog is intended to be a source of encouragement and inspiration as we help a new generation of Australian Catholics to learn about the beginnings of the Church on this continent.

Please consider "following" this blog and making its existence known to like-minded Catholics.

AMDG