Mid North Coast Pioneers - Newcastle to Lismore and beyond

THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. PHILIP

Church Hill, Sydney

The Historic Perspective

The Original St. Philip's

Sydney's first church was a wattle and daub chapel built at what is now the corner of Bligh and Hunter Streets. It was in this building that Australia's first Christian service in a building took place on 25th August 1793.

A T-shaped building, with a thatched roof and an earthen floor, it could seat 500. During the week it served as a schoolhouse where the Reverend Richard Johnson, the colonial chaplain, and his wife, Mary, taught between 150 and 200 children.

Following this another church was built on what is, today, Lang Park. This church was subsequently demolished.

The first St Philip's (1798 - 1856)

As the original Parish Church of the City of Sydney, St. Philip's has seen the city grow from an English penal settlement into the vibrant, bustling, world city it is today.

Current St. Philip's

For over two centuries those who have worshipped at St Philip's have witnessed incredible change. Not only has the face of the city altered - its buildings, its means of transport, its streets and thoroughfares - but also its people, and their ways.

One only has to read of the ministry of the parish when meeting the needs of a penal colony; its links to the beginnings of the education system; its early work with aborigines and its role in the establishment of law and representative governmentin New South Wales.

St Philip's was there during the gold rush, the depression of the 1890s, the Boer War, and at Federation. The Parish saw her sons march off to war in 1914 and again in 1939. She buried her parishioners during the great influenza pandemic that followed the First World War. The schools established by St Philip's have educated the city's young.

St. Philip's also watched as people moved out of the city and into the suburbs only to visit the city as workers in the office blocks and to shop.

Now as the church commences its third century of ministry the role is changing again. The city remains, tourists come and go and people are returning to the city to live. Where offices stood, now we see apartments.

St. Philip's has shared much of the life and times of Sydney... and the people and families it serves. St Philip's - a living, vibrant place, bringing Christ to the city it calls home.

Sydney's first church was a wattle and daub chapel built at what is now the corner of Bligh and Hunter Streets. It was in this building that Australia's first Christian service in a building took place on 25th August 1793.

A T-shaped building, with a thatched roof and an earthen floor, it could seat 500. During the week it served as a schoolhouse where the Reverend Richard Johnson, the colonial chaplain, and his wife, Mary, taught between 150 and 200 children.

Chaplain Johnson took the Word to the aboriginal people and the convict population held him in deep affection. Yet on the evening of 1st October 1798 his chapel was burnt down.

Later that month the Governor, John Hunter, initiated work on what he saw to be a substantial stone church. It was to rise on land at Church Hill in what is now Lang Park. Just across the road from the present church.

On 1st October 1800, prior to his being sworn in as the new Governor, Captain Philip Gidley King laid the foundation stone on what was to become the first St Philip's. In 1802 he proclaimed Australia's first two parishes as St Philip's (Sydney) and St John's (Parramatta).

'Old' St Philip's served Sydney from this date until 27th March 1856 when the present church was consecrated.

The first St Philip's (1798 - 1856) was built on what is, today, Lang Park

Education became a State responsibility in 1880 however St Philip's continued the work commenced by Richard and Mary Johnson in the wattle and daub chapel. St Philip's Church School opened in 1812. As well, the church commenced 'ragged schools' fororphans and in 1845 an evening school for young men. St Philip's Grammar School opened in 1850.

And in passing, the original church had become the first church building to be lit by gaslight in Australia in 1841.

New South Wales' fourth Governor, William Bligh, worked hard for an early completion of the church - which was dedicated to the memory of St Philip the Apostle. It is a strongly held view that Bligh would not have been deposed had the colony's thenPrincipal Chaplain, Rev Samuel Marsden, been in Sydney at the time. He wasn't; for he was in England recruiting clergy for the colony.

The choice as the Assistant Chaplain, who was to become the first (and only Rector) of 'old' St Philip's, was the 28 year-old Rev William Cowper.

Cowper arrived in Sydney on 18th August 1809, with his second wife (his first having died shortly before his appointment) and four young children. He preached his first sermon in St Philip's on 20th August, within 48 hours of his arrival.

Rev William Cowper, who was Rector of St Philip's for 49 years. His son -William Macquarie Cowper - the first clergyman to be born in the colony followed him as Rector for 11 years.

In the chancel of the current church there is a memorial tablet to the memory of the Venerable William Cowper, who in his 49 years as the Rector of both the first and second St Philip's is remembered as one " who gave himself wholly to the work ofthe ministry".

Among his distinguished children were Charles Cowper (later Sir Charles), five times Premier of New South Wales and the Very Reverend William Macquarie Cowper for 44 years the Dean of Sydney and the second Rector of St Philip's.

The modern-day St Philip's can justify its claim to be the finest example of Gothic architecture in any parish church in Australia.

The foundation stone of the current St Philip's was laid on 1st May 1848, by the Rector, Reverend William Cowper.

Work was delayed during the gold rush, when the workers forsook their tools for the goldfields in 1851. However, Bishop Barker, Bishop of Sydney and Archdeacon Cowper consecrated the new church building on 27th March 1856. It had cost sixteen thousand pounds, entirely raised by the congregation.

The church's architect was Edmund Blacket, in fact it was the last church to be designed by him in the classic English Gothic Perpendicular style, a style also to be used, by him, for Sydney University and St Andrew's Cathedral. It has been said StPhilip's has an impressive homogeneity whereby everything from the window tracery to the mouldings on the base of the columns being correctly 15th Century in style.

The current building was consecrated in 1856.

It is thought that Blacket made the main body of the church's stained glass windows. Whilst the East Window was imported from England and cost 200 pounds.

1873 saw the arrival of a new organ, which replaced the original item. Blacket placed the new organ in a separately roofed organ chamber and moved it from the west gallery to be near the choir.

1890 saw great renovations at St Philip's. In that year the pews were modernised and the chancel and aisles tiled, at the same time the current pulpit and reading desk were installed along with a Gothic reredos (which replaced the original commandment boards which are now located at the base of the tower).

A ninth bell was added to the peal (it now has ten) in 1888 to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the colony of NSW. This bell was added to the original peal donated by Hon John Campbell in 1872.

Number six bell being replaced on 10 April 2001, this bell was made by the same foundry as the originals - The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London, UK. This company is said to be the oldest bell manufacturer in the world, and Britain's oldest companyin continuous existence, dating from 1570)

Source: http://www.stphilips-sydney.org.au/ (This web site is no longer available)

Marion Purnell on her web site notes the transcriptions:

" [LID] In Memory of HANNAH the beloved wife of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died May 3, 1852 Aged 32 years Also ESTHER beloved Mother of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died Sep 27 1861 Aged 77 years Also JOHN Beloved Father of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died Aug 7 1875 aged 90 years Also ROY GEORGE Son of HENRY AND MARY FULLAGAR Died Nov 14 18-- aged 3 months Also SARAH FRANCES FULLAGAR Died March 24 1889 aged 5 years Also WILLIAM FULLAGAR Husband of the above Died Aug 8 1894 aged 78 years. [EAST FACE] In Memory of SUSANNAH BARNETT Dearly beloved wife of THOMAS BARNETT and fourth daughter of WILLIAM FULLAGAR who departed this life May 8 1876 aged 26 years [NORTH FACE] To the memory of FLORENCE EMILY Youngest daughter of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who departed this life July 1st 1863 aged 15 months Weep not She is not dead but sleepeth To the memory of MARY ESTHER Beloved daughter of WILLIAM & HANNAH FULLAGAR who departed this life Sepr 11th 1863. Aged 21 years and 4 months Her end was peace [WEST FACE] To the memory of FRANCIS LATHAM the dearly beloved third son of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who departed this life Jan 9 1881 aged 23 years He has gone to a bright and happy home Where trouble and sorrow are unknown [SOUTH FACE] To the memory of JOHN FULLAGAR the beloved son of WILLIAM & HANNAH FULLAGAR who departed this life 9 December 186 aged 18 years and 3 months Dearly beloved by all who knew him In memory of GEORGE THOMAS FULLAGAR Second beloved son of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who died February 3 1879 aged 23 years Safely in Heaven I am waiting for thee."

St. John's Cemetery, Parramatta, NSW

Extracts from “The Parramatta Cemeteries - St John's" by Judith Dunn of the Parramatta and District Historical Society, 1991)

St John’s Cemetery, the oldest existing European burial ground in Australia, was established on the southern outskirts of the Rose Hill settlement in 1790. There were ten burials in the cemetery by the end of 1790 and a further 67 in 1791.

The death of Henry Edward Dodd, 28.1.1791, approximately one year after the first burial in the cemetery, has given Parramatta two important firsts. Dodd was Superintendent of convicts employed in cultivation at Rose Hill and his was the first public funeral in the colony. His headstone is the earliest in situ in Australia. It was an indication of the esteem in which Henry Dodd was held that when the colony was facing famine, a headstone was provided. It simply inscribed, H. E. Dodd 1791.

A Government Order dated Saturday 11 May 1811 stated:

". . . It being a sacred Duty incumbent on All, to guard and protect the Remains of their deceased Friends from every unnecessary Exposure, it hence becomes necessary that the several Consecrated Burial Grounds should be speedily inclosed in a decent manner."

The inhabitants of Parramatta began an Enclosure Fund in accordance with the government order. The resulting ditch and fence cost £82-4-7, a large sum of money in 1811, and indicating that it must have been a very substantial barrier as convict labour was fairly readily available. However, by the early 1820's the bank and ditch enclosure had fallen into decay and Governor Brisbane gave instructions for the brick wall, which still stands, to be built around the site.

Unfortunately, no records survive that detail any aspect of the construction of the wall; tile brickmaker, builder, and cost are all unknown. The bricks are, however, the typical apricot colour and similar in texture to other bricks known to have been made in Parramatta. Many of the bricks in the wall have impressed arrowhead marks. John Clew's bricks, distinguished by his elongated heart frog mark and by their speckled markings due to impurities in the clay, were subsequently used to repair the walls. He had a particular affinity for the cemetery and its wall and when dying, requested he be buried "as close to his beloved brick wall as possible", His grave is alongside the northern boundary.

From the earliest years to late Victorian times the cemetery has seen a huge variety of funerals from the poorest to the most showy and elaborate. Both local and Sydney papers prove a valuable source of information for funeral services and customs of the times. The funeral of D'Arcy Wentworth Esquire took from one o'clock until four o'clock to wend its way from Homebush to the graveside. The Reverend Samuel Marsden was buried "in his own churchyard at Parramatta and upwards of sixty carriages formed the mourning procession.”

In the 1930's the cemetery records were destroyed by fire. Many early Australian church records no longer exist due to flood, fire, vermin or human neglect such as illustrated by the well known entry in a clergyman's wife's diary:

"The following day being wet, I put the girls to the task of cutting up the old church records as I have found the paper more suitable for the use of curling paper for the girls hair. "

His DOB has been calculated from the inscription on the family grave, that he was three months old at the time of his death in November 1866. The transription of the lid is as follows:

[LID] In Memory of HANNAH the beloved wife of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died May 3, 1852 Aged 32 years Also ESTHER beloved Mother of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died Sep 27 1861 Aged 77 years Also JOHN Beloved Father of WILLIAM FULLAGAR Died Aug 7 1875 aged 90 years Also ROY GEORGE Son of HENRY AND MARY FULLAGAR Died Nov 14 18-- aged 3 months Also SARAH FRANCES FULLAGAR Died March 24 1889 aged 5 years Also WILLIAM FULLAGAR Husband of the above Died Aug 8 1894 aged 78 years. [EAST FACE] In Memory of SUSANNAH BARNETT Dearly beloved wife of THOMAS BARNETT and fourth daughter of WILLIAM FULLAGAR who departed this life May 8 1876 aged 26 years [NORTH FACE] To the memory of FLORENCE EMILY Youngest daughter of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who departed this life July 1st 1863 aged 15 months Weep not She is not dead but sleepeth To the memory of MARY ESTHER Beloved daughter of WILLIAM & HANNAH FULLAGAR who departed this life Sepr 11th 1863. Aged 21 years and 4 months Her end was peace [WEST FACE] To the memory of FRANCIS LATHAM the dearly beloved third son of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who departed this life Jan 9 1881 aged 23 years He has gone to a bright and happy home Where trouble and sorrow are unknown [SOUTH FACE] To the memory of JOHN FULLAGAR the beloved son of WILLIAM & HANNAH FULLAGAR who departed this life 9 December 186 aged 18 years and 3 months Dearly beloved by all who knew him In memory of GEORGE THOMAS FULLAGAR Second beloved son of WILLIAM and SARAH FULLAGAR who died February 3 1879 aged 23 years Safely in Heaven I am waiting for thee.