Richard Johnson (chaplain)
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The Reverend Richard Johnson (b. circa 1753 - 13 March 1827 in England) was the first Christian clergyman in Australia.
Johnson was the son of John Johnson and was born in Norfolk and educated at the grammar school of Kingston-upon-Hull, where he won a sizarship which took him to Cambridge in 1781. After graduating from Cambridge University (1784), where he had been a sizar, Johnson was appointed chaplain of the prison colony at New South Wales in 1786. He sailed with the First Fleet and arrived in Australia in 1788.
Governor Phillip had first of all to find means of feeding and housing the soldiers and convicts, and labour could not be spared for the building of a church. Services were held in the open air and even four years later, when Johnson appealed to Phillip for churches at both Sydney and Parramatta, he had no success. Under lieutenant-governors Grose and Paterson Johnson was in even worse case. Grose made vague charges against him, but brought no evidence to substantiate them, and Johnson made many complaints about the treatment he received. He was given a grant of land and worked it so successfully with the help of some convict labour, that in November 1790 Captain Tench called him the best farmer in the country. He planted seeds of oranges and lemons he had obtained at Rio de Janeiro, which later on produced good crops of fruit, and occasional references are found to his having made a fortune by his farming; in all probability an overstatement of the case, though he sold his land and stock to good advantage when he left the colony. In June 1793, tired of waiting on the authorities, he began to build a church himself, and by September completed a building capable of holding 500 people at a cost of about £67. Even allowing for the difference in the purchasing power of money and the comparative flimsiness of the structure, this was a remarkable achievement. This church was burnt down in 1788. Johnson, with his wife Mary, taught between 150 and 200 school children in Sydney's first church until it was burned down.
An assistant chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, was appointed in the same year, and arrived early in 1794; and henceforth Johnson had the support of a stronger personality than his own. In 1794 he published An Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island, and in 1800 obtained leave of absence to visit England. He sailed on the Buffalo in October and did not return to Australia. In June 1802 King in a dispatch said: "I understand that Rev'd Mr Johnson does not mean to return." Practically he retired in 1802, but so late as July 1805 he appears on a list of officers as "On leave in England, no successor or second clergyman appointed". In 1810 he was presented by the king to the united parishes of St Antholin and St John Baptist, in London, and at the time of his death he was also incumbent of Ingham in Norfolk.
[edit] References
- Serle, Percival. (1949). "Johnson, Richard". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- Richard Johnson - Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales by Neil K. Macintosh, 1978.
- Australian Christian Life from 1788 - An Introduction and an Anthology by Iain H. Murray, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh 1988.
