Royal Jlustralian fiistorical
SOCi~ty
JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS.
Vol. XXV.
1939.
Part V.
The Society does not hold itself responsiule for statements made
or opinions expressed by authors of the papers ]Juulished in this
Journal.
I
.,=a
I
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
His Life and Work.
1788-1859.
By BEN. W. CHAMPION, B.D.S., D.D.Sc.
(Read before the Newcastle and H1lnter DistriCt Historical
Society on February 8 (md March 8, 1939.)
PART II.
vVe left the Rev L. E. Threlkeld at the close of Part I.
of this paper well established on his demesne at Bahtahbah,
Lake l\Iacquarie, determined to perfect his knowledge of
the language of the aborigines.
His newly-found tranquillity, however, was soon to be rudely disturbed.
In
his Statement he tells of his misgivings as to the manner
in which the committee of the London :i\Iissionary Society
would view his preliminary commitments which, we learn
from a letter from the secretary and the treasurer to Re\'
Samuel Marsden dated J\Iarch 2, 1826,* were covered by
bills to the amount of £900 drawn by Threlkeld.
He
excused and consoled himself with the thought that he
had acted" agreeably with the instructions" of the deputation, and that they would not be in a position to judge
as to whether the expenditure was excessive, because their
acceptance of the hospitality of friends lessened their total
expenses out of all proportion!
*Quoted by Threlkeld in his Statement.
342
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward 1'1Il'elkeld.
The storm commenced with the receipt, by Threlkeld,
of a letter dated October 20, 1826, from the R~v Samuel
Marsden t enclosing another letter-from the dIrectors of
the mission in London-which in its turn was dated Marrh
2, 1826. These dates, by the way, will serve as an e::cample
of the lengthy periods that elapsed between. the dlspat~~l
and delivery of mails to and from. England III those da J :.
In this case the time taken was eIght and a half months.
Marsden's letter was as follo,vs:Two days ago, I I'eceived a. letteI' from the Dir~tors of t~e
Missionary Society, informing me, that tl~ey h~d transmItted cer,tam
resolutions to you relative to your drawmg bIlls upon the ,SocIety.
As far as my advice can be of service, to you and ~he ]',~lssIOn, I
am very willing to give it.
'Vith re~pect to drawmg bIllS. ~p,on
the Society, I shall be very cautIOus I~ takmg ~he re~ponslblhty
upon myself, beyond the absolute neceSSIty ~or dom!?, tIns. ,
.
I feel that the Society has placed me m a dehcate sItuation.
Perhaps when I see you, the difficulties may appear less than ~hey
do at present.
I cannot form any decided opinion on the subject,
until I know what the expences of the Mission is likely to amo,unt
to.
The Society must have some hesitation in paying your bIlls,
from what Mr. jones tells me, one of your bills had bee.n endorsed
to their house by Mr. Campbell, and when pre,sented, It was not
accepted-since, I have understood, it has b~en paId.
Mr. Camp~ell,
I apprehend, will now require some s.ecurl,ty for any future bIlls,
from the communication from the SocIety III the last despatches.
I am, &c.
SA~IUEL MARSDEN.
The letter to Threlkeld from the directors containing
the resolutions was couched in temperate and friendly
language, and, in brief, expressed sur:pris~ and concern
that the bills should have been so large, III VIew of the fact
that the whole of the arrangements relativ~ to the com,mencement of the mission were viewed as belllg of a more
or less temporary nature.
They amplified these ideas by
stating that the funds of the missio.n did not wa~rant the
apparently disproportionate expendIture already ~n,,:olved,
and as ;yet there was no guarantee from the mIssIonary
that the rate of spending would be any les~ later
Threlkeld contended all along, and reIterated III hIS
Statement, that in everything he had done l:e had acted
These
according to the instructions of the deputatIOn.
were, briefly: (1) Go to Newcastle; (2) build a house at
01:. .
tIbid.
343
Lake Macquarie; (3) stay at Newcastle until the said house
should be built; (4) take up residence at the Lake;
(5) learn the language of the aborigines; (6) convert the
natives.
These Threlkeld carried out, all but the last one, to
the letter, but, according to the directors, regardless of
The London officials of the mission indicated that
cost.
they expected the initial expenses to be fairly heavy, but
that they considered that, after the mission had been in
progress for a reasonable period, a big reduction in the
annual sum required for personal anci mission purposes
was to be expected. However, they did not calculate upon
having to meet the extra large expenditure incurred by
Threlkeld, especially as they looked upon the arrangements
made by the deputation as being tentative only.
They
suggested that the missionary should have curtailed his
expenses until the board had decided whether the project
was feasible and worthy of the expenditure of the Society·s
funds upon it. Referring to one large bill that Threlkeld
had drawn, they wrote:'Ve think it necessary to inform you that we experienced no
small surprise and concern that you had drawn on the Society to
so very large an amount, for which, indeed, we are not at all prepared.
To which Bennet adds:The Depn. had not prepared them for they and the Dirs. never
conceived that such great extra expense could have occurred. *
The board of directors seemed to take the view that
the deputation's instruction to Threlkeld-to draw on the
Society for his necessities-had been misinterpreted by
Threlkeld as being a biank cheque. One of the deputation
afterwards expressed regret that they had not been more
explicit as regards money matters-surely an example of
shutting the stable door after the horse was out. Bennet
wrote the following regretful note:Our knowledge of the writer ought to have prevented this
confidence, but however it was only intended to exist for a year,
or until he had made such a trial as would enable him to state
to the Co=ittee at home what moderate amount of salaries would
suffice.t
* Staternent-Bennet's annotation.
tIbid.
Royal Australian IIistorical Society.
However, the directors were determined that the horse
would have no chance of getting out again j to continue
our metaphor, they also proceeded to tie him up.
We quote the "Resolutions" of the board mentioned
by Marsden in his letter to Threlkeld, the brief preamble
containing an implied censure;. . . our principal reason for writing to you at present is to
prevent all future immoderate expenditure, and in reference to this
point we have adopted the two following resolutions:
1st.
That the Rev. Threlkeld be instructed to give no more
bills on the Society, unless drawn with the sanction of tlle Hev.
Marsden, as without his sanction they will not be honoured.
2nd.
That the Rev. Mr. Marsden be respectfully requested to
sanction the bills drawn by the Rev. Mr. Threlkeld, only to such an
amount as, in his judgment, shall appear absolutely necessary to
carryon efficiently and with the strictest regard to economy, the
Aboriginal Mission at Reid's Mistake.:!:
The effect of these resolutions was to place a curb on
the expenditure relative to the mission, and to take out
of Threlkeld's hands the financial control of the establishThey virtually gave Marsden the oversight of the
ment.
financial side of the mission.
Threlkeld was requested
to collaborate with the chaplain in such matters, so that
the latter might report thereupon to the board, and also
upon other matters, such as the possibility of definitely
obtaining the promised grant of ten thousand acres and
the prospects of receiving financial assistance from the
Colonial Government.
Marsden was also to have every
assistance from the missionary to enable him to exercise
his judgment as to the necessity of expenditure to be
incurred, as set out in Resolution No.2.
The reaction of the missionary to these resolutions was
such as it might be expected would be in keeping with
"The Genius and Temper of the Threlkelds."
They
elicited a long and acrimonious letter to the directors, the
first of several, written in somewhat violent language, and
certainly disrespectful and defiant in tone.
Threlkeld
stated numerous grievances, real and fancied; " ... those
resolutions ... only imply condemnation of my proceedings
hitherto and in future."
Some of his complaints appear
:!:Quoted by Threlkeld in his Statement.
Lancelot Edward Tl/ relkeld.
345
to have had a basis for justification.
For instance, he
states that, if he had known that the arrangements of the
deputation were subject to rectification, he would not have
accepted the position of missionary on the terms under
which he did accept.
No doubt, as was the case with the
deputation, the directors and Marsden, this was being wise
after the event!
As it was, he stated emphatically that
he could not think of carrying on under such restrictions,
and that. he considered himself to be in the same position
as he was before the mission had even bcen thought of.
He threatened to resign, and to take the first ship back to
the Islands, * although he did not do so.
Possibly this
was only a threat, and no more.
A sore point with Threlkeld was the use in the
Resolutions of the phrase "absolutely necessary." Threlkeld
contended in abusive terms that the directors were in no
position to judge as to what was "absolutely necessary"
for the maintenance of himself and the mission, they being
twelve thousand miles from the scene of operations-an
example of the disadvantages of remote control. However,
the Society had for their colonial agent the Rev Samuel
Marsden, who was also a capable, hard-headed business
man, to judge for them.
But even the suitability of
Marsden as an arbiter of expenditure was questioned by
Threkeld-the chaplain was one hundred miles distant
from the mission station, and was unaware of conditions
there, although it was Threlkeld's duty to advise Marsden
on those matters.
The truth of the matter is, that Threlkeld cherished
a keeJ:.l a.ntipathy towards Marsden, engendered during the
negotIatIOns that led up to the formation of the mission
at Lake Macquarie.
Threlkeld strenuously opposed any
idea of Marsden having a hand in either the formation u1'
the management of the mission j but, as Bennet noted
"This would have been prudent, and have prevented man;
evils."t
One of Threlkeld's objections to "Marsden"~
as he contemptuously called the aged chaplain, who was
twenty-five years his senior-was that Marsden was a
" Churchman, " meaning that he was a clergyman of the
" Statement.
fStatement-Bennet's annotation.
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward '1'h relkdd.
Established Church of England.
The Rev Daniel Tyerman a member of the deputation, had also the same objectioni; and both he and Threlkeld ~isplayed a for.m. of
biO'otry which was far from the mmds of the orIgmal
fo~nders of the London Missionary Society when they
formed that organization in terms that excluded all
thoughts of bigotry from its constitution.
. .
·When amid much jubilation the London lhssIOnary
Society was established on undenominational lines son~c­
one described its inauguration as the "death and bUrIal
of bigotry," and the fact that the administration of its
affairs in Australia was for years entrusted to a clergyman
of the Church of England, went far to justify the assertion.
Samuel Marsden most certainly in his life and work embodied a spirit in which there was no bigotry.§
Samuel Marsden entered the scene merely by virtue
of his office of representative in Australia of the London
Missionary Society, and as such he was naturally consulted
by the deputation concerning the projected mission.
He
patiently informed Threlk~ld. that he ~ad ~o actual hand
in the formation of the mISSIOn, and m thIS Bennet concurred. Marsden wrote:-
According to Bennet, Threlkeld's animosity to Marsden
was accentuated by the kno'wledge that the latter had
repeatedly warned the deputation against confiding too
much in the missionary. Marsden assured Threlkeld later
that he never had any doubt as to his (Threlkeld's)
integrity.
Thus the necessity of being obliged to employ Marsden
as an intermediary in financial matters galled Threlkeld,
and further increased his enmity against the clHlplnin,
to which he gave vent both in his correspondence and his
actions.
His letters to Marsden abound in personal abuse
and disrespect.
Those of the latter gentleman are forbearing in tone, generally sympathetie, and contain
sound advice.
Threlkeld was either unaware of, or
ignorant of, the truth that abuse of one's superiors (which
term includes the directors, whom he also addressed in
immoderate and disrespectful language) avails nothing,
while the opposite procedure invariably brings beneficial
results.
Threlkeld ended his first letter to the directors concerning the" Resolutions" with a condescending admission:
They frequently conversed w~th me on the sUb.ject, but I diffe~ed
from them on one important POlllt.
I thought It would be unWIse
in them to give you unlimited authority to draw on th~ f~ds of
the Society, and equally unwise in you to a?c~I?t the SItuatIOn on
such terms as would lay a too heavy responsIbIlIty upon you.1f
Not that I wish to impute blame to you at your surprise at the
expenditure" in so short a time, for I really was surprised
myself and had it not been for the documents in my hands to yauch
. for the expenditure I should have doubted it. . . . t
3-1:6
He gave his opinion, but, as he stated, the deput~ti?n were
not obliged to take it.
Referring to Threlkeld s mstructions from the deputation, Bennet writes:I wished much that some reference should be made to the tried
and disinterested friend of the Society Rev. Mr. Marsden, bU~ Mr.
Threlkeld said, he would be under no control, and another saId he
would not consent, that a Church of England man should have any
power to spoil a good work.
. . . Mr. T. had very strongly declared against bei~g either
control'd or advised by Mr. M. he llinlself was surely s~cI~nt.
It was, I am persuaded, a fault of y~e Depn. not to lllSISt upon
Mr. T's being obliged to take the 0plllIOn ?f so worthy and ex.;
perienced and disinterested friend to the SocIety as Mr. Marsden.
Hbid.
§Rev Joseph King, in Ten Decades, p. 49.
If Quoted by Threlkeld in his Statement.
* Statement-Bennet's annotation.
3-1:7
"~normous
The letter was forwarded through 1\Iarsden, who, after
perusal, administered a well-deserved rebuke, which did
not by any means tend to increase the popularity of the old
chaplain with the missionary. Marsden wrote:Sydney, Noyember 16, 1826. . . . I cannot but observe your
language in this letter is ,ery strong; and I should apprehend,
,youlU give unnecessary pain and offence to the Society.
It wants
that meekness of ,yisdom which St. Paul recolllmends.:/:
The meekness which St Paul recommends is described by
the great missionary in his epistles to two of his younger
assistants, Timothy and Titus. §
tQuoted by Threlkeld in his Statement.
:t.Ibid.
§Second Epistle to Timothy, chapter 2,
Titus, chapter 3, Y. 2.
VY.
24-25; Epistle to
348
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Threlkeld was requested both by the directors and
Marsden to name the minimum sum necessary for carryin~
on the mission and for supporting himself and his family.
Threlkeld mentioned £500, but he was not sanguine of
receiving it.
Marsden made a counter offer of £300, and
considered that he would be able to have that figure sanctioned by the directors. Throughout the chaplain's letter
just quoted, and in subsequent correspondence, he pursued
a course of sweet reasonableness which, unfortunately, was
not reciprocated.
The wording of the letters was kindly,
yet firm.
He did not hesitate to state frankly the reasons
for his actions, although possibly he was not under any
actual obligation to do so.
He also gave the missionary
good advice, which was apparently not appreciated.
Marsden commended Threlkeld's integrity, also his capabilities as a missionary, but questioned his executive ability.
Marsden, if anyone, being a shrewd judge of men and
affairs, should have been competent to give an opinion as
to the prospects of such a venture as the mission at Lake
Macquarie, and also as to the experience and ability of
the person to be placed in charge of the venture. George
Bennet, a member of the deputation, afterwards admitted
that Marsden's objections were well founded, and wrote
regretting the fact that the deputation had placed unbounded confidence in one who, it transpired, did not
deserve it.Throughout the whole of the dispute between Threlkeld
on the one hand, and the board of directors of the London
Missionary Society and their agent, the Rev Samuel
Marsden, on the other hand, appeared a succession of dishonoured bills, one of which was the subject of a court case,
and was nearly the cause of Threlkeld seeing the inside of a
prison.
The missionary, however, was spared this indignity, as the relation of the case will show.
The bill in
question was drawn on Ellis M. Scott, of Sydney, to the
value of £400, and was negotiated privately in England.
Threlkeld, in the Statement, mentions the fact that by
drawing on Scott he was able to obtain a premium of 18
per cent. on this bill as against the 15 per cent. allowed
* Statement-Bennet's annotation.
Lancelot B'dU'ard Threlkeld.
349
in other quarters.
He thus would save the Society £12,
and also would be charged less commission, the reduction
being £30, making a total saving of £42 in all. But, alas,
his praise,vorthy attempt to save money for the SocieLy
was nullified by the directors dishonouring the bill, thm
involving the Society in unnecessary additional expenditure
by way of court costs in the case.
It is a matter fOI'
wonder, in the circumstances, that-as the deputation had
primarily pledg'ed the credit of the Society; and in view
of the probable damage to the Society's credit both in the
colonies and elsewhere, due to incomplete knowledge of
all the facts of the case-the directors did not decide to
pay the bills at once for their own credit's sake, and dismiss
No doubt they
Threlkeld, as he had dared them to do.
were reluctant to meet the bills for the reason amon:"
others, that they considered that they were the' truste~~
of the money subscribed by the supporters of the Society
for missionary purposes, and therefore they expected t'o
see more and better results for the outlay of the funds
expended on the mission to the aborigine;.
As a matter of fact, all the returned bills were ultimately paid by the London Missionary Society.
The
board subsequently resolved (per their l~tter to Threlkeld
dated March 22, 1827 t) that no further advances be made
on behalf of the mission to the aborigines unless for personal
expenses "or objects strictly missionary."
One bill of
£111/16/- was to be paid, according to their resolutions,
but two others, one for £400 and the remaining one for
£127/12/-, were to be returned.
However, the lesser 0f
the two bills was not returned to the colony but was finallv
paid, leaving the bill for £400 outstandi~g.
The COll~­
mittee of Direction instructed Threlkeld to sell the property
of the mission so as to provide funds with which to satisfy
the bill; they apparently thought that, in view of the larg~
sums spent on the mission to date. there would have been
Marsden howsufficient proceeds to cover the amount.
ever, in a letter to Threlkeld dated August 13, 1827, p~inte(l
out that the Society had no legal title to the land:I am apprehensiw the movable property will not amount to
i"Quoted in the Statement.
Royal Australian Historical Society.
35CJ
Il. . • . The house may
be sold with what belongs
to
very'muc
•
t f
t0t!the.•
farm, but the land on which it stands cannot for wan 0 a I e.
Some of the movable property wa~ sold, but realize.d ~nl?,
£30.
The missionary was also dIrected to ascer~a~n If It
would be possible for the Government to subsIdlz~ the
mission over and above the sum of £250, t~~ maXImum
amount which the Society would advance. .Fmllllg ~overn­
ment assistance, and also in the event of IllS not belllg able
to subsist on the £250, he was to pack up and l:et"?-rn to
his former station at Raiatea or any oth~r mIsSIOnary
station considered advisable.
In the meantlme. Threlkeld
had removed from Bahtahbah, Lake lVIacquarIe, and at
about this time was writing his correspondence from No. 20
Upper Pitt Street, Sydney. t
Threlkeld was now in the depths of despair.
Faced
with the prospect of the attachme~t of his p~rson fo~ debt,
he had no private means of paYlllg the bIll Ol~ IllS O\~ll
account. However, he seems to have had severallllfiuentlal
friends or well-wishers in Sydney, an~ ?ne gentleman of
high authority advised him to memoI'lahze the Governor
with the audacious request that the Treasury should meet
all the expenses of the mission over and above the £250
stipulated by the Society.
We pause and wonder ,~hy
Threlkeld could not have managed on ~he £250, whIch,
according to his own showing, was ~ prlllcely sum c?mpared with the miserable pittances recerved from the S?Cle:y
by the missionaries in the South Seas.
Threlkeld, III tne
Statement, says;The annual allowance for a Missionary in the Islands is £3~;
for the wife £20; and £5 per year for each child. . .. Out o.f tIns
stipend the Missionary has to pay 50 per ce~t to t~Ie Age~t III the
Colony keep the school house and Ins own III repaIr, prOVIde la;ge
boats ~nd sails and boatmen to convey his children, .and supplIes,
from island to island; pay wages to servants, prOVIde food and
clothing for all the families besides.
'Ve never could have subsisted but for barter, which in no instance has averaged £20 per year.
It would seem that George Bennet was right when he
*lbid.
tL. E. Threlkeld to Governor Darling, February 14, 1828;
quoted in the 8tatpment.
Lancelot Edward Th relkeld.
351
penned his pithy comment to the pretensions of the
missionary-" Splendid or nothing.' ':j:
All this time lVIarsden was working on Threlkeld ',,>
behalf, to see what could be done in the matter. Threlkeld,
too, was in close contact with the Colonial Secretary, tlw
Han Alexander lVIcLeay, who, however, told him that the
Government could do nothing for him.
Meanwhile the
gaol loomed nearer, and consequently the attitude of the
missionary seems to have undergone a change.
A fe,v
days after the presentation of the memorial to the Governor
a memorandum was received by Threlkeld from E. :tVI. Scott,
dated August 25, 1827, stating that the fatal bill for £400
had been protested for non-acceptance, the answer being,
"The bill cannot be accepted at present."
This letter
was followed by another dated October 10, 1827, giving
details of additional charges incurred by reason of nonacceptance, amounting to £136/16/4, making the total bill
£536/16/4.
Threlkeld wrote from "Caddie" (Cattal),
subscribing himself "yours respectfully," requesting
lVIarsden to sign fresh bills for this amount. This Marsden
declined to do, and, as usual, gave his reasons. He stated
that he feared being made personally liable if he signed
the bi~ls as requested, as he would be exceeding his
authorIty.
He also took Threlkeld into his confidence,
and mentioned two cases in which he lost money by putting
his name to a bill in circumstances similar to the present.
Thus Threlkeld was obliged to notify Scott that he was
unable to take up the dishonoured bill, and the next communication received by the former was in the nature of a
"solicitor's letter" from James Norton, to the effect that
Seott had referred the matter of the bill to him:lVIr. Scott has instructed me to hold you to bail unless the
am?unt is provided b;- you.
Mr. Scott regrets the necessity of
takmg such steps agamst you, but as his interest is one of trust,
he feels compelled to adopt the most ready way of obtaining money."
Marsden, upon this letter being communieated to him
expressed the futility of arresting the missionary, awl
:tStatement-Bennet's annotation.
*NOTE.-All the correspondence mentioned
was reproduced verbatim in the Statement.
lJl
this paragraph
352
Royal Australian Historical Society.
doubted if Scott would take extreme action.
He did so,
however, as Norton was adamant; and so, about the middle
of November the Sheriff sent for Threlkelrl, told him to consider himself under arrest. and ordered him to find two
sureties. These he produc~d, in the persons of Bourne and
Hayward, two ex-missionary colleagues. Threkeld thereupon
wielded his facile pen and rushed straightway into print.
He issued a circular airing his grievances, publicizing his
monetary impasse, and taking a tilt at his great obsession,
the board of directors of the London Missionary Society.
This pamphlet called forth a severe censure from th~ !orthright old chaplain, who pointed out the sheer futIlIty of
such an action, and the harm it was likely to do him
(Threlkeld) in the eyes of his friends, the public and the
Society.
Replying, Threlkeld turned on Marsden in his
old abusive manner.
We also find the missionary telling
his troubles concerning the dishonoured bill to the readers
of the Sydney Gazette in a letter dated January 14, 1828.
In the meantime he had to give double bail, James Hayward again coming to his assistance, and also one Appleton,
Bourne having been rejected.
The Governor himself was
the next to be addressed concerning the dishonoured bill.
Threlkeld wrote Sir Ralph Darling a letter on the subject
dated February 14, 1828, in which he requested the payment of his bill out of the public funds in the Colonial
Treasury.
He painted a pitiful picture of a possiblelong separation from my wife and family of 6 children, for lllany
months, in a prison, until the llloney can be sent out.t
The Governor evidently referred the matter to the Colonial
Secretary, who, in his turn, interested himself in the case,
and was able to assure Threlkeld that there was no need
to worry unduly concerning the outcome of the affair.
McLeay was also in close consultation with the Rev Samuel
:lUarsden, who was still quite willing to help Threlkeld to
reach finality.
Between them they made arrangements for
payment with a bill of :l\Iarsden's, subject to the finding
of the court on a question of the amount of interest to be
allowed on the dishonoured bill.
Threlkeld attributes the
tStatement.
Lance70t Edl/'ard 1'h rclkeld.
353
finalization and the satisfartory outcome of the case to the
Governor, and it would seem that after he had approached
Darling matters began to move.
More trouble was brewing, however, in another quarter.
Threlkeld received advice of another bill returned unpaid,
dated .January 3, 1827, drawn on the treasurer of the
Society in favour of l\fr Robert Campbell of The 'Wharf
amounting to £194/1/1.
That was just what l\Iarsdel{
had anticipated.
Writing under date October 19, 1827,
he stated:I am very uneasy about his bills lest thev should be returned
whi:h I know will distress him very much. . It is an unfortunat~
busmess, and I ::lways was alarmed about it, aUlI told the deputation
what were my Views.
It is not paying the money at last. that can
compensate the merchant for his disappointments should the Directors
do this. *
Reading between the lines, Marsden may have wished to
indicate that such an upright and honoui..able merchant (lS
Robert Campbell would grieve to think that his name had
been dishonoured and his credit impaired.
He also mav
have inferred that Campbell would be distressed by th~
fact that the London Missionary Society was the party
~vho presumably refused to honour the pledged word of
Its representatives by returning the bill dishonoured.
Campbell's distress we know by letter, written by him on
FebI:uary 1~, 1828, from The Wharf, t stating that this
partIcular bIll was negotiated through a private friend in
England, and the dishonour naturally prejudiced him in
the eyes of his friend.
Now let us see how Threlkeld took
the ~ews. The comment quoted below surely shows" Tbe
Gem.us and Temper of the Threlkelds" as evinced bv this
par.tlCul~r member of the "Familly," and is in direct
antItheSIS to the genuine concern exprl'ssed by :lVlarsdl'n :_
I~ ,,-ould be impossible for me to state correctly the feeling of
my mmd.
M,-. Ca~pbe~l w~s the lJeTSOn on whom we were depending
tor our SI£PPOl"t untIl thIS dIsagreeable business is settled.:/:
The italics are our own.
vVe do not trace one regret
*Samuel Marsden, from Parramatta, to L. E. Threlkeld, October
19, 1827; quoted in the Statement.
t Letter incorporated in the Statement.
:/:Statement.
35;)
Royal Anstralian Historical Society.
LUJ/celot Edzmrd 7'11 relkeld.
as to the possible effect on the good Robert Campbell.
Dramatically Threlkeld continues:-
Threlkeld wrote to the directors of the mlSSlOll in
London stating' that everything was now read~' for his
immediate return to the mission station at Lake 1Uacqllarie.
He had approached the Governor through the Colonial
Secretary for assistance on behalf of the mission, and was
advised that he could have four men "on the stores" at
£9 per annum each.
It was assumecl that he was to
receive a stipend of £250 per annum from the Soeiety.
He informed the board that he intended to draw direetly
on the treasurer of the Society without resorting' to any
intermediary agency-and that, after all that had transpired!
He also foreshadowed the issue of his famous
Statement, stating that the pamphlet was to be treated as
confidential, not being for public eireulation, but merel,,'
for the perusal of the missionaries and the dil'eetol's of the
London Missionary Society.
Apropos of this intention,
George Bennet noted against the "Foreword" of the
Statement the following comment:-
354
Fully expecting
be abandoned to the
only source open to
coniillentlv on Him
the morning light.§
that myself, \:ife and six children \vo,uld now
wide world, wIthout further advances from ~he
me, . . . with a minu. ill at ease, but :'eposmg
who is no respecter of persons, I waIted for
The next morning he went post haste to Campbell to
learn the worst, asking the merchant to let him know
what prospects of further credit he might expect.
ThU:t
large-hearted philanthropist assured him tl~at, alth~ugn
times were hard in the colony, he would certamly contmue
to supply Threlkeld's wants.
This "highly honourable
conduct" elicited a gracious acknowledgment from Threlkeld, marred by a thrust at the directors, whose presumed
subsequent lack of courtesy in not acknowledging Campbell '8 magnanimity was remedied in advance b! Threlkel.d.
The usual routine was observed as regards tIllS latest dIshonoured bill-it was sent to Marsden for renewal, and
was met bv the same refusal.
The Hon Alexander
McLeay offe~>ed to put the matter right with Marsden, but
later, on March 14, 1828, word was received that this
particular bill had been paid in England.
The case Scott v. Threlkeld was at last heard in the
Supreme Court in Sydney on 1\larch 11, 1828, and a verdict
was aiven for plaintiff Scott in the sum of £480, the court
havi~g allowed a rebate in respect of th~ interest overcharged on the bill.
We learn that tIllS was the first
case of its kind in the colony, and was to be treated as
George Allen, a name then and since proma test case.
inent in legal circles, conducted the case. for. Threlkeld,
and very kindly remitted the 'whole of IllS blll of costs
amountinO' to £l5/9/4-a very generous gesture, but worthy
of the ma~I as we know from descriptions of his character.
Marsden s~ttled the matter by drawing his own bills, and,
althouO'h the business was finalized as far as Threlkeld was
concer~ed (one would have thought that he was glad to
be quit of the whole affair), he made a thrust at Marsden
because he (Threlkeld) was not allowed to sign the bills!
§Ibid.
A ridiculous pretence!
Everyone will instant],· see that this
note is intendptJ to insure its furtiler <1iffusion!
.
In the meantime more trouble was brewing, Not long
after the date of the letter to the directors mentioned
above, the board had passed resolutions (April 21, 182S)
abandoning the mission at l..Jake 1\Iaequarie and dismissing
Threlkeld from the Society,
Their deeision was COl1lmunicated to him under d~te May 30, 1828.
However,
we find him again returning to the attack of the directors
in a letter written on October 26, 1829,* in whieh he expressed his intention of resigning as from October 21, 1830
-a year all but a few days from the date of his letter!
The board's offer of a passage to England he stigmatized
as "perfectly contemptible," and he described their
alleged "endeavours to tempt me to abandon the extension
of the Kingdom" as "Exceedingly Oppressive."
He also
wrote in a peremptory manner to the Rev Samuel Marsden,
stating that it would take a year to shift his family; that
he was about to draw bills on the Society; that he intended
to abandon the mission as under the authority of the
*L. E. Threlkeld, from Lake Macquarie, December Hi, 1829. to
Rey 'i'. Grille amI \r. A. Hanke~·.
356
Royal Australian Historical Society.
London l\lissionary Society, and continue it on his own
He planned to give up the original site of the
initiative.
mission station at Bah-tah-bah (now Belmont), and to
settle on the opposite shore of the Lake. Tl~is h.e ultin~ately
did at the present site of Toronto. The penod Imme~Iate~;T
after the settlement of his court ease was occupIed III
negotiating with the Government for his n~w grant, and
also for pecuniary assistance from the LegIslature.. At
this time he was enabled to exist through the chanty. of
several influential friends, and also he came into possessIOn
of a leO'acy that had been left to him.
A;parently in the passage of time the breach. b~tween
the missionarv and the directors of the London ~\flsSlOnary
Societv was l~ealed. The Rev Joseph King§ refers to thp
first a;1llual meetin o' of "The Australian Auxiliary to the
I~ondon Missionar~/'Society" held in the ~aptist .Chapel,
Sydney, on December 23, 1839.
At ~hlS meetmg the
committee that had been elected the prevIOus year was reappointed, and the name of the Rev L. E. Threlkeld appears
in the list of the members.
Threlkeld apparently was fortunate in his frien~s, and
was able to command a great deal of sympathy, whIch, as
we have shown, was expressed in many practical ways.
The following notice, the latter portion of a lengthy paragraph, appeare~ in the Sydney Gazette on January 12,
1830:. . . Mr. T. has been singularly, and most undeservingly ab~n­
doned by the Directors of the London Missionary Soci~ty to whIch
he belo~ged; but a number of respectable gen~lemen, mterested m
the cause of the aborigines haw liberally subscnbed for the support
of his valuable mission; and it is in contemplation to adopt such
measures as will enable him to conduct it on a permanent footmg.
The diligence with which he has applied to the s~udy of the la~guage
has established his missionary character lngh m the estmmtlOn of
many of the most intelligent and influential members of tile c~m­
munitv.Labouring under discouragements of a pecuharly trYlllg
natur~ but which from the best of motives we forbear to make
public,' MI'. Threlkeld in remaining firm a;nd unda~lllted. at his pos:,
has exhibited a fortitude beyond all praIse, provlllg lnmself abo:e
yielding to the caprices of ill·informed an.d ill-judging men. . We
do not pledge ourselves to a concurrence WIth the whole part of the
proceedings on his part which have come to our knowledge, but we
§Ten Decades, p. 106.
Lancelot Edu'ard 'l'lirclkeld.
3G7
most unequivocally express our conviction that. for a true missionary
spirit, and for a zealous and able discharge of his duties as the
missionary of the New Holland Tribes, he has entitled himself not
only to the praise of his quomlam constituents in Englaml, but
those of every true philanthropist.
\\-e hope his labours may prove
so successful as to shame his unfeeling accusers, and to demonstratQ
the justice of the commenuation we lUlYC felt it our duty to bestow
upon him.
But we have other contemporary opinions as to the
prospects of the mission.
Dr John Dunmore Lang, in
The Monitor some time previously, had made somewhat
unfavourable mention of Threlkeld and his work (1\larc1l,
1828) ; to which Threlkeld wrote a reply,'~ indicating that
his Statement, soon to be published, would be sufficient
answer to Dr Lang's criticism.
The Monitor's Newcastle
correspondent announced the arrival of Threlkeld l;t
[amille in the town, on their way to Reid's Mistake (April
29, 1828). He added that serious doubts were entertained
as to the ultimate success of the mission, or, as the article
described it, "this apostolic embassy."
A vast sum of money has already been expende,J, and my
informants from that quarter assure me, that the benefit derived
therefrom is very mouerate.
The blacks ridicule the iuea of
working.
They l;ave been unchangeable on that score hitherto, anu
we are of opinion that little goou may be anticipated from this
benevolent and Christian-like endeavour on the part of the Missionary
Soc.iety of England, to enlighten the savages of the Immense eontinent of New Holland.t
Later on, in the same year, Dr Lang wrote a letter
to the Australian, dated September 24, 1828, about another
matter relating to Threlkeld, in which he adverted to the
latter's conduct of the mission at Lake l\lacquarie.
Dr
Lang mentioned the directors' censure of Threlkeld's
"enormous" expenditure, and also l\larsden's repeated
refusal to sanction the said expenditure on the ground of
extravagance.
The article continued;I was induced some time ago, as a friend and contributor to
the Society, to examine Mr. T's own statement of his expenuiture;
and I have no hesitation in saying, that if the Mission hat! been
conductcll by a man of prudence anll economy, then' might have
*The Australian, :March l±, 182:3.
tTlw Monitor, May 7, 1828.
358
Royal Atlstralian Historical Society.
been a saving to the Society of,. at
I am readv to verifv this assertIOn
calculation~ aurl to ;'efer the result,
Englaml, b~t to men 01 experience in
least, One Thousa.nd ~ounds.
by the most unex~eptIonab!e
not onl~' to the Dll'ectors III
this Colony.
Threlkeld and Lang were again to cross swords, or rat~ei'
those mightier weapons, pens, as will b.e rela~ed bel?w.:j:
As stated, Threlkeld resided wIth Ius famIly at
Bahtahbah until the time carne for them to remove .to
their new habitation on the western side of L~ke :Macqua.ne.
While at Bahtahbah he chose the site of Ius new stat101I,
and addressed several letters to the Surveyor-Heneral,
Major Mitchell, requesting that the lan~ be su.rveyed ~nd
the boundaries defined.
The Governor Issued mstructlO11s
to Major Mitchell on August 18, 1829, to furn~sh Threlkeld
with a permit to select 128~ acres ~s a. pl'lmary grant.
The description of the grant IS contamed m a letter from
the Colonial Secretary to the Surveyor-General dated
November 13, 1829:Situated in the County of Northumberland, parish unnamed,. a
point of land called Punte, on the ,Vestern Shore of Lake Macqual'le,
bounded on the North by the Shore of the Lake, a~d a Run. of
fresh water, on the South by the Shore, .and on the "est by a lIne
running North so as to include the quantIty.
Punte or Deranbanbah Punte or Plmtei, the "point of
land'" mentioned in the foregoing extract, is that peninsula
of land jutting out in a south~easterly directiOl~ into Lake
Macquarie, of which Coal Pom~ and. Skye Pomt are ~he
extremities.
Punte in the natrve dIalect of the localIty
means" a narrow place"-any narrow point of land. t . A
corruption of the native term still appears on the pal'lsh
map at the site of Toronto as "Bundee."
A 1\11' Ra~fe,
one of the Assistant CrO\V11 Surveyors, who was workmg'
in the vicinity, marked the boundary-the only artificial
boundary line required, from north to south on the western
end of the peninsula, starting' at a point on Stony Creek
and extending through to Kilaben Bay.
Threlkeld renamed the locality" Ebenezer. ' , \Ve are
informed that this name was given to the place in memory
of the historic old church across the Hawkesbury River
:j:Threlkel,l v. Lang-p.
tSee p. 390.
C](j£)
et
Sf'l.
Lancelof Edtcard Threlkeld.
35!J
from lUI'S Threlkeld's old horne at Cattai.
Threlkeld is
said to have preached there while staying with his
relations.§
Strange to say, the deed of grant for the
Ebenezer property was never issued to Threlkeld, but in
1846 the identical area was granted to a Ralph Mayer
Robey, a hardware merchant in business at 427 Cieorge
Street, Sydney, westward of Market Street, where the
Queen Victoria Buildings now stand.
A search through
the records in the Lands Department, Sydney, by 1\11'
Bernard T. Dowd, brought to light the followin o ' particulars
of this grant:b
R'ALPH :MAYER ROBEY: Grant 1280 acres by Sir George Gipps
28th. February 1846.
Quit Rent £10.1:3,,1 for ever.
Cotlllncncing
1st.•Jan. 1837 at Derarbarnbah or Puntei 01' Punti .. on the south
by the La~e, the same being a point of land called by the aborigines
Punte-belllg the land promised to Lancelot E,hnlnl Threlkeld on
or before the 18th. Jay of Aug. 1829.
~y e understand
~romIsed to settlers,
that, although primary grants \vcrt'
years sometimes elapsed before the
tItles thereto were finalized and the deeds issued.
This
fact did not prevent them from settling on the land th'l.V
had chosen, and they entered into possession as soon as
pos~ible.
Sometimes grantees disposed of their rights ~o
theIr land before the deeds were issued, and thus their
names were never entered on the parish maps.
All, however, had to sign a bond that they would reside on their
grant ~or a number of years, and improve the property ~o
a certam value.
The schedule of the assets and the description of the
property at Ebenezer (see Appendix*) were contained in
an advertisement which appeared in the Sydney Jlorning
Herald on December 19, 1844. The sale was set down for
the 31st of that month, and as is not unusual with a sale
of that nature, "entirely without reserve," the whole of
the assets realized only a fraction of their value.
The
reason for the sale is said to be the financial failme of
Threlkeld's eldest SOIl, Joseph Thomas who had a holdill'"
in the Gwydir district, at Barraba, Northern New South
\Vales.
Quite a number of Threlkeld's friends we1".'
§S~e p. 304, Royal
XXY., Pa.rt n
*Appendix II.
T
•
~-\.ustralian
Histori<'al
~()eiety's
.Journal. YoJ.
360
Lancelot Edward 'I'll relkeld.
Royal Australian Historical Society.
involved in this failure, these including Thomas Arndell,
his second wife's brother, Robert Campbell of The Wharf,
and other prominent business men of Sydney and Newcastle.
The years 1840-1845, as is well known, were years of
severe depression in the colony, and a very critical period
withal.
The depression was due to the over-speculation
in the previous boom years, and to acute financial stringency.
Many farmers and graziers failed in business,
due in part to the necessity of haying to sell their stock
off at ridiculous figures. Threlkeld, jUllr., was one of
these unfortunate settlers.
His father became involved
in the matter, and was obliged to assign his estate to a
number of trustees whose names appear in the advertisement of salet;John Campbell Esq. of the Wharf; T. ,Y. Smart Esq., of the
Sydney Bank, and H. Bourne Esq., of Pitt Street.
John Campbell was the son of Threlkeld's old friend and
benefactor, Robert Campbell, actively engaged in the
business at "The Wharf."
T .....V. Smart was associated
with "The Sydney Bank" (see advertisement*), i.e., The
Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited, founded
in 1834. "H. Bourne" is probably intended for the Rev
Robert Bourne, Threlkeld's old colleague and fellowmissionary in the South Sea Islands. t
Showing a picture of the property a quarter of n
century after the departure of the missionary, Newcastle
Chronicle of January 14, 1869, says;LAKE MACQFARIE : Farm of the late Mr. Threlkeld. now called
Mount Mulberrv.
1280 acres, with 6! acres at the Heads, or the
entrance from the Ocean TO BE LET, on a lease of 5, 7, 10, or more
years, suitable for Horses, Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, or Dairy Cows, to
have Milk and Butter, Poultry. Vegetables, aUlI Fruits, for the
,Yallsend, Newcastle and Sydney markets.
The house is out of repair, but beautifully and romantically
situated on a Mount; fine view at west, of the mountains, and at
the east of the Lake, with fine sea breezes.
t Appendix II.
*Appendix II. The "Sydney Bank" mentionetl was afterwards
the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, incorporated by Act
of Council, 1848.
t See p. 292, RA.H.S.•Jmmnl7, Vol. XXV., Pt. IV.
3G1
T.he present (f tenant) has been there with his wife and family
fo:' nllleteen yea1 s; sicl:ness unknown, the ail' being so salubrious.
xxxxxxx
Fresh ,nIter ,veils can be obtained with facility at a tlepth of
four feet.
.
Threlkeld had a quantity of trees cleared off the land
and had a homestead built of ·weatherboard. The residence
was erected on the site of the present hotel at Toronto.
~ number of,ml:lberry trees said to have been planted there
m Threlkeld's tIme were still in existence a comparatively
The work of felling the trees and of
few :rears ago.:j:
c~e~rmg the ground was done by natives, under the superVISIOn of Threlkeld's white assistants.
He had been able
to move the Government to subsidize the mission to the
extent of £150 per. annum, with an allowance of £36 pel'
~nnum for the mamtenance of four convicts at his establIshment.
This ~um was b! no means as large as he had
hoped; however, ItS regularIty was assured, for a time at
least, an~ Threlkeld expected to be able to supplement his
salary WIth the produce of his land.
He was able at
Ebenezer to carry. out his heart's desire to "reside on the
land . . . g:'.aze Ius cows, build an house and cultivate a
gard.en .&c.,·§ an.d, a~ove all, to continue his philological
studIes m the natIve dIalect.
This object he pursued with
u~abated ze~l, and he has left several publications as a
tnbute to IllS .close, painstaking application to his task.
These works WIll be described later in this paper.1T
LIFE AT EBENEZER.
The life of 'l'hrelkeld at his new station at Ebenezer
seems to have been tranquil enough.
The next ten years
or so after. he ha~ set~led do...~~ again at Lake }\1acq~tarie
:vere occupIe~ mamly m acqmrmg the native dialect, and
m endea~'ourmg to understand the aboriginal character.
The .routme of the mission was varied by visits to neighbourmg centres.
Furthermore, Threlkeld was often in
:t:The place was once called Mount Mulberry.
Vide advertisement for the lease of the property, Newcastle Chronicle January 14
1869.
'
,
~The
Statement.
1.
~Appendix
362
Royal Anstralian Historical Society.
Sydney, at times acting as interpreter for blacks :v~lO were
on trial in the courts for various offences.'
VISItS were
also made to Newcastle where he had a number of friends
and acquaintances.
Neighbours were not lacking, either.
Lieutenant Jonathan 'Warner, the Police Magistrate at
Brisbane 'Vater (now Gosford), had a grant at the head
of the Lake nearby, on the shores of \Varner 's Bay; the
Fennells also had property adjoining "Ebenezer."
.
Conversely the mission was at times favoured wIth
visitors from 'o~'erseas, notably the Quaker Missionaries,;
James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, and
certain members of the \Vilkes Expedition,:j: which was
conveyed by a squadron of the United States Navy on a
journey around the world.
In July, 1833, Threlkeld was invited by Sir Edward
Parry to spend a few days at Carrington, Port St~p~Iens.
Sir Edward, as is well known, was the first ComnllsSlOner
appointed by the Australian Agricultural ~om'pany (1830),
and was also a celebrated explorer.
HIS dlary§ for the
month of July, 1833, contains several references to .ThrelAn entry on the 6th records Threlkeld's arl'lval at
keld.
Tahlee.
The next day, a Sunday, the diary runs: ,. T\vo
services as usual.
I performed the services and Mr.
Threlkeid preached the sermons."
The divine worship
at CarrinO'ton was conducted in a carpenter's shop.
Describing'"this building in his diary, Sir Edward Parry
writes : (25th. April, 1830) :
.
Our little church now assumes a more respectable form.
I do
not mean externallY for I fear it must long continue the rough
carpenter's shop, l;ut as regards the numbers, respectability and
attention of our congregation.
To-day we were more numerous
than usual, all the officers of the establishment being present.
Our
singing, too was now very well performed.
*L. E. Threlkeld to the Colonial Secretary: Report on the
:Mission for the veal' 1838.
......,
t.Tames Backhouse : Extracts from the Letters of ...
London, 1838-1841, Part IlL, pp. 64-66..
..
tNan'atit"e of the United States E.rplorlllg E.rpe(lltlOlt During
the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842: By Charles Wilkes,
U.S.N., Conmlamler of the Expedition-London, 1852.
See p. 375
of this paper.
§Sir Edward Parry: Diary, July 6, 1833-July 18, 1833.
Lallcelot Ecl1card ThrelJ.-eld.
Sunday, 4th. ,Tuly : Our church looked nmch more like a church
today, and by a few more improvements we should have ample room
for everybody soon.
The building was capable of holding 250 persons.
On the Monday following, Threlkeld, in company with
Sir Edward and Lady Parry, visited the families of certain
of the workers on the Company's estate.
The next day
other families were visited, and in the evening Threlkeld
held a meeting" in the usual place of worsh ip, " which was
attended by sixty or seventy persons.
On the Thursday
there was an assemblage of the blacks in the district, at
which the missionary was present:Mr. Threlkel(l spoke to them for about half an hour in their
own language endeavouring to lead their minds to a knowleJge of
a few of the leading points of religion.
They were attentive and
seemeu much interested.
The next day Threlkeld set out with the Commissiollcr
in a boat for Booral. Leaying the headquarters at 1 p.m.,
they arrived at 4.30 p.m. They spent the night with J. E.
Ebsworth, the Company's accountant and assistant to the
Commissioner; in the morning they 'went on to Stroud,
where Threlkeld conducted a religious service. Two
services were conducted at Stroud, Sir Edward Parry
reading the prayers, and Threlkeld preaching the sermons.
The two travellers then proceeded to Booral, where another
service was held at 7 p.m. Contemporaneous memoranda;;
indicate that the meeting place at Booral was "a dwelling
house"; that at Stroud, as well as the one at Carrington,
was the Company's carpenter's shop. Statistics show that
the services at all three centres were well attended. t
Sir
Edward Parry's church at Stroud (St John's) was at the
time of Threlkeld's visit under construction.
The corner
stone had been laid with considerable ceremony on April
29 previous.:j: On the Monday they returned to Tahlee,
where Threlkeld visited one or two families; and on the
following Thursday, July 18, 1833, Sir Edward Parry left
on business for Newcastle, taking Threlkeld with him.
"Sir Elhmrd Parry: Entry, October 2, 1832.
tIbid.
tSir Euwaru Parry: Entry, April 29, lSin.
364
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward Th I'clkeld.
365
VISIT OF :MESSRS BACKHOUSE' AND WALKER.
In 1831, James Backhouse, a prominent member of the
Society of Friends, or, as they are more popularly termer},
"The Quakers," living in Yorkshire, England, received
permission from the controlling interests of that religious
body to pay a visit to the British settlements in the
Southern Hemisphere.§ He, in company with Mr George
·Washington Walker, of Newcastle, England, sailed for
Australia in September of that year, and the Friend'S
landed in Hobart Town in February, 1832. They eventually reached Sydney late in December, 1834, and remained
in the colony until l\Iarch, 1837, excepting for a short
period occupied in re-visiting Van Diemen's Land. After
their return thither, Mr Backhouse records (February 25,
1836m that he met Threlkeld at John Tawell's house in
Sydney, and there the Friends obtained interesting
information concerning his activities at Lake l\Iacquarie.
Barkhouse emphasizes the fact that Threlkeld was conCeIltrating on the acquisition of the native language, but
commends this action as "very useful labour, and may be
a help to those of different gifts, who may hereafter follow
in other paths. "II The latest report of the mission (1835)
was perused, and was described as a plain statement of
facts, and worthy of the honest persevering character of
the writer.·
This contact with Threlkeld by the Quaker brethren
was an incentive for them to visit the mission station,
which they did at the end of April in that year (1836).
A few days pror to their advent at Ebenezer, viz., April 24,
He apa bushranger gave himself up at the mission.
peared firstly at the men's huts, and the men, being
suspicious of his appearance, sent him up to the house.
He then posed as a groom, and said his clothes were at
an inn at Maitland.
This tale ,vas considered to be too
thin by Threlkeld, and the man was persuaded to confess
the truth with a view to the mitigation of his sentence.
§Baekholise's Extracts, Part 1.. p. 3.
~Backholise's Extracts, Part TIL, p. 47.
II/bid.
*/bid.
tArticle on "Days of LonfY\.fTo" (No. Y1.) in .Vell"cGstle Heral(l.
October 19, 1910.'
'" b
tIbid.
£
3G7
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lctncelot E dzm I'd I'll relkeld.
northern end of the Lake, about ten miles from Newcastle.
Backhouse describes his dwelling as "a rough hut of split
timber and bark"-which, however, belied the settler's
prosperous circumstances.
Backhouse conceived a high
opinion of Clarke's character.
Leaving his farm, they
pursued their way to Ebenezer, examining the plant li£3
along the track, and discussing with McGill the various
foods used by the blacks.
They reached the mission
station after sundown, where they were kindly received by
Threlkeld and his "numerous family."
After tea they
spent a pleasant evening with the Threlkelds, joining in
the family worship, which took place daily, both morning
and evening.
The next morning was spent in perusing the work
accomplished by Threlkeld in connexion with the translation into the aboriginal dialect portions of Holy Scripture,
and also the " Vocabulary.' '
In his writings, Backhouse
In
always evinced a keen interest in matters aboriginal.'*'
the afternoon the Friends went for a stroll along Coal
Point, meeting several blacks, to whom Threlkeld spoke
on religious matters.
Backhouse remarked in his correspondence that blacks were very seldom seen at any of the
religious services on Sundays,
neighbourhood, which he attributed to the good offices of
the mission.:j:
O~ May 2, 1836, the Quaker missionaries took leave
of theIl' host, who accompanied them across the northern
end of the Lake, landing them at the establishment of
Jonatha.n WarJ.ler, now "Varner's Bay.
They were to
meet hIm agalll soon afterwards in Sydney, whither
Threl~eld had g;one on business.
There they also renewed
acqualll~ance WIth their native guide, McGill, who, with a
~ompatrIOt named Boatman, had gone to Sydnev tf)
lll~erpret for certain other aboriginals who wer~ on 'theIr
The manner in which this native met his death is
trIal.
related by Threlkeld in his Report of the J\Iission, December
31,1839:-
366
. . . the rooms of L. E. Threlkeld's humble weatherboard house
lwing too small to admit more than the family and servants, and
L. E. Threlkeld not having thought it best to press these subjects
upon them till he was master of their language. t
James Backhouse was a man who considered the eternal
welfare of his fellow-men of paramount importance, and
he remarked more than once the absence of any apparent
spiritual results in the blacks.
Although, he wrote,
Threlkeld occasionally spoke to them on the eternal veritie~,
and they listened with gravity, nothing of the Christian
character was at that time in evidence amongst them. H2
noted, however, signs of civilization in the blacks of the
*e.g. "The Report of .Tames Backhouse and George \Vashington
"-alker, on mrious subjects connected with the state of the Colonv
of New South 'Yales," to Major-General Richard Bourke, K.C.B:,
Governor-in-Chief of the Colony of New South \Vales, etc., etc.:
Sydney, .January 19, 1837.
Appendix to the "Extracts" : Part V.,
pp. 50 et seq.
tBackhoucc : Krtrads, P[~rt 111., p. 65.
Not long since, one of the Blacks, belonging to this Inlet
named Boatman,. was speared by the Blacks in Svdney, in suell :~
~an~~r that.he llllgerec~, and shortly afterwards di~d of his wounds.
e ,,\' as bUIl,ed by. a ~tock~an at In'iring [~ Eraring, near Dora
Cle~k.-B. ". C.] III tIllS .neIghbourhood.
This was a case requiring
the lilt.erference of .Tu~tlce; but it was useless to apply to the
C~ro~e:, or t<~ any MagIstrate on the subject, there being 'none but
A onglllal wltn~sses ,,:ho are now all declare,1 incompetent until
the Royal SanctIOn arrn-es.
Backhouse recorded that these dusky visitors often came
t~ ~ee the:r:n, usuall~ under the influence of liquor, a condItIOn notICed preVIOusly when the Friends were at the
Lake.§ Before they left Sydney, Backhouse and Walker
were .able to p~I:use the Report on the Mission for the year
1836, and wl'ltmg under date February 20 1837 Backhouse wrote1r:'
,
,
By this tlocument little success, of an obvious kind a
. t
have attended the labour bestowed, and much has occu'rre~P~~lsdi0
courage.
sT~e .last reference i~ t~e Backhouse correspondence Lf)
th~ l\II~sIOn to the Abol'lgmes at Lake Macquarie is COll-
tamed m a letter from Hobart Town dated April 24 1837 '"
two months after they had said a final farewell to their
Hbid,
§Ibid,
IfIbid,
* Ibid,
p. 66.
pp. 67, 68.
Part IV., p. 36.
p. 42.
368
Ruyal A1tstralian Historical Society.
numerous friends in Sydney.
of "Bahtahbah":-
It is an echo of the days
George Yeolanu was one of the Company.
He was present at
the Committee of the London Missionary Society when. fl:om representations maue to it the conclusion to abandon the mlSSlon to the
aborigines of New South '.Vales, under the charge o~ L. T. Threlkeltl
was come to, by which much benefit to these mJured ~eople was
hindereu' and ten thousand acres of land, held by the Soclety for
the benefit of the blacks, and which proves to be. a ri~h coa~fi.eld
l"eVerteu to the Government.
We took the opportumty of explammg
to George Yeoland the nature of the error the~ were. led into, by the
misrepresentations of persons, whose good mtentlOns we do not
question, but who had never seen the place.
This statement is purely and simply Threlkeld'8 side of
the picture; Samuel Marsden, and perhaps Dr Lang, could
have told the good Mr Backhouse quite a different story.
Ignorance of the locality did not enter the question at all;
the decision to abandon the mission was arrived at, on the
score of extravagant expenditure due to indifferent
management. t The objects of the Lon~on ~Ii~siona.ry
Society did not allow of one of theIr mISSIOnarIeS
"squatting" on a huge area of land at great expense, on
account of the prospective value of its rich coal seams.
Besides, the land was promised on trust to the Society
only on the condition that it was to be used solely for
missionary purposes.:j:
Samuel Marsden early had doubts as to the ultimate
success of the mission, as he had previously contemplated
commencing a similar mission under the aegis of the Church
Missionary Society.
However, he would not do so, unle"s
assured of the adequate support of the Government.
An
extract from a letter to Archdeacon Scott from the Rev
Samuel Marsden, Parramatta, on December 2, 1826, says:The Church Missionary Society have, for the last 10 years,
expresseu a reauiness to co-operate in this benevolent work, but as
Agent to that Society I never felt myself authorised to enter upon
so expensive anu difficult an umlertaking, unless the Colonial Government would have united to second the efforts of the Society, and
this support it has never been in my power to obtain.
t Vide Rev Samuel Marsden's evidence in the case Threlkeld v.
Lang: The Australian, March 25, 1836.
tPer Deed of Trust, quoted by L. E. Threlkeltl in the Statement.
Lancelot Edward TTl rclkeld.
369
Threlkeld afterwards obtained Government support for his
second mission, and thus was more fortunate than Marsden.
The Church Missionary Society ultimately founded a
Mission to the Aborigines at Wellington Valley in 1832,
and carried it on for a number of years.
\Vith regard
to Dr Lang, the celebrated libel case, Threlkeld v. Lang,
was adjudicated during the stay of the Quaker brethren
in New South 'Vales.
THRELh."ELD v. LANG.
The report of the case appeared in The Australian of
March 25, 1836.
The case was heard in the Supreme
Court, Civil side, before Mr Justice Burton and a special
jury.
The Bolicitor-General of the colony appeared for
the plaintiff, whilst the Doctor conducted his own ca;,;c.
The damages were laid at £1000, being for libels alleged
to be contained in certain articles admitted to have been
written by him in his newspaper, The Colonist.
This
newspaper was established in 1835, and the articles complained of appeared in three numbers published in
November of that year.
\Vhen Threlkeld wrote to De
Lang requesting an apology, the latter published a reply
in the Colonist of December 31, 1835, "charging him with
a lack of conscience or common sense."
Among the
charges enumerated by counsel for the prosecution which
were brought by Dr Lang against Threlkeld were:. . '. drawing £500 a year from the London Missionary Society,
for h13 own use. . . . That the Society had given him his ticket of
Lave and abandoned the settlement owing to his unworthiness.
That
through the gross mismanagement of Mr. T. the Societv had been
deprived of the grant which was an irreparable loss a;;',l that the
injur;;- brought about by incompetent and unfit pers~ns engaged in
such missions was truly lamentable. *
The Solicitor-General went on to sav that the alle<red
b
libels accused Threlkeld of haviuO' be~ome a reneO'ade to
'"
b
the faith and doctrine to which he had subscribed at his
ordination, in view of the fact of his "entering under tlw
broad banners of an Archdeacon in Episcopacy." BeiuO'
subsidized by the Government in the conduct of th~
*The Al/stralian, March 25, 1836.
371
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lf/ncelot Edward Thre7ke7d.
mission, Threlkeld appeared in the annual Government
School and Clergy lists, and was obliged to report to the
Archdeacon every year.
The sting in this statement of
Dr Lang's was his implied reference to Threlkeld's staunch
and uncompromising Nonconformity-he was said to have
objected to lVIarsden having anything whatsoever to de
with the lVIission to the Aborigines on account of lVIarsden
being a "Churchman."
It is very likely that Threlkekl
had no option but to submit to the jurisdiction of Archdeacon Broughton, seeing that his livelihood depended
upon his compliance with the Government's conditions.
Among Threlkeld 's other crimes, according to the
newspaper articles cited, were those of "being lib~ral with
other peoples' goods, of turning a sheep and cattle
breeder," etc., etc.
Counsel for the plaintiff admitted a
substratum of truth in the articles; but, said he, "b.\T
blending truth with falsehood, they were rendered the
more mischievous."
Counsel emphasized the unfortunate
circumstance of two ministerial brethren being at odds jlJ
the Law Courts-
Dr Lang then addressed the Court, speaking for foul'
and a half hours, keeping the Court sitting until half-past
A perusal of the law report in
seven in the evening.
the Australian gives one an impression that the Doctor
rather enjoyed himself; the crowded audience was also
in a good humour, and greatly appreciated his foren3i~
humour.
The next day Dr Lang called his witnesses,
three relatively unimportant ones, and lastly the principal
witness, the Rev Samuel l\Iarsden. The third witness was
a lVIr Raymond, junr., a clerk in the Colonial Secretary's
office (lUI' Raymond, senr., was Postmaster-General of th"
colony, having been appointed in 1829).
TIle "witness
produced a letter from Governor Darling to the Soeiety
Another
which, it was said, reflected on Threlkeld.
document supposed to be a copy of a despatch from Earl
Bathurst to the Governor was rejected by the trial Judge
as evidence.*
An objection by Threlkeld's counsel that
the document was inadmissible as evidence, as it was a
"copy of a cOPy," was sustained by l\Ir Justice Burton:-
370
as the enemies of religion ma;y thereby rejoice; anJ coulJ he have
a vailed himself of any other mode of settlement. he never wonlJ
have come into the Court on the occasion.,
This note was also sounded by those two good men, Backhouse and Walker, witnesses for the prosecution, who were
"severally called, and affirmed." The expression "affirmed"
is of interest, insomuch as it is contrary to Quaker tenets
to take an oath in the courts. Backhouse's correspondence
often refers to the matter.+ The Friends considered that
the material contained in the articles "were calculated to
do him" (Threlkeld) "an injury amongst strangers,
The Hon
especially coming from another clergyman."
Alexander lVIcLeay, the Colonial Secretary, called as a
witness for the prosecution, was somewhat non-committal:
. . . Knew that Mr. Threlkeld was employed as a missionary to
the aborigines, at least that he was paid for it, and that if he did
not give satisfaction to the government he would not be so employed.§
tIbid.
:t.Extracts, December 3, 1836-Part IV., p. 28; Ibid, December
19, 1836-Part IV., p. 30, etc.
§The Australian, March 25, 1836.
His Honour said that he was incapacitated hy law frum receiving
the record in evidence.
The Rev Samuel lVIarsden, now aged and ailing, was
\Ve can conceive that by this time the
'then examined.
good old chaplain had little desire to re-open old wounds.
He gave his evidence in a straightforward manner, and did
not hesitate to confirm the opinion he had always held.
His evidence sums up his sentiments concerning the matter
so well that we quote it in full:I know that Mr. ThrelkelJ was appointed Missionary to the
London Society, a Jeputatiun that came (Jut brought we letters;
when they came to me tu Port .rackson they were accompanied by
Mr. Threlkeld-they expressed a wish that Mr. Threlkeld might act
as missionary to the aborigines, and Lake MacquaTie was fixed on
as the Station, they requested that I would superintend it.
This I
declined without I had the control of the funds, as I knew that
Mr. Threlkeld was not competent to manage the erections of buildings
and take the management of land.
I told the deputation in tlle
long run, that I would point out to Mr. Threlkeld what I thought
would be most useful, they then gave him an order to draw what
money he might want.
I diu not interfere with the Mission from
the commencement, being aware that Mr. T. woul,] get into difficulties
for want of proper experience amI not of integrity.
I knew that
*Ibid.
Royal Australian JIistorical Society.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
Mr. Threlkeld wanted £500 a year, he had only £250.
I told him
I would see that he had £300.
I never saw his instructions from
the Society, but I know that Mr. Campbell had instructions to honour
his bills.
I attributed his extravagance to want of experience.
The London Sodety have withdrawn their support; but I understand that M1'. T. has £156 a ~,-ear at present.
I do not know
whether he is under the control of the Archdeacon or not; I am of
opinion, so will every reflecting person, that neither the London
Society or the \Yesleyan Society could succeed from the manner in
which' they were carried on. I 'un<1erstand the whole of the expence
of the L;ndon Societv to amount to Three Thousand. six hundred
pounds.t
.
THE FRENCH IN TAHITI.
372
Cross-examined, Marsden stated that he did not consider
it disreputable to remain in the pay of the Government,
and he considered that the missionary had a right to
preach to whom he chose, and when he pleased.
An
evidence of Marsden's fairmindedness in the matter of the
mission is to be found in his letter to the London
Missionary Society dated Parramatta, January 27, 1827:It is probable that Mr. Threlkeld may write again to you, or
some individuals, on the subject of the Mission.
Should this be
the case, you will, of course, weigh both sides of the question.
I
1could not hare you to be gorerned by my judgment, it the opinions
ot those 1eho differ with me appear to have m01-e weight.
Mr Justice Burton then addressed the jury, expressing
pain at the very nature of the case.
He suggested that
the case be settled out of court; but the suggestion wa"
met by a negative. He considered that, whatever the
verdict, it would be a miserable one-"miserable to the
party who obtained it, miserable to him that did not obtain
it, and miserable to the character of that religion of which
they professed to be champions."
After the jury had
retired the second time, the Judge again urged the parties
to effect an amicable settlement.
Dr Lang tendered :1
partial apology, which Threlkeld acknowledged, but stated
that he would abide by the decision of the jury, at the
same time denying any animosity.
The jury finallj'
returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages one farthing.
To show the intense interest the case commanded, the neWHpaper report of the case ends with the statement that
"the court was crowded to a degree anything but comfortable each day."
tIbid.
373
An item of interest in connexion with Threlkeld ':;
sojourn in the Islands is a letter addressed to ., His 1\1ost
Christian Majesty, Louis Philip [? Philippe], King of tIle
French, " etc., etc., by Threlkeld.
1'he letter was written
from Ebenezer, Lake l\Iacquarie, and was dated December
8, 1838.
This action would be considered presumptuous
in these days, and no doubt was then also, in view of tIt"
fact that such communications are usually forwarded
through diplomatic or consular channels.
It is a matter
for speculation as to ",-hether the letter ever reached th('
French Court.
Apart from international considerations.
the lodging of the protest that the letter contained is nut
within the province of a private individual. If the affairs
of the missions in the Islands had been in jeopardy, the
protest ought to have been made through the governing
body, the London Missionary Society, in London.
Threlkeld states in his letter his excuse for addressill'"
His Most Christian Majesty:'"
The best years of my life have been spent in these Islands amI
these parts, far from my native land. . . . Such being the relation13hip in which I stand towards the Queen of Tahiti it becomes my
duty to state on her behalf the character of that war which the
French Nation threatened to declare against Tahiti.
We have been unable to discover any information as· to
Threlkeld's association with Queen Pomare.
'Ve know
of no record which indicates that he eyer Illet her.
This gallant descendant of the doughty Sir Lancelot
Threlkeld of Threlkeld entered the lists as the champion of
the dusky Queen of Tahiti after receiying a letter from one
of the missionaries at Tahiti dated Sepetmber 6, 1838. The
letter stated that the Queen had ordered the expulsion of
two French priests who wished to establish a Roman
They refused to 0'0 and
Catholic mission on the island.
the 1'ahitians put them off the island in a canoe. b 'This
brought retaliation from the French per the frigate r enus.
the commander demanding an apology and an indemnity
of 2000 dollars to be forthcoming within twenty-four hours.
The islanders were also to hoist the French flag and fire
374
Royal A.ustralian Historical Society.
a royal salute.
In case of non-compliance, the French
intended to bombard the island.* Threlkeld stated in his
letter that the Queen refused admission on religious, not
national, grounds, consequently the French Commodore
had exceeded his rights in acting as he had done.
The
whole tenor of the letter was not such as was likely to
evoke sympathy at the French Court:
It ,vas endorsed
"Printed at the Herald Office, Sydney, -, and was forwarded
in the care of the Captain of the French frigate then lying
in Port Jackson.
\Ve do not know the fate of the letter to the King of
the French, but we do know that the French continued
their acts of aggression for several years afterwards. .In
the meantime the London Missionary Society took actIOn
in England in an attempt to moye the British GOyenllnent
to intervene. In this they were supported by eleven othel~
British and foreign missionary organizations, but the
Government would not move.
The matter was then taken
up in Sydney, where a huge meeting of protest was. hel~l
in the City Theatre, Market Street.
Several p~omI~enc
public men, as well as ministers of all denommatlOns,
delivered speeches.
Among the clergymen were the Revs
Dr Lang and L. E. Threlkeld, united in a :ommon :ause.T
Soon afterwards the French extended theIr attentlOns to
the neighbouring islands, and. a sanguinar~ battle. '''.ith
the natives took place at Huahme, Threlkeld s old mISSIon
station.
This at last moved the British Government, who
aOTeed with the French to take evidence as to the original
i~dependence of the Islands. Threlkeld was at this time
in a position to help the cause of the Tahitians, and together
with his old friend and colleague, the Rev R. Bourne, he
made an important declaration to the Colonial Secreta~'y,
which was taken as evidence.
The result of the enqmr,v
was that the neighbouring islands kept their independence.t
Tahiti had been annexed in 1844.
*These matters are treateJ by the Rev ,Josep" King-Ten
Decades, chapters v. and vi.
tTen Decades, p. 116.
tIbid, p. 119.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
375
YISIT OF THE WILKES EXPEDITION, 1839.
BlRABAN.
An interesting' interlude in Threlkeld's life at Lake
1\lacquarie during 1839 was the visit to Bbenczer of two
members of the United States Nayal Expedition.
This
expedition circumna\'igated the world in a United Statrs
S:-1.uadron under the eommanu of Captain \Yilkes, FS.N.
W lIkes wrote an account of the expedithn, one edition of
which was illustrated by Agate, the official artist of the
expedition.§ H~, together with Hale, the ethnologist of the
pal'ty" stayed WIth Threlkeld at Lake l\Iaequarie, and both
deSCrIbed what was left of the natiye life of the localitv.,y
Threlkeld mentioned this visit nearlv twenty years af1'er~
wards in a letter from Sydney on ~~pI'il 12, 1859, to his
~xcellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B., Governor of Cape
Colony : .1 was. not aware that my work on the language had been reo
publIsheJ III Amenca by Mr. Hale until mentioneJ in Vour list of
works.
Mr.. Hale was at Lake Macquarie with =otlte~ gentleman
of. the. Ame~JCan SquaJron residing with us for many days, and we
enJoye~1 ~helT company mnch, they taking considerable interest in
our MISSIOn.
They have in all their publications spoken well of
our efforts, I gave them all the information in my power.
Agate d~ew a portrait of Biraban or l\IcGill, Threlkeld '1\
famous nght-hand man, who had been guide to the Quakerl'l
two years before.
Biraban's name meant "eagle-hawk"
although he was mostly called l\IdiilJ. He had previousl\'
been the servant of a military officer, and had thus obtained
Biraban was oneo
his e?,-cellent command of English.
eulogIzed in the SYdney Gazette of January 12 1830 011
the occasion of his "in\'estiture ., by the' GO~'ern()r' at
Parra matta, during a gathering of blacks at that centre.
He was chief of his tribe, and on this occasion he was
presented with-
~ b~dg.e of rlistinction consisting of a brass plate bearing this
lllScTlptJon : "Bamba-hn, or ]',Jac.Gil, Chief of the T,-ibe of Barabah.
on Lake Alacquane, a reward for his assistance -in reducing his
§8ee I', cW2.
'rhis a11<1 other editions of the N arrat-il'e are to
be found III the PublIc ;"ibrary of New South 'Vales, Sydney.
, IiL. E. Threlkeld, Sy'lney, April 12, 1859, to Sir George Grey,
K.C.B., Governor, Cape of Good Hope.
376
Royal A1lstralian Historical Society.
n.ative tongue to a written language."
In suspending ~his badge
upon the breast of the chief, His Excellency commended Ius la~dab.le
conduct and expressed the pleasure he felt on thus rewardmg It.
The ;ssistance given to the missionary by Biraban has
been generously recognized by him.
Threlkeld h~s left
on record a description of the procedure adopted by th.esc
two collaborators when translating the Gospel ~ccordmg
to St Luke.~ He would go over the translatJOn three
Lancelvt Edward '1'7/rclkeld.
377
K?FORTS ON BEHALF OF THE ABORIGINES.
Most of the writers on the subject of the l\lission to
the Aborigines have referred to Threlkeld in his relatioll
to the black population of the colony as "Protector,
Interpreter, and Evangelist."
The dcscription is Threlkeld's own, and appears in his Annual Report on the
:l\Iission for the year 1838, the text being as follows:It may not be improper to state for the information of His
Excellency the Governort in this early stage of His Excellenc;y's
administration the various employments which have occupied fourteE'll
years of missionary service in this Colony at Lake Macquatie on
behalf of the Aborigines.
During my residence in New South ,vales, I have sustained a
threefold office arising out of my employment as a Missionary, in
which I have endeavoured "to exercise m~'self to have always a
conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men," whether
mine own Countrymen, or the Aborigines, whenever duty has callerl
for an interference on my part.
1st.
As PROTECTOR-to which circumstances called me, ever
Bince 1825.
As INTERPRETER.-In many cases which unhappily oc,
2nd.
curred at the Supreme Court, when several were transported and
others hanged.
3rd.
As EVANGELIST.-In making known the Gospel to the
AbOl'igines in their own language, &c. §
(1) - PRDTECTOR.
Biraban, or McGill.
(From \Vilkes's · . Narrati.. . e.")
separate times, making corrections wh!'lre necessary, at .the
instance of the intelligent black, and ~ven the fourth and
final draft, which was actually publIshed, was. not can:
sidered by the missionary to be perfect.
The dIalect wa~
the Awabakal the name of a trIbe at the Lake.
Awaba,
according to Threlkeld, means "plain surfaces," and w~s
the native name for Lake lVIacquarie.
The. name stlll
survives at Awaba, on the Great Northern RaIlway.
*Dr. Pru3cr's Edition.
Threlkeld does not seem to have been able to do much
to protect the blacks, in the usually accepted sense of the
word.
His sphere of influence was very limited whcn
compared with the total area of the colony, and, on his
own showing, very few blacks remained in his locality
after the mission had been in existence for a fe,,, years.
Apparently they could not be protected against their worst
enemies, the white settlers and townspeople, who encouraged them to acquire all their vices, leaving little
opportunity for them to learn the Christian yirtnes.l<Jven
Threlkeld's own right-hand man, :l\IcGill, was" addi.cted to
rum."· In the interior of the colony, matters were more
serious.
The blacks were accustomed to steal from the
t(Sir George Gipps.)
§Backhouse : Extracts, Part IlL, p. 63.
*Backhouse : Extracts, Part IlL, p. 64.
378
Royal Australian Historical Society.
settlers on every possible occasion.
This naturally led to
much friction, and the settlers would retailate on the
blacks, and more than often would shoot the natives ou~
of hand.
This conduct led to reprisals on the part of th".
blacks.
Another source of friction was the frequent
abduction by the white men of the aboriginal women, and
this action was not always confined to the low-grade
Europeans.
Threlkeld, in one of his reports, stated that
even white "gentlemen" (1) took aboriginal women for
concubines while staying in the country. t The writer has
also heard similar statements.
This naturally was resented by the blacks, who sought vengeance on the whites;
and then would commence a systematic plan of extermination of the aboriginals in the particular district where
these events took place.
Many of the colonists characterized the natives as
being lazy and intractable; they said that they were
deficient in intellect and incapable of instruction, and so
must be treated as the beasts that perish, and must j)('
wiped out as vermin.
Threlkeld always and everywherl'
championed the cause of the blacks.
He was unable to
do much for them of a practical nature, but ,vherever and
whenever possible he wielded his facile pen in an attempt
to rouse public opinion in an effort to ameliorate the lot
of the natives.
He always took their part in the reports
which he presented to the Government each year. In that
quoted above, that of 1838, he refuted the popular theory
as to the mentality of the blacks, stating his opinion that
the findings of scientists were responsible for the belief.
He stated that, while the aborigines lived in or around the
towns, they responded to the requirements of civilization;
and that, when put to work, became efficient in their trades
-those of horsemen, stockmen, shepherds, seamen, etc.
He emphasized his point by citing the policy of the
Australian Agricultural Company of employing blacks.
Threlkeld accused the whites of making the natives work
at very severe tasks for trifling awards; and he added,
moreover, that when they ceased working under these
conditions, they were accused of laziness.
In fact, these
tL. E. Threlkeld: Report on the Mission for the year 1828.
Lallcelot Edu'ard Threlkeld.
379
employers were virtually stigmatized as slaveholders.
On
the other hand, Threlkeld himself experienced labour
troubles.
He complained that the mone,- earned bv the
aborigines was spent in strong drink wl~ich was r~adih­
supplied by the whites.
He was ablia'ed to admit thdt
some indeed were lazy, and that on b~ing reprimanded
the loafers were wont to draw awav those ,vho were
inclined to work.
They felt that th~v were not tied
time in their work.
They would son;etimes leave their
lab?urs to partake in tribal fights.
Their apparent civilizatIOn was merely a veneer, for when they left the towns
for the bush they reverted to their primitive mode of life.
\Yith reference to the campaign of extermination
w,aged against the blacks by the settlers of the colony
Tllrel~eld mentioned in his 1838 report the incidence ~f
the VIOlent deaths in the white and black populations of
Ne:Y Sou~h -Wa~es . . \Vhereas there were only twenty-olH~
whItes Inlled III SIX years, five hundred blacks were
slaughtered in two years.
Threlkeld stated that the
~e.a~hs. of the fifteen whites were not due entirely to the
mItIatlve of the l1atives,but were caused through wrongs
do~e t~ other blacks.
He suggested the introduction of
legIslatIOn for the protection of the aborigines.
.O~ce, while acting in the role of Protector of the
aborIgmes, Threlkeld fell foul of the future Colonia]
Treasurer and. first Premier of New South vV' ales, l\ll'
(after~war?s SIr Stuart) Donaldson.
Donaldson ownell
a statIOn. m the New England district, at. Beardy Plains.
now ArmIda!e.
Threlkeld had heard that certain natives
ha~ been pOIsoned on this station, and. without waitinO" to
verIfy the facts, straightway addressed the nO\'l'r~or
thr~ugh. the Colonial Secretary, Mr Deas Thomson, on th~
subJect m a letter written in March, 1840.*
This apparent.ly wa~ t~e case adverted to by Threlkeld in his Report
on the l\'lIssIOn for the year 1840, as follows:-
t;
. Early in the pr~s~nt year a person publicly boasted "that prussic
aCId h~d been aumIlll.stered to the aborigines at a station up the
countr.." , wh.ere .they. dIed about the place like rats"; and although,
upon InvestIgatIOn, It was not substantiated, yet thp vaunt of that
*Uentioned by Mr Threlkeld in a letter to S. A. Donaldson from
Ebenezer, Lake Macquarie, July 27, 1840.
Royal A.ustralian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
individual who boasted of its occurrence as a capital way of getting
rid of the blacks without troubling the Government, showed sufficiently
what manner of spirit he was of, whilst his subsequent transportation
to Van Diemen's Land for horse stealing, will prevent for a season
the exercise of his diabolical machination on human beings of a
better disposition than his own.
Manusc~ipt,,described the Threlkelds as "generally lovers
of l~a.rnlllg ; although one contemporary, a missionary 0 t'
TahItI, who knew Threlkeld well, and whose judgment WH.'';
sound, o.nce wrote expressing suprise that Threlkeld should
adapt Illmself to the study of the language of the natiYes
of ~:w South Wales,. seeing t~lat he neYer acquired
Tah,Itlan when he was III the SOCIety Islands!* Be that
~s It may, the study of. the native language made an
lllstant appeal to the mIssionary.
In the records Wl3
repeated~y read. that his chief purpose in going to Lake
Mac9-uarle was .. to learn the language."
This passion
contlllued to the last w'eek of his life in 1859.
380
The Colonial Secretary was requested by Donaldson to
forward copies of all the correspondence, and in a covering
letted the former advised that the Governor considered
that Threlkeld did not reflect on Donaldson's character,
and that enquiries in New England had indicated that
there had been no grounds for the report that had reached
the missionary.
However, Threlkeld received a letter from Donaldson
complaining of his action, and expressing annoyance at
his name having been made use of in an exceedingly hurtful
manner.
Threlkeld wrote a characteristic reply,:\: making
no apologies for his action, and stating that his purpose
in addressing the Government was that the matter might
be ventilated, and, if true, then the miscreants could br
apprehended and justice done.
He merely aclmowledged
Donaldson's denials, and told him that he must submit
them to the Colonial Secretary for the Governor's information.
He concluded his letter with this high-flown
passage:I deem it also proper to tell you that the censure of any person
however respectable, will not I trust intimidate me in my course of
duty, whenever I am called by circumstances to aet on those Christian
principles which teach us not by concealment to become partakers
of other men's sins.
(2)--INTERPRETER.
It was as interpreter for the blacks§ that Threlkeld
carried out his most useful work, this being made possible
by his knowledge of the native dialect.
He seems to have
had an undying passion for the acquisition of the aboriginal
tongue, and in this respect, also, we have the" Genius anl1
Temper of the Threlkelds" manifesting itself.
The old
tFrom t.he Colonial Secretary's Office, July 1;~, 1840,
tL. E. Threlkeld, from "Ebenezer," Lake Macquarie, July 27,
1840, to S. A. Donaldson.
§See footnote (*) on p. ;:;62.
381
Through contact with the natives Threlkeld soon saw
that, ~lthough they had age-old laws of their own, they
were Judged by those of the white men.
Owing to th'('
fact that, when arrested for various misdemeanours, the~'
were unable to defend themselves or eYen to o'iYe evideneC'
on behalf of their fellows, in.justice 'was some~mes done to
~hem.
They therefore benefited greatly by the presence,
~n the court, of a sympathetic white man who could
lllterpret for, them, ~hus presenting their side of the case,
and translatlllg theIr eVIdence, in the absence of which
dl~e to mutual ignorance of languages, the defendant.~
mIght have been wrongl;\' convicted and punished,
Threlkeld was thus able to obtain an acquittal more than
once.
Mr Justice Burton, who was a very hnmane man
once, e.xpressed his satisfaction that the p~or nllfortnnatt:
abo,r~~llles. who were brought before the court had had the
faCIlItIes for plead.in?, their canse through the good office,;
?f a resp~cta?le mISSIOnary.
James Backhouse: commel11,
lllg on thIS dIctum of the learned judge (in a letter dated
May 2~, ,1836),! added that, in this case, the lH'fSfllce 0 f
t~e nllsslonarY:lllterpretcr was doubly nccessan'.
One
WItness had saId that he considered that the bla'cks wer~>
no better than the beasts of the field-" a sentiment YCl'\'
pr.eyalent among the white population of the ColollY. "
1;1
tIllS case the dusky defendants were discharged. .
Goyernor Gipps, who seems to haYe been favourable to
"London Missionary Society Rr·(·ords.
tBackhlluse's Extracts: Part IlL, p, 68.
Royal Australian Historical Society.
382
Mr Threlkeld, wrote a minute on aboriginal matters, which
appeared in the Australian of September 28, 1841, a paragraph of it being as follows:I may further observe that the counsel is usually assigned by
the Supreme Court to any natives brought for trial before it; and
that the government always provides the attendance of Interpreters,
when they can possibly be found.
Mr. Threlkeld, a Missi.onary of
the London Society, has usually acted on such occasions; and he
must, I doubt not, consider it his business to protect the natives, as
well as to interpret for them.
( 3)-EvANGELIST.
This facet of the work of the mISSIOnary to the
aborigines, according'to Threlkeld, was the" making known
the Gospel to the aborigines in their own language &c.' '.
Apparently this, the most important duty of a missionary,
was dependent for its execution on the acquisition of the
language.
Threlkeld declined to exert himself in the
evangelization of the natives until he had perfected his
knowledge of their native speech.
However, by the time
the language had been mastered,~ there were hardly any
blacks to preach to.
Threlkeld conducted religious
services at neighbouring establishments, and in other
respects exercised his calling of a minister of religion, but
the results of the mission, in terms of native converts, were
Thus it must be admitted that Threlkeld's
absolutely nil.
venture at Lake Macquarie, as a religious mission to the
aborigines, was a complete failure.
vVe shall allow the
*L. E. Threlkeld: Report of the Mission for the year 1838.
The following reference is made by Professor A. P. Elkin
in his Monograph on Studies in A1tstralian Linguistics (published
in 1938 by the Australian Katiollal Research Council), pp. 6-7 : "\Ve too often dismiss the work of those who have contributed
grammars, on the ground that they tried to fit the native language
into a classical mould. But the earliest linguistic student in the
aboriginal field, and one who exercised much influence on a number
of others for several decades, L. E. Threlkeld, pleaded for a free
approach to the study, untramelled by previous conceptions of what
a language should look like. He made his own the language of the
Awabakal, Lake Macquarie. . . . . He strongly urged students of
primitive languages to dismiss from their minds 'th trammels of
European sehools and simply follow out the natural rules of
language which have not been sophisticated by art'."
~
Lancelot Edward I'll relkeld.
383
Official Historian of the London Missionary Society to sum
up the factst :_
~ut what of .th~ results ~f the Mission carried on for seventeen
ars
h
; d The MISSIonary eVIdently acquired a SUfficiently correct
. at ~ ge of the language to communicate freely with the people
In
th
WI
own tongue' h
d
•
, e was not ependent upon sueh English as
as so many missionaries to the aborigines
Colonv
. ' e mterpreted for them in the law Courts of the
tion the a~~b~~~ ~~~t~:m:ff~~(~om l.,e interpreted for their instrucChristian converts
Ivme I ed emptIOn; but there were no
Australians who ~e;e' t~ n~~e of tl~e ~wo or three thousand native
learned to know wh
ug 1 ~ro,:,n. t e .sh?res of Lake Macquane
valued the friendshipaotf ttrlue Chr~stlan dISCIpleship meant.
Thev
.
Ie nllsslOnarv . but b - tl D"
f'
.
slnp, into which he tried to lead them: they we;'e ~~aff~v;~~l. nend!elf
t'
si:cen~~~:sb:~:r~toO.d,
Th L . 1 '.
.
. e egIS atlve CounCIl held an enquiry into matters
~ela:!~g to .the aborigines in 1838, and Threlkeld was callell
o. g.ne eVIdence.
He stated that the total cost of the
mls.:'lOn at Lake lVIacquarie, both to the Londo 1\1' . . ~
SOCIety and t tl G
n ~v 18SlOnary
£4448 t d O l e . overnm~nt of New South \Vales, wa"
. d 0 f afte.
ThIS expendIture, he explained covered a
~~go, o( dourteen years, and did not include his own
aJ an, we add, that of his friends)
All tint
Threl~eld then ~8:d to show for that huge sum' was a sm:lI
collectlOn of wrltmgs done in the native dialect and tl ._.
could have been made a spare-time task
To',
tIll"
total expen
f th
"
.
assess . Ie
b'
.
se 0 . e illlSSlOn to its dose in 1841 there must
e added to the sum above quoted Threlkeld's stipe d
d
allowance of £186 per annum for the three years n wh~n h
~ade a I?rand (ascertained) total of £5006! 'Trul' mi~~t
Ito rb
the saId that the mountain had laboured and brou~ht
f
a mouse.
b
(1841)-TERMINATION OF THE MISSION.
In his official report ' ,'tt
Th lk Id
. :\1.1 ·en at the close of 1838':<
is ~~e e s~unded a ~eSSlmlstlc note: "The present l\1issidll
Death mOdS dunfPr?mlsing of any in the whole world"
an
e ectlOn had caused
d'"
.
numbers of the bl k . 1
...a ImmutlOn in the
. ac s m tIe nCllllty, the extent of the
!Ten Decades, p. 77.
q. v.
384
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
native population in the first place having been greatly
exaggerated.
The majority of the survivors. of the Lake
tribes were resident at Newcastle, there bemg then no
stationary tribes at the Lake, but merely a few visitors.
Threlkeld had difficulty in getting them together for
instruction, for they must needs travel away from tIl<:
mission station for the purpose of hunting.
The reports
for 1839 and 1840 were still more pessimistic.
In that
of 1839 Threlkeld wrote that he expected the race to dit~
out at ~n early period.
The natives, such as were left
in the vicinity, used to make tracks for Newcastle ~t
Christmas time, where they were made drunk by certam
ill-favoured persons.
On being reprimanded, they desiret[
to know why it was wrong to become drunk, seeing that
the white people sold the rum.
In his Report for 1840, the last but one, Threlkeld
seems to have seen the writing on the wall as to the
ultimate fate of the mission.
The blacks had almost
disappeared, and with the last of them would disappear
the reason for his continuance at the Lake as a missionary,
and incidentally his allowance from the Governmcnr.
The' forecast made by the Rev Samuel :Marsden, now
gathered to his fathers, that the mission would not succeed,
was now proved to be true, fourteen years after its having
been penned. t Threlkeld, with an eye to the future, made
a proposal that he should follow the blacks to Newcastle,
where he could rent a house, the better to reach them.
In spite of his admission of failure at the Lake, he sug·
gested that the Government should erect a residence for
him on the Government Reserve at Newcastle, whereon the
natives should live; also huts to accommodate one hundred
persons.
He himself, of course, would still be on the
Civil List.
Besides all this, Government should provide
boats for fishing purposes, and also facilities for the disIt was considered
posal of the produce of the natives.
that the expense would be warranted, and could be met
by the sale of the lapsed grant at Reid's .Mistake.
A
further suggestion was made that certain of the natives
could be employed as auxiliaries to the Police Force.
tRev S. Marsden, from Parramatta, December 2, 1826-passim.
Instead of receiving the Governor's sanction to these
grand schemes, Threlkeld reeeived a commnnieution from
th.e <?olonial Secretary dated May 17, 1841, terminating the
m~ssIOn as from the last day of that year.
Apparently
tlus move had been nnder contemplation for some time
and the (~ecision was arrived at after careful perusal of
Threlkeld s own reports referred to above.
The text of
the fatal letter is as follows:Colonial Secretary's Office
Syllney: 17th. JIiI~y, 1841.
Reverend Sir,
I am directed by Sir George Gipps to inform you that having
hatl under consideration the Annual Reports malle b~ you during
the last few ~ears, and especially the Report for the year 1840, it
appears to HIS Excel~ency that no further advantage is likely to
aCClue t? the Abongmes from your continued residence at Lake
Ilfacqua:le, and that the Governor cannot accelle' to the proposal
made ~) you, that you shall remove to Newcastle, and still continue
to receIve a sala.ry from Government.
His Excellency is reluctantly
forcell to acqualllt you that the engagement entered into with YO;"
by the. Government in the year 18.31, will be at an end with 'the
"X!llratJOn of the present year.
I have the honour to be,
Reverend Sir,
Your lllOSt obedient Servant
(Signell) E.' DEAs THOMSON.
.The ~jover.nmen~, i~l ~he. c~rcmnstances, was quite justified
tlus actIon ;. III facl, ]t ]s a matter for "Wonder that the
Gove.rnment d]d not close the station down several years
prevIOusly.:j:
Threlkeld had many influential friends in Sydnev,
who may have exerted themselves on his behalf. Howeve'r,
III
:t Mr..Sydney,. Kendall
Barker, M.A., in his essay on "The
~ov.enr.?rslnp of S~r George Uipps" (Hoyal Australim; Historical
>_?Clet).s JOllrnal, lO!. XVI., Part IV., Pl'. 2vl·2,'jf») has dealt f ll'
WIth SIr G .
G"
.
, u ,
. I '.
eOlge. I~P s attrtude to the aborigines, an,] to matte,:s
J I' atmg to thell "e!fare.
On 1'aO"e 25;} a"pears the f ll( .' .,.
passage :_
b
t o m lll",
.
"To~\'ards the several aboriginal stations that had been estab.
hsl~ed, .under the ~uspJces of various religious ']enoninations. Gipps
mallltallled an attrtude of justce, tempere,] with a great deal of
mercy.'
The para.gr~ph goes on to I'elate the Governor's sentiments to.
war<.!s the nllSSlOn at IVellington Valley, and no doubt the same
sentrments waul<.! apply to the mission at Lake Macquarie.
Royal Australian Historical Society.
all good things come to an end at last: and Threlkeld, was
obliged to bow to the inevitable.
Af.ter the close of the
year 1841 he uttered his s\van-song m the form of ~he
final report on the mission. * This report, ~fter quotmg
in full the letter of dismissal from the Colomal Secret~ry,
briefly recapitulated Threlkeld's history since he jOl~led
the London Missionary Society in 1814. He also bewaIled
the fact that, although much work had been done as regards
translation, there were scarcely any natlYes left t.o read
them. He awned that he virtuously stayed at hIS post
until forced by circumstances to capitulate-act~ually, the
motive force was supplied by the exhausted patIen~e of a
charitable Government.
Although Threlkeld regIstered
apprehension as to his future .lot, and appe~red to be concerned at the thought of bemg cast out mto the cruel
world-or that part of it, so he presumed, that was named
Sydney-he took comfort when he remem?ered that b~neath
their very feet was a coal mine which, WIth the ble~smg of
God , would sustain them in their duties through hfe.
EBENEZER COAL MINE.
The coal mine referred to is perhaps the most interesting feature of the old Mission Station at Ebenezer.
That
name given to the place by Threlke~d is f?rgotten locally,
the station buildings having long smce gIven way to the
commodious premises of the Hotel Toronto, but ma.ny
residents of Newcastle and district remember the old mme
tunnel.
In 1840 Threlkeld began to develop his mine,
and in 1841 coal was being shipped from the Lake to
Sydney, as indicated by an advertisement in the Austr~lian
newspaper.t I am informed by 1\11'. Jonathan DIxon
that his arandfather worked in the mine in 1844.
In
records r~lating to the Newcastle district,§ Threlkeld's
name is coupled with that of James and Alexander Brown,
who in the first half of last century successfully opposed
the coal-mining monopoly granted by the Govern~ent of
*L. E. Threlkeld from "Ebenezer," Lake Macquarie, Dece~ber
30, 1841, to the Hon E. Deas Thomson, Colonial Secretary: PublIshed
in The Australian, January 11, 1842.
tThe Australian, April 22, 1841.
§Appendix III.
Lancelot Ed/card Threlkeld.
387
New South 'Vales to the Australian Agricultural Company.
l\Ir Pulver, sUlTeyor, of Newcastle, has kindly marked out
for us the position of the old tunnel and wharf on the
map of the Parish of Awaba.
The mine was situatedoJl
the south-west side of the Coal Point Peninsula, at a point
about a quarter of a mile north-west of the southern
extremity, marked on the maps as "Skye Point."
The
writer has seen a sectional plan of the mint', drawn presumably by Threlkeld, whose initials appear on the plan
over the inscription and date:EBEKEZER GOAL WORKS SHAFT
Feby. 16th. 1843.
The tunnel from the water's edge to the face was 118 feet
long, and an air shaft appears on the plan "13 yards to
the top seam of coal," which was 5 feet 6 inGhes at tlF~
face.
At the date of the plan the shaft had been sunk
over 40 feet from the top seam; below that distance, 011
the plan, appear the words "Now Sinking."
'rhis coal
mine, naturally, considerably enhanced the "Ebenezer"
property.
Old records"" tell of a detailed valuation of
all the holdings in the surrounding district, carried out
by Messrs Job Hudson and John Wallace in either 1841 or
1842.
The assessors' valuation of Threlkeld's property
was as follows:No. 34 : Owner and occupier, Mr. Threlkeld, two sections wasteland, estimated rental £40; Same owner, 60 acres pasture laml (x)
estimated rental £15; house, garden &c. in occupation of owner,
estimated rental £20; coal pits, estimated rental £600, total £675.
By way of comparison, to indicate the value of the
Ebenezer land, 'William Brooks, who occupied a grant on
the site of the present township of Boolaroo, owned a
"pit of coal, estimated rental £78. "
The estimated rental
of the grant of Jonathan 'Varner, to the east of 'Villiam
Brooks's property, which was of the same acreage as
Threlkeld's, totalled £44.
'When Ebenezer was put up
for auction, for reasons which we shall discuss later, the
advertised value of the property and improvements, and
the coal, was assessed at £34,416. t The full text of the
*"Days of Long Ago" : Article XLVI., July 26, 1911.
t Appendix II.
Royal A1istralian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward I'll }'elh 7d.
advertisement announcing the sale is given in an appendix.
A perusal of the assets is of great interest, and gives some
indication as to how the landscape at and near the present
Toronto would have appeared in Threlkeld's time.
The
house was of ,veatherboard and plaster, and consisted of
twelve rooms.
One may also gather that the missionary
and his family did not leave the Lake-side in dire penury.*
"Gosp~l of St. Luke" translated in its entirety. An
analySIS of these works would be of interest to a scientifie
gathering-of philologists; in fact, certain scientists and
o.the:s were formerly greatly interested during Threlkeld's
hfetIme.1T A doubt has been expressed to the writer bv
one who is well acquainted with the life-ston of' th~
missionary, as to the reception these translatio~ls would
The preface of Dr
receive from modern philologists.
Fraser's book states :_
388
Before closing the account of Threlkeld's life at Lake
l\1acquarie, we shall give some account of his translations
into the native dialect, and other excursions into the realms
of philology, which have been frequently mentioned previouslv in this paper.
A complete summary or catalogue
appea~s at the end of this paper.t . A record of Threlkeld's
chief works are preserved between the covers of a book, the
full title of which is as follows;An A1lstralian Lang'uage as Spoken by the A1wbakal, the People
of Alwba or Lake Macquarie (Near Newcastle, N.S.W.)-being an
Account of their Language, Traditions, and Customs - By L. ~.
Threlkeld - Rearranged, Condensed and Edited with an AppendlX
by John Fraser B.A., LL.D. - Sydney, ehas. Potter, Govt. Prmter,
1892.§
This book does not encompass all Threlkeld's writings on
the subject.
It comprises the "Key to the Study of the
Language," the "Grammar and Vocabulary," and the
*Dr Ludwig Lei'chhanlt, the ill-fated explorer, visited the Newcastle antI Hunter River district on more than one occasion. His
Australian Lettets, from October 1, 1841, to April 3, 1848 (in
German), publishel1 in Germany in 1881, include several from N ewcastle (November 10, 1842; Januar~- 16, 1843; May 15, 1843, and
May 14, 1844), amI from Glendon, the home of "Herr \Valter
Scott." This was during the period between the abandonment of
the mission at Ebenezer and the sale of the property. Leichhardt
visited "Ebenezer," and mentions the property and its owner. The
explorer's work on Australian Geology, also in German, published in
1855, describes the Lake Macquarie district (01', as he spells it, Lake
Macquarry). A t the end of the book, which i.s to b~ found in
the Public Library of New South \Vales, Sydney, IS a senes of small
sketches illustrating the topography of the localities visited. The
entrance to Lake Macquarie (Reid's Mistake) was sketched, and also
the coastline as far s Great Red Head. He also refers to the
Ebenezer Coal Mine: "Uber Threlkelds Kohle befunden."
tAppendix T.
§(Copy in the Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney.)
This volume is issued by the Government of N.S.\V. as a record
of the language of native trib?s that are rapidly uisappearing from
the coast~ of Eastern AustralIa.
Presentation copies will be sent
to the chIef learned Societies at home and abroad.
It goes ?n to say that the Awabakal was a sub-tribe of the
g.reat trIbe of Kuring-gai, and that the dialect' 'was essentIally the same as that spoken by the sub-tribes occupying
the land where Sydney now stands."
It is noted als
that the "Grammar" deals with only one dialect.
T~relkel? knew this to be a fact as early as 1828, and
saId so m effect in his Sta.tement written in that Year. ~
Dr Fraser writes;.
f)
_ Our Author ('!'hrelkeld) did not know that his Awabakal blacks
,,:re only a sub-trIbe and that their brethren, for some hundreds of
mIles, along the coast to the north and south of Lake MaequaIie,
s~oke a language essentially the same. Northwards fl'om the Hunter
RIVeI' to the Mc.Leay, this language is still spoken.
. Th~ Gospel ?f .St. Luke is now of no practical value, except to
a ImgUlst: but It IS umque, and it shows the structural svstem of
the language.
.
The Australian Grammar was originally Ininted at the
Herald <?ffice, Lower George Street, Sydney, in 1834. Tbe
manuscrIpt of St Luke's Gospel, written in 1829, disappeared, but subsequently reappeared in the Public Library
at ~uckland. It was published in 1850 or 1851. and Wil'S
reVIsed by Threlkeld in 1857, two years before ilis death.
In the revised edition he states;-
nEsp('cially Sir
note. )
*q. v.
(}20:-gC
G::·ey.
(See belo\\·-p. :;fll; fU1l1 se"
390
Royal Altstralian Historical Society.
The I1.ey was published by I~emp and Fairfax, the tl~e~~
proprietors of the Sydney Mormng Herald, and, ac.cordm.~
to Threlkeld, was intended to be read as a paper before
the Ethnological Society of Londo~. He found, l:owev~~"
that for completeness he was oblIged to expand It to~o
great an extent, that a book resulted.
By reason of ~lllS
work, Threlkeld was elected a Fellow of the EtlmologlCal
Society of London.
The vocabulary appended to the Granwwr. has, we
consider, the great~st local interest, t as. it contams many,
words familiar to our ears, and also gI~'es a Humber. of
native folk-lore tales relative to .cer~a~n tO~)QgraphIcal
features of the Lake district.
It IS dIVIded mto several
sections: mytholoo-ical, geographical, and general-nouns,
verbs, etc.-with ~ number of illustrative sentences. showing how the different parts of speech are used.
FIrst of
all, the name "l\Iulubinba"-the native nan~e f.or Newcas~lc
-strikes the eye. It is named after an m~~genou~ felll,
named "mulubin."
Then we find "Bulba .-an Island:
any place surrounde.d by water. BI;~ba, or PI~~bah Island,
in Lake Macquarie, IS well known.
Buttaba -the name
of a hill on the margin of the Lake, probably on the
western side, south of Kilaben.
"Kona-Konaba"-thc
name of a large mountain at the northern end of Lake
Macquarie. "Puntei" -a narrow place; the name of any
narrow point of land (Threlkeld's estate-see p. _358) .
"Tirabeena "-a tooth-like point of land; from !Ira,. a
point.
This locality is me~ti?ned in. Threl~~lds WIll,
made on November 22, 1834; It IS descrrbed as the pomt
southward," and is near the head of Kilaben Bay.
Followino- are some notes relating to certain geographical features ~f the Lake Country, very indefinite. as to
their exact position, but possibly known to local resIdents:
KINTI-IRRABIN: The name of a small extinct vo~cano on the
sea coast near Red Head, north-east of Lake Ma.cquarIe. .
KrRRA-KuRRAN : The name of a place in wluch there IS almost
rt forest of petrifactions of wood, of various sizes, e~tremely we!l
It is in a Bay at the north-west extremIty of Lake
defined.
Macquarie.
t( i.e., in the Newcastle, New South ,Yales, district.)
Lancelot Edward Tltrelkeld.
391
MUNUKAN: the name of a point . . . under which there is a
seam of cannel coal, and beneath that is a thick seam of superior
common coal and both jut into the sea betwixt::; and -1 fathoIlls of
water . . . the two veins are nine feet thick.
NULKA : Iron.
There is a vein of iron ore running over coal
at the sea entrance to Lake Macquarie.
This folk-tale is of interest, as well as its morc modern
sequel:MULLUG-BULA : The name of two upright rocks abont nine feet
high, springing np from the side of a bluff head on the Jllrtrgin of
the Lake.
The Blacks affirm from tradition that they are two
women who were transformed into rocks in consequenc~ of their
being beaten to death by a black man.
Beneath the mountain on which the two pillars stand, a seam
of cannel coal is seen, many feet thick, from which Reid obtained
a cargo of coals when he mistook the entrance of this Lake for
Newcastle.
A portion of a wharf built by him still exists at this
place, which is still called Reid's Mistake.
The Grammar was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge without cost to the author,
being printed by Stephens and Stokes, Herald Office,
Sydney.
These writings of Threlkeld's are actually a monument
to his patience and diligence, and, on perusing them, it
seems a pity that they have no practical value.
However,
in scientific circles they seem to have been highly prized.
Sir George Grey, the Australian explorer, and afterwards
Governor successively of South Australia, New Zealand
and Cape Colony, who was a keen collector of such works.
was in close touch with the author concerning them.
Threlkeld executed a manuscript copy of one of the works.
which was illuminated after the fashion of a mediaeval
MS. ~ 1,Ve are informed:-
* His (Mr. Threlkeld's) diligence in mastering, not simpl~' the
words, but the construction of the language, was universally recognised. . . . The proof of his success, and of the accuracy of his
work, is to be seen in the fact that his translations, and his aboriginal
grammar, are still to-day [l895.-B. ,Yo C.] by the best linguists
held in the highest estimation.
We are assured of this by the R€v.
Lorimer Fison, than whom there is not in Australia a highe; authority
upon such a subject.
Amongst the literary treasures in Sir George
Grey's wonderful collection in the Auckland Museum, there is not
one which Sir George values more highly than Threlkeld's original
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edward l'hrcl/;eld.
manuscript of his translation of St. Luke's Gospel.
Wilen showing
it to us not long ago, Sir George did so with an enthusiastic interest
which shO\,ed how warmly he appreciated the worker and his work.
The manuscript is carefully written in a large, clear hand.
It has
been elegantly bound, and its pages richly embellished by a clever
artist in imitation of ancient manuscripts.
Sir Geo. Grey has
enclose,l the plain-looking manuscript of the missionar;y within what
he considers a worthy casket. II
REMOVAL TO SYDNEY, 1842.
392
A copy of the catalogue of Sir George Grey'~
collection is to be found in the Sydney Public Library,
and among the entries are records of several editions of
works in the Tahitian language, such as hymn books,
Scripture portions, etc., such as John 'Williams and his
fellow-missionaries worked upon while in the Islands.
Reverting to the translation of St Luke's GospeL
Threlkeld wrote:I had actually outlived a very large majority of the blacks,
more especially of those "ith whom I had been associated for seventeen years.
Before leaving the subject of Threlkeld's translations,
it is interesting to learn that Dr Fraser, in his book on
the aboriginal languages, mentions another attempt to
reduce the native tongue to writing.
He states that, when
the 'Wilkes Expeditiont was in New South 'Wales, the
ethnologist of the party, JUr Hale, visited the Aboriginal
Mission at Wellington Valley. 'While there, the chaplain,
the Rev 'William \Vatson, collected a vocabulary of the
dialect of the \Viradhari tribe of the neighbourhood, ill
order to compare it with the yoeabulary compiled by
1Hr Threlkeld.
Weare told:The Rev. Canon Gunther (of Mudgee) compiled a grammar and
Dictionary of the \Yiradhuri language, which was sent to the Imperial
Government in manuscript, in compliance with a request from
Professor Max Muller for information of this kind. II
\Ve are told, too, that \Vatson wTote a grammar 'with Ii
dictionary appended, based on the lines of Threlkeld's
work, and also translated the Gospel of St Luke.
The
manuscripts, unfortunately, were sold as waste paper, and
were thus lost to posterity.
IIHev Joseph King: Ten Decades, pp. 75 and 77.
tPag\) 375 (ante).
liThe Australian Dictionary of Dates (&c.) : J. Henniker Heaton
-Syclney, 1879.
393
S')\'TIl HL\D C;L\PLL-BETIIEL 'C:;;Ox-::IL\ltl:\ERS' CH I'RCH.
. . The Thr~l~elds remo:'ed to Sydney in 1841,t and for'
a tIme the. mISSlOllary reSided then" in Prince's Street, on
the west SIde of Circular Quay.
A yivid description of
that qu~rter of SJ:dney !OW~I in the 'forties appears Iii
the RO J al Arustrahan HlSt~ncal. Society's J oarnal, Vol.
XVI., Part". (1930).
ThIS artIcle was dictated in 190 I
by lUI'S Eliza \Valker, who, judging' by her lively account
of people and places in those days, was a wtT' vivaciowi
lady. , She was a gTand-da~lghter of ,George' Howe, the
colony s first Government Prillter, who also published tItt'
first ne:vspaper, the Sydney Gazette a1ld Nell' S01dh 1fales
Advertzser, first issued on May 5, 1803. It was hi::; ::;on,
Robert ~owe, also Government Printer, who printed
!hrelkeld s famous Statement in 1828.
Ht' iost his life
I~ the next year by drowning in the Harbour neal'
Pmchgut.
.
The. l~s~ fourteen years of Threlkeld's life were liwd
m .the ,VICInIty of .Circular Quay.
lVII's \Valker described
Prmce s Street-hterally-at length, also Lower neoro'e
Street, or, as it is now called, George Street North.
The
la~ter was the~ a busy thoroughfare; it was, as lUI'S \Val ker
SaId, the. busmess centre of the town, where nearly all
the shoppmg was done.
The heights above the Qmn: were
kn?wn as "The Rocks," where many influential c'itizens
resld.ed.
~n the latter half of the nineteenth century the
localIty gamed an unsayoury reputation.
The buildin<T
of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a::; we know, has considel~
ably altered the. face of this historic portion of Sydney.
Threlkeld, m 1842, was offered and acecpted the
pa~torate of the Congregational Church at \Vatson's Bay.
~hIS was know'll as the Old South Head Church, and w:~s
sI.tuated on the top of the hill at \Vatson's Bay near th"
SIgnal Station.*
' ,
t8ydney Morning Herald, October 13, 1859.
T. Sitlt.1ing-s, of CUITagulltli. \\-"\)1l1elar, Xl'\\' I"outh
\\ ales, wntes interestingly of this oltl building. Mr. I"idtlins is a
great-grandson of the He.-. L. E. Threlke!tl: "I ean remelll!wr
attending Church, when a vpry small youngster, at \Yatsou's Bay,
. * Mr.. H.
Royal Australian Histo1 ical Society.
Lancelot Edward TIt relkeld.
Beina' in such an exposed situation, it is no wonder that,
on a""winter's day, July 19, 1910, the building was blown
The Sydney Morning Herald on the neJl..-t day
down.
described the storm as a "tremendous" one, the wind at
South Head blowing with hurricane force. . It was a
tropical storm, its centre being off the coast between Sydney
and Newcastle, the spray coming almost in waves over The
Gap.
responsible for the collection of the funds with which it
was built. He was its first pastor.
A link: with the past history of this old chapel has
been provided by the late Herbert Fairfax, a grandson or
the minister, who recalls many services conducted by him
as a local preacher at the church in the early 'eighties.
He would walk over to South Head, after teaching in
Sunday School, to conduct service, and, if moonlight, would
walk back home to Darlinghurst.
When there was no
minister in charge, the pulpit at South Head and other
outlying suburbs was filled by students from Camden
Another layman, a 1\11'
College and by lay preachers.
Parry, walked all the way from town to conduct a service.
and afterwards was entertained in the rooms below the
chapel by Captain Siddins, Threlkeld's son-in-law.
The
ground floor included the dining-room and kitchen, whilst
the bedrooms were upstairs, where there was also ample
1\11' Parry recounts that.
room for the meeting-place.
later on, he had a conversation with an old lady of a well·
known family (the Wentworths are suggested). Shl'
said she always had a great interest in the old church
She went on to say;
which the Windeyers also attended.
o
394
395
. ~fy brother and myself attended
b:l1l~lllg.
The services were held in
Sld~lllS wh? stated that he received
Congregational Church at South Head..
Erect:ed ah.out .1840.. .
(From a Ekctch in the possession of the Royal Austrahan HIstOrIcal SOcIety.)
The old chapel was a peculiar building, as will be
seen from the accompanying illustration, for instead of
a steeple it possessed a chimney, due to the fact that. It
was used as a dwelling as well as a house of worshIp.
It had not 10nO' been built when Threlkeld took over the
pastorate. It ,~as first known as "Crook's Church," since
the RE'v. \Y. Pascoe Crook, one of the original Dll.ff missionaries,t and later a Congregational minister. was largely
_._.-~--,_..
_ _------_.__._---_...
a verv old wooden building propped on one side with struts to keep
it fr~1ll blowing over. This church I can remember was referred to
in the familv as Grandfather Threlkeld's Church."
t See p.' 293, R.A.H.S. Journal, Vol. XXV., Pt. IV.
services before there was any
the sitting room of old Capt.
great benefit from the ministratlon of Its well-nigh first minister, the late Rev. Mr. Threlkeld.
The first Minister there was a missionarv named Crook
We
children used to walk to the old Church from Vaucluse""':at that
time there was no other Church in the immediate neighbourhooa.
The land on which the church was built was donated
by William Charles Wentworth.
The church was small.
but quite large enough for the requirements of the time.
In Threll~eld's day the congregation was composed mostly
of se~farlllg men and their families, and the employees o-Z
the lIghthouse and their people.
The minister also conducted a school on week-days in the church building.
At Watson's Bay Threlkeld appears to have entered
upon a life of comparative tranquillity.
Back in civilization again, in closer fellowship with his numerous friends.
with his family growing up around him, the last eighteel~
years of his life found him a more mellowed man.
Thl'
Royal Australian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edlcard l'hrrl1;eU.
glowing eulogies published at his decease· confirm thi<;
impression. It is no doubt a coincidence, but all the same
a remarkable one, that all Threlkeld's life in the southern
hemisphere was liyed near the water-at Eimeo and
Raiatea, in the Islands; at Bahtahbah and Ebenezer, on
Lake Jl.Iacquarie; at Watson's Bay, Sydney, between
harbour and ocean; and, lastly, near his last charge at
Circular Quay, Sydney.
Threlkeld relinquished the pastorate of the \Vatsons
Bay Congregational Church in 1845, when he was. al?~
pointed to the oversight of the Sydney "Bethel Umon
Chapel at the foot of Erskine Street, Darling Harbou:'.
The Sydnev Bethel Union was founded on September u,
1822. . It ~vas inaugurated "for the purpose of affording
religious instruction to seamen of all nations yisiting the
Port of Sydney."
According to J. Henniker Heaton',;
Book of Dates,t it was started by a "well-wisher to seamen."
For the first twenty-two years of the Union '"
existence there was no place for settled worship. Services
were held on board ships in the harbour which flew at the
masthead the flag of the Union, a blue and white pennant.
In April, 1844, mainly as a result of the labours of the
Revs John Saunders and Dr John Dunmore Lang, the
chapel to which Threlkeld was appointed was built. Thes,>
two clergymen were also instrumental in obtaining the
services of the Rev Matthew Adam, a Presbyterian minister
from Scotland, as the chapel's first pastor.
After a short
period of service, Adams resigned, and Threlkeld was
appointed to the charge.
Besides ministering to his congregation, and conducting seryices regularly at the chapel,
he was engaged in visiting the hospitals at least twice a
He also attended the Police Courts on behalf of
week.
aboriginal defendants.
At times he visited ships in port,
and, with an assistant, distributed tracts and portions of
the Scriptures.
The property included a manse and a wharf, the latter
to facilitate the passage of the minister to and from the
ships in the harbour; it also served as a landing place for
the sailors when going to church.
The land was granted
by the Government, who, in 1851, caused the location of
the Union to be transferred towards the eastern side or
Circular Quay, as being nearer the shipping, and thereforc
handicr for the sailors.
Here a temporary chapel was
erected, pending thc building of the permanent edifice OIl
the western side of the Quay, still known at that time as
"Campbell's \Vharf."
The land and buildings at Darling
Harbour were sold and realized the sum of £3343 which
was paid into the Treasury and afterwards made a~'ailable
to the Union as the new building progressed.
Th0
foundation-stone of the first chapel has been preserved,
and may now be seen in the vestibule of the Rawson
Institute in Sydney.
396
*i:lee p. JO:;.
tOp. cit. p. 265.
397
The temporary chapel was in use for seven years, for
althoug'h the land for the new premises was granted in
January, 1852, the corner-stone of the present bnildinO' was
not laid until March 19, 1856. The delay was due ~~onO'
other things, to the scarcity of labour caused by tile Gold
Rush in the early 'fifties. The progress of the new edifice
was very slow, owing to financial difficulties and to laboUl'
trouble.s.
A printed circular, of which a copy is in our
posseSSIOn, was issued by the minister, making an appeal
for funds to pay for the roofing of the chapel.
This
circular was issued from No.8, Premier Terrace, \Villiam
Street, Sydney, and was dated IVIay 1, 1857. It was hoped
to open the building that year, but the minister's hopes
were not realized. The circular included a sketch of the
proposed new chapel, complete with a tower.
A copy of thc fourteenth Annual Report of the Sydne';
Bethcl Union, issued in 1855, which originally belonged t~
l\-~r (afterwards the Han) George Alfred Lloyd, has been
kIndly lent to us for perusal by family connexions of
Threlkeld.
It gives as trustees ~f the Union the names
of. George Allen, Thomas Barker, Robert How, Francis
MItchell and Ambrose Foss., all well known in Svdne'·.
These and other familiar names appear also in th~ co~­
mittel' list, which was a formidable onc.
The honorarv
secretary was a Lieutenant Richard Sadl ieI'. who in th~
'thirti~s, conducted an Orphan School at Liverp~ol.
A
finanCIal statement was attached to the report, showing :l
398
Royal A1lstralian Historical Society.
deficit both at the opening and the close of the year 185-1.
The greater part of the revenue of the institution was in
the form of private subscriptions. which amounted to £321
out of a total of £350.
The minister's salary absorbed
£300 of the general fund.
In this report Threlkeld bemoaned the fact that,
although 978 vessels, exclusive of men,o '-war and coasters,
carrying 19,726 sailors, used the port during the year,
verv few mariners availed themselves of the services of the
Union.
About this time, too, he recorded in his diary
that his congregations at the Sunday services were very
poor, often only the members of his own family and the
captain or mate of an odd ship being present.
'While occupying the pulpit of the temporary chapel
at East Circular Quay, Threlkeld lost his second wife, who
died on December 20, 1853, aged fifty-seven ;--ears.
In
July following, we learn, that four grandchildren weI','
buried within a ven- short time of each other.
They were
the victims of an epidemic. Threlkeld did not mention the
names of these grandchildren. *
At last the new Mariners' Church at Circular Qua;'
was ready for use, and was duly opened-minus the tower,
which ,Yas omitted owing to lack of funds--on February
27, 1859. The chapel was a substantial structure of stone,
built lengthways to George Street North.
The allotment
on ,vhich it was situated was a historic one.
It was
virtually the site of a small cottage, the residence of
Captain John Piper, who was at one time Collector of
Government Duties.
He lived there when in town, anJ
made Vaucluse House his week-end residence.
There was
no salary attached to the position, but Captain Piper was
allowed a percentage of the dues collected.
His name is
perpetuated at Poiqt Piper, Sydney.
The George Street
North frontage is considerably higher than the level of the
quayside.
When the Mariners' Church was opened in 1859, a.t
a cost of £6000. tlm'e was a debt on the building of £2000£1000 having been guaranteed by certain members of the
Bethel Union and not then paid, and £1000 for furnishings
*Report on the Bethel Jl.1ission for the year 1854.
Lancelot Edt('({rd Thrclkeld.
f
399
and ther extras.
Charles Campbell held a lieu for £100')
~~ t lettpr~perty, the rate of interest beilig ten per cent'
e a en ances at the church and the meaare
.'ahcucorrdhedd' b}l- th~ pu!)lic of Sydney did not allow s~iP~~;
C c
ISC lar '='a lU<F
t l' b · l · tThere
· . were also 10n<1'
•
, _
'=' 1 S la IlleS.
~~ten a~s between ~he departures of retiring ministers and
to el:~l'lv.ais of theIr successors, so that the cause continued
gUlS 1.
It was not to be expccted that the reO"ula I'
pa~toral w?r.k. of the church conld bE' carried on sati' f..
~~~,ly by vlSltmg preachers. The finances reached ~s l~~
The New Mariners' Ch
h C' I
.
ure,
trcu ar Quay, George Street North, S""dney.
[Reproduced from circular mentioned on p. 397 (ante).]
Th
"
he muusters appointed subsequently to Threlhld
were t e ~~vs J. D. Thane, John Reid, William Leish~an
Thomas (Tamford and 'William Bradlev the lastna d"
1886
Th R
J l'
.,
.
me III
e ev.
'". h
of th. 1 t S'
" 0 m ReId ' bv
. the wa'-" "'as
" . '"j"l
L e Iat er
. . e a e 11' beorge Reid.
The Rev Thomas Uaillf' .
SImIlarly to the Rev L. E. Threlkeld, had had ministe~:~i
Royal A 1tstralian Historical Society.
Lnncelot Edward Thre7ke7d.
experience in the Newcastle district.
He may be remembered as the minister who re-established the Brown Street
Congregational Church. t The pulpit of the church harl
not been occupied for some time, when a deputation, headed
by Dr Knaggs, a well-knmvn citizen. of Newca~tle,.approached Gainford-who was then workmg as a shIpwnght
at the Stockton Patent Slip-to take the oversight of the
congregation.
This Patent Slip was owned by James
Scott, who had come into contact with Gainford on the
Victorian goldfields, after Gainford had failed to find gold
and was penniless.
The Brown Street Church becam'~
prosperous and well-established under his seven years'
leadership.
When he left the district to take up another
appointment in 1867,*the names appended to his testimoni~l
of £50 indicated the deep respect that he had earned m
the Newcastle district.
Threlkeld's chapel, although substantially still in
existence, is now unrecognizable, by reason of the fact that
in the year 1909 the frontage to George Street North was
rebuilt~ It is now known as the Rawson Institute for
Seamen, conducted under the auspices of the Missions to
Seamen (Sydney branch).
On the George Street North
side of the chapel, the structure was carried up on the
building line in front of the existing chapel, which was set
back from the street a distance of about twelve feet.
The
resultant additions form the vestibule and offices of the
present Institute.
The former meeting-room is now the
general assembly hall.
The basement was excavated and
built in during the 'eighties under the supervision of th",
Rev Thomas Gainford.
The extra accommodation thus
provided. a concert and smoking-room, was officially opened
by the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Brassey, in
1887.
As part of the additions made in 1909, an extra
storey was built, which was used as a meeting-place until
1927, when a beautiful new chapel was constructed at the
rear of the hall as part of the Dame Margaret Davidson
Memorials.
LAST DAYS.
400
tMemoir of the Rev Thomas Gainford, by J. and W. R. Gain·
ford : London, 1886.
*i.e., The pastorate of the Ocean Street Congregational Church,
Woollahra.
401
. By the time that the new l\Iariners' Church was practICally completed, Threlkeld was in hi8 8eventieth year.
He had reached man's allotted span on October 20, i858,
and on that date he wrote in his diarv'..
This is the 70th. anniversary of my birthdav, and the wedlling
of m~~s~l~ an,d my dear depa~'ted Sarah, no\~ in Heaven, when,
~~ s and ~ eals ale. swallowed up III one "eternal now,"
J<'iYe Years
w11: have elapsed of .her sleep of tleath on the 20th day of Dece'mher
next, and. I am waIting for the summons to call me to that rest
that remameth for the peopl e 0 f G Ot,
1 b ut untI'I t Ilat penod
.
arrives
my motto must be "Occupy till I corne."
,
ga~
The "summons" did not arrive until nearly a year later
-October 10, 1859.
From his daughter Sarah we learn
that he ~ad ~een worried concerning matters rel,!ting to
the Manners Ohurch.
It transpires that some of the
members of .the management committee wished to convert
the chapel mto a Sailors' Home at a meetinO' held on
?ctober 7; 1859.
Threlkeld strenuously opposed the proJect, statm? !hat the Home should take the form of a
separate bmldll1g. The meeting' took place on the Friday
and for the next two days Threlkeld brooded 011 -th
.. '
bTt
f h' fi
e pOSS11 1 Y 0
l~ ne new sanctuary becoming' secularized, awl
much of hlS strenuous work of the past being nullified.
However, the chapel retained. it~ original form, for a period
at least, an~ a separate bmldll1g for the Sailors' Home
was erected 111 1863.
Thre~keld died suddenly on October 10, 1859. He
had. prevlOusly preached at both morning and afternoon
serVlCes at. the J\1ariners' Church.
His death seems to
h~v~ oc~aslOned ~Teat regret in Sydney, especially in
and slllpI)inO't circles
.
mUllsterIal
h
o . , .FlaO's
, . 011 tIl'
- e S1"
llpS In
t e harbou: were .flow~ at half-mast. out of respeet for
the accredIted Smlors - Chaplain.
The funeral corte o'"
moved from Threlkeld's residence in 'William Street (N~).
19?) by way of the new Mariners' Church to the DeVOll'
sillre Street .Cemetery.
The procession was one of tIl<'
largest seen 111 Sydney for some time.
l\Iinistcl's of all
the Protestm~t denominations were present, some assistill',r
at !he gr~v.eslde. !he Rev Dr James Fullerton, a Presb':tenan ffill11Ster, dehvered an oration extolling the virtu~s
402
Royal Australian Historical Society.
of the veteran missionary and chaplain.
The "Death
Notice" in the Sydney Morning Hemld of October 13,
1859, reads as follows:On Mondav lath. instant, at his residence, "\YilJiam Street, the
Rev. -{ E. Threlkeld, aged 71 years, fonneI1y missionary
at the South Sea Islands, and for many years Bethel
Chaplain in this City.
On the next Sunday memorial services were held in many
of the Svdney churches.
The Sydney JIoming Herald
published a l~ngthy obituary notice on October 13, 1859.
A religious journal, The Christian Pleader, of October 15,
1859, also published an appreciation, the writer, presumably
the editor, claiming acquaintance that dated from 1844.
A London religious weekly, Th e Christinn Cnbinet, in its
issue of February 29, 1860, devoted the entire front page
to an account of the life and work of Threlkeld; it a180
gave a detailed account of his passing and of the funeral
rites, as well as the text of Dr Fullerton's oration.
Thc
article closed with this paragraph:Our portrait, which is engraved from a phot.ograph taken in
Sydney, represents Mr. Threlkeld in one of his favo:J.rite moods
with the "Australian Grammar" in his hand, of ,vlnch he was the
author.*
-Whcn the old Devonshire Cemeter~' was abolished in
1901 to make way for the new Central Railway Station,
Thr~lkeld's remaii.ls were removed to Rookwood and reinterred in the Independent portion of the cemetery.
.A
handsome monument surmounts the grave and bears the
follmving inscription:IN MEAWRY OF
The Rev. Laneelot Edward Threlkehl, M.E.S.
Born in the City of London, 20.10.li88.
Ordained in 18i5.
Laboured in Tahiti and
Raiatea (Coadjutor of Rev. John "\Yilliams)
in eonnection with the London Missionary
Soeietv until 1824, when he undertook a
Missio'u to t.he Aborigines on Lake Macquarie.
Of whose language he wrote a grammar and a
Appointed Chaplain of seamen at.
lexicon.
this Port in 1845.
He became Minister of
* See
p. 321, R.A.H.S. Journal, Vol. XXV., Pt. IV.
Lancelot Edward Th re7ke1<1.
403
the Mariners' Church ereeted chiefly through
his exertions, where on the last day of his
life he twice preacheu the Gospel, anu
retiring to his chamber
Slept in Christ
Sunuay October 10, 1859,
Aged 71 years.
Thus it may be said that the ex-missionary and apostle
to the aborigines and Marincrs' Chaplain metaphOl'ically
died in harness.
The initials "M.E.S." represent tllP
distinction, ' 'Member of the Ethnological Society' '-of
London-conferred on Threlkeld by that body in 1851 bv
reason of his submission of his 11.ey to th ~ A..bol'igilu~l
Language.
DESCENDANTS.
The obituary notice regarding Threlkeld that appeared, as has been said, in the Sydney Morning Herald
on October 13, 1859, stated: "He leans behind him :1
numerous family of sons and daughters."
He had OIW
son and three daughters by his first wife, and two sons
and three daughters by his second wife, making a total
in the family of three sons and six daughters living a1
the date of his decease, viz.: Sons-Joseph Thomas, Lancelot
Edward, Thomas Samuel.
Daughters-Frances, Martha.
The" first-born" died
Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Tabitha.
at Rio in 1816, at a very early age.
SoNS.
Joseph Thomas: Born in the Islands, 1817.
H,'
became connrsant with the aboriginal language, and at
His career
times deputized for his father in the courts.
has been briefly mentioned abon.
He did not marry.
Lancelot Edward : The second ROll, married the si~ter
of G. A. Lloyd.
He had an auctioneering business in
George Street, Sydney, for many years. - He died ia
England on November 24, 1882, without family.
Thomas Samuel: The youngest of the thre~ sons, die,l
in 18~3. His son, Thomas Samuel, still living, has attaineJ
the rIpe age of seventy-eight years.
He is the only SUI'vivoI' or the third generation of Threlkelds.
.
All the aboye-named sons are mentiond in Threlkl'lcl's
will, made at Ebenezer on Noyember 22, 1834.
·10J
Lancelot Edward I'll rclkeld.
Royal A.Hstralian Historical Society.
DAUGHTERS.
The daughters are mentioned, not necessarily in order
of priority of birth.
'fabitha: Married James Reading, of the firn~ of
Readin a and \Vellbak, printers and publishers, of 13 BrIdge
Street, band booksellers, of 356. George Stree,t, ~ydne?-.
This firm printed the Bethel Dmon Report fOl 18<)4 pleviously referred to.
Elizabeth: Married a cousin of John Fairfax, of
Sydney Morning Herald fa,me. Her children were Herbert
and Emily, both now deceased.
:l\Iarv : \Vas born on September 23, 1823, in the Islands.
(Her mother died early in the next year.)
She w~s ~ared
for by Mrs John \Villiams, the wife of Threlkeld s Illustriou~ colleague.
In 1841 she married George Alfred
Lloyd who had an interesting career. Born near London,
he ~a~e out to New South \Vales in 1833.
I.Ie. engaged
for some years in farming pursuits on the \VIllIams and
Paterson Rivers, and in 1840 removed to S~d~ey.. Ther0
he set up in business as an auctioneer.
I~ IS, mc~dent~lly,
on record that once he put up for auctIOn a lIve tIger.
He it was who sold up Threlkeld's property when the latter
was obliged to realize his assets. The name of G., A. Lloyd
often :oppeared in the newspapers about that tIme.
111
1850 his business had developed into that of a gener~t1
merchant, he being one of the first to buy gold-~ust
the Rush of 1851.*
He also had numerous holdmgs 111
the Newcastle district.
Haying become very wealthy, hI'
went to England in 1855.
Threlkeld once wrote a letter
under date July 9, 1858, to his Excellency Sir George Grey,
in which he mentioned his son-in-law:-
:!l
Observing in the Newspapers that the Governor of the Cape of
Good Hope is about to visit England, I have sent the bookt to my
Son-in-law, George Alfre'} Lloyd, the GO~'enm:ent,Agent fo~ the
Colon~', 2 Exchange Buildings, London, wlth duectlOns to wtnt on
you with it if in Englanrl. . . .
I.Jloyd returned to Sydney in 1860, and re-entered business.
-----------~--
- - - - - - - - _.._ - - - - - - - - - - -
*J. Henniker Heaton: Uen of the Time, 1879, p. 120.
he., The "Gospel of St Luke."
405
1.n. \.~~~ ~~ '\~a'& ~\~~'w.u. "\l\~Th.\)~"t \)-'t ~a"t\"aTh.~'-'-\ -'t\)"t \5\.~'W­
castle, defeating James Martin. - He was re-elected several
times for that constituency. He was appointed PostmasterGeneral and, later, Colonial Treasurer in the Parkes
Ministry, 1872-1875; Minister for Mines in Sir Henry
Parkes's Cabinet in 1877.
He was defeated for th'3
Newcastle seat in the general election of 1877-8.+
Other
interests were insurance and coal-mining, and he was also
a life member of the Sydney Bethel Fnion. MuryL!oyd
became the mother of twelve children, nine of whom were
living at the time of her death, which occulTed on October
14, 1887.
She was buried in the Congregational section
at Rookwood.§
Martha Threlkeld did not marry.
Frances Threlkeld married Captain James R. Siddins,
who was the principal light-keeper at the South Head
Lighthouse, Port Jackson.
He was chief light-keeper at
the Lighthouse when the ill-fated ship Dunbar met her
doom at The Gap, nearby, on August 20, 1857. His son,
Mr R. L. Siddins, of Armidale, in a letter to the Sydney
Morning Herald dated July 30, 1910, told the story, as
follows:My Father, (the late J. R. Siddins) who was in charge of the
Macquarie Light House, went to the Lantern to see the lights put
out, and was attracted by the dog's barking.
He thought it was a
He saw a quantity of bedding floating across the Heads,
cow.
and knew there had been a wreck.
He then went to the edge of
the cliff, and noticed the wreckage.
The letter went on to describe the position of the wreck.
lY the letter
There was
a controversvJ , at the time of writin b
•
'
concermng the exact spot at which the Dunbar had struck,
and also the rescue of the sole surYivor, Johnson.
"In
the excitement," the letter states, "the crowd lost their
heads. and Captain Siddins was pushed partly over the
cliff; but, being strong and active, he recovered himself."
Sarah was with her father when he died:His beloved daughter, who was watching in another room, was
recalbl by a groan, to his side; when she found him insensible;
tJ. Henniker Heaton: Men of the Time, 1879, p. 120.
§Sydney Morning Herald, October 14, 188i.
406
Royal A-ustralian Historical Society.
Lancelot Edzcard Thre7ke7d.
and at 2 o'clack in the morning of the 10th. October his ransomeu
soul took its flight to the realms of bliss. *
1\11' H. T. Siddins (son of 1\11' R. L. Siddins, and
grandson of Captain J. R. Siddins mentioned above)
She
recollects his great-aunt, Miss Sarah Ann Threlkeld.
lived in Cavendish Street, Stanmore, and was regarded us
the head of the family.
In the possession of Mr Siddins's
family is a copy of Threlkeld's work on the aboriginal
language, The Key, inscribed "To Richard Lancelot
Siddins, this work of his Mother and my Father, with love
from Sarah Ann Threlkeld."
Mr Siddins writes:Th" reference-"The work of his Mother and my Father" . . .
points secomingly to him having been helped a great deal by his
daughter.
The daughter who assisted Threlkeld was, of course, Miss
Frances, Mr H. T. Siddins's grandmother.
GONGLUSION.
"With reference to an estimate of the character of our
subject, and the value of his life and work in the Islands
and in the still young colony of New South "Wales, we
prefer to suspend judgment, and leave it to the reader to
decide for himself.
Contemporary and other opinions for
and against both have been quoted or adverted to during
the course of this paper.
A mature mind has described
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld as "a man remarkable in many
ways, " and points out that the material for the biography
of a man who has not been with us for so long a period
as eighty years is hard to obtain.
On the other hand the lapse of time enables one to obtain a
juster view of an individual's good anll bad qualities in their proper
perspective.
The writer of an obituary notice, already referred to,
stated that his impression of the old missionary would
remain "as of a vigorous, warm, benevolent old man."t
A further remark in the same notice would, perhaps, sum
*The Christian Cabinet (London), February 29, 1860.
p. 402, ante.)
tSydney Moming Herald, October 13, 1859.
(See
407
~~o~ ~~n sentiments reg'3:rdin g his life and work: "The
ferentl
:Mr..Threlkeld WIll, of course, be estimated difreview:d ~~:j:cordwmglto th~ standpoint from which they are
.
e eave It at that.
.
We conclude with the ncwspaI)er's rle
Ch aracter;. , " of his
n '
The fact is, when we see
'I
I
.
discover the burrs and rou hne eac I ot Ie: a~ a distance, an,] can
misjudge the actual princ' 19
ss of p~bhc hfe, we are all apt to
IP
Mr. Threlkeld had not the ~St anfd final Ir:te.ntions of au.!' neighbours.
ar
a
concealmg his
"
I.
.
~n d. Impulsive mind threw him into all tl
. opmlo,:s; us active
Ill~I~ation against injustice often n" Ie co?flicts ?f Ius '.lay. His
relIgIOUS liberty was exaggerated i t t;ad~ l.lIln unJust-Ins love of
. n a Ie Olgetfulness of Its rights.§
APPENDIX 1.
PUBLICATIONS.
"The follOWing is believed to I
.
labours, in the dialect wI . I I I
Je a complete hst ··of Threlkeld'B
,.
lICI
lave called the Awahakal:18 27- SpeCImens of tl
'i.b ' .111l 1
:
1829-First draft of t~e ·T
Language' printed then.
1832-T
l'
Ie rans alI on of St. Luke.
rans atIOn of Prayers fOI' M . . r
.
from the Ritual of tile GI.
olllmg and Evenmg Service
by Archdeacon B
I· t lUI ch of England; these were selected
183·
roug Ion.
4--The Australian Grammar nbli I ]
show that at the b . . P
s lel .
Threlkeld's memoranda
were occupying hise~~~:'~fo:~~lte year the follOWing subjects
0l'l1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6
.
~
Specimen of the Language.
The Australian Grammar
The Gospel of St. Luke, ~nder revisal.
The Gospel of St. Mark in I' ' " .
,.
translat'
, . p epaI a tlon.
'I he first rougl'
Th
IOn was completed III 18,17.
.
The .Gospel .of St. Matthew, just Commenced
e mstructIOn of two nat· 'e . t l '
.'
their own language.
n JOU IS III Wl'lting and reading
I. Reading lessons selected frolII
I
8 A
t Ie Old Testament.
.
n A~stralian Spelling Book.
1836-The SpellIng Book printed
1850-The Key to th Ab "
.
1859-At the time o~ I . ordWltllhallLanguage published.
lIS ea
Ie was engage 1 .
I .
translation of the foUl' G
I
. l III co~np etmg the
':Lexicon to the Gospel ~~p~:: ~:~ ~,as proceedmg with the
hfe closed in tIle midst OfJ '1 b
e.
Thus our Author"s
a ours Iuany.'"
_
-Quoted from Dr Fraser's book mentionel.l
_ ;;;:::;~
on p. ,;88.
Ubid.
§Ibid.
------
408
Royal Australian lIistorical Society.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
The following publications, etc., appear III Sir George Grey's
Library Catalogue, a copy of which is in the Sydney Public Librar~r:
409
The Coal Mine contains " s
'I
being' worked is 8ft tl' k. ~.quare nll es, the seam of which on
lation has been made ~c.
\\orked on the le.vel, too.
A calcu·
~~~~~ Pae:~e~ly tr;lies ;~t1~n;IC~~I~~ek,I~~I~\ :~~~~~~ft:ge~~~~t~~~.~ ~:~
The Grammar, The Key to the Struchtre of the Aboriginal Language,
The A~tstralian Spell-ing Book. The Gospel According to St. Luke,
The Dictionary (Lexicon), also sundry pieces.
lasua les, ,~60,000 tons of coal should be vielded and
on y one pennv per ton turns 0 t £"4 116 • II '. .
obtaline~ in a healthy wl;olesome ll:anner at ~lalf" tl:e ;oS~nof \h~ IS
~~pe~ye elsewhere, ~n,l by m.en always ready and willinO' a: l:~~
adIed' t and ~1~y e~plam why tIns mine is so Easily and Wed' Worked
a w lllC 1 a ohaft has been sunk and th F ac t f A '
below is ascertained bevoIlll doubt but t'le exteent
to
1w,~heT Seam
•
".
no carneu out, yet.
which' at
APPENDIX II.
TO OBSERVE.
ADVERTISEMENT IN SYDNKY MORNING HERALD OF
DECEMBER 19, 18404.
THE MINE AT
WORK.
FOR ABSOLUTE SALE:
All that valuable and princely Coal Estate (upon which upwards of
£15,000 has been most judiciously laid out)
"The Mine is now in full operation and any
t o any Amount" can be
.
'
J
quantity of coal
weekly. 'l'he Miners' huts
St are, \Vharf, R,ailway &c. supplIed.
&
I
'
Coal Mines are Perfect.
'c. Jemg on the spot, or rather, 'l'hc
THE EBENEZER COAL MINES
LOT 2.
Brings before the
Public (though and with great perseverance only
obtained specially from the Crown for the purpose)
\Vorks, \Vharfs, Sailing vessels, Barges, Boats, Shipping Depot,
Residence, Paddocks, Gardens, Cultivation grounds, Milking Cows,
Cattle, Horses, Dray, Implements &c. &c.
Mr. George A. Lloyd takes the earliest moment in making known
to the several capitalists of the Metropolis that he fearlessly chal·
lenges the whole Colony, and with every respect to the value of
other properties, asserts that there is not one amongst the whole
that can be brought in anything like the scale of comparison with
the Estate, now in full operation, upon the best and cleanest vein
of coal that the miner can wish to work upon.
It will be brought to public competition under instructions given
him by the trustees, under deed of assignment of L. E. Threlkeld,
John Campbell, Esq., of the Wharf, T. \V. Smart Esq., of the
Sydney Bank, and R. Bourne Esq., of Pitt Street.
At his rooms, Lower George Street, 2 doors from the Herald
Office. . . . Absolutely without reserve. . . . On Monday, 30th.
December, 1844; sale to commence punctually at 12 o'clock
LOT 1.
RoeSE &c.
IMPROVEMENTS & SCRFACE CHARACTER.
The primary grant from the Crown, to L. E. Threlkeld, at the
Lake. comprising 1280 acres of land, dwelling house of 12 rooms,
weatherboal'd built aTIlI plastered.
The Store is 40 x 16 ft., Barn
60 x 20 ft., and a Hut (in compartments for men) 60 x 20 ft.,
including 3 acres of garden and orchard.
There are 8 paddocks
of about 200 acres of land each closed with a 4 rail fence, well put
up, the cultivated portion of which has been 66 acres.
THE COAL MINE YIELDS AT 1D. PER TQN £34,416.
FIVE ACRES
~Oa~:itutingTlthaDtvaluable
portion of land at the entrance of the
. . "
Ie epot and the \Yln'f
fl'
on board the c 11'
I
. < I .' "
or t Ie shIpment of coal
o leI'S emp oye,1 III tlus tralle.
THE SHIPPING.
Lot 3 Schooner "Lancelot" about 50 tons
4
do.
"Sarah"
50
5 Barge
"Hope"
25 tons
6 Schooner "Henry"
16 "
7 Boat
"Tiger"
12 "
8 do.
"Calcutta"
12 "
LIVE STOCK &c.
9 ,Ye]] improved 3 Horses
10 :1 Drays and a Cart
11 Gig and Harness
12 4U head of Cattle at the Lake-mostly Milch Cows.
NOTE: Such se .
t
t1. S. I
. rVIC3 proper y as may be left not particularised in
"liS ,I es LISt WIll be announced in a future advert't if 1'e uired
c, presented to be sold last as one lot: at, implements tools &~.
'
Lot
r
s. For any further information purchasers are referred to the
Trustees, or Mr. Threlkeld at the Depot Sussex Street
M G
Term~ at S;le.
,or
r.
.
A. Lloyd, Lower George Street.
410
Royal Australian Histurical ::3ociety.
APPENDIX III.
NOTE RE THRELKELD AND THE AUSTRALIAN
AGRICULTURAL COMPANY'S MONOPOLY.
\Ve have obtained the following information from Historical
Records of Newcastle, 179,-189" by John Windross and J. P. Ralston,
published in 1897:(pp. 44-45) : The A. A. Co. took over the collieries on the
following conditions :-"One twentieth of the coal raised to be
allotted to the Crown; the Company to purchase the coal, or any
part of it, at the pit's mouth at the market price, provided the
Crown deemed it advisable to sell the same to them; and further,
one-fifteenth to be reserved by the Crown."
The conditions
were construed by the Company as conferring upon them for a
period of 31 years the exclusive right to mine coal in tlus colony.
The monopoly, however, was terminated with the concurrence of
the Company in 1847, the Rev. Mr. Threlkeld and other gentlemen having some years previously been engaged in working the
coal seams on their respective properties.
(p. 46) : It was not till 1840 that any attempt to contest
the monopoly of the A. A. Co. was made.
About that year
the Roev. Mr. Threlkeld, who was in charge of the London
Missionary Society's Aboriginal Mission Station at Lake Macquarie, took a stand_
He had discovered )-ears before a seam
of "cannel" coal at Belmont, and he opened the present upper
or Cardiff seam.
It was the best seam found up to that time,
and the reverend gentleman expressed his intention of working
it in spite of the A. A. Company.
Indeed, he opened a pit,
and for several years he carried on mining at the Lake on a
small scale.
Only the smallest vessels could, however, coal
there, and the company took no notice of his operations.
The
old gentleman had the greatest faith in the future of the Lake
Macquarie coal measures, and he frequently held that the Lake
was the finest harbour in the world, and would one day have
around its shores the greatest manufacturing city in Australia,
if the entrance was only deepened sufficiently to admit the
largest ships.
\Vithin a few years later several nlines were
opened in the Newcastle district by Messrs. James and Alexander
Brown, Mr. John Eales, Mr. Turner, and others.
The brothers
Brown in 1844 commenced working a mine at Four-mile Creek.
Mr. Eales opened one near Minmi, and for some time the A. A.
Company ignored the attacks of these old pioneers, who used to
openly cart their coal to the various shipping places by horses.
In 1846, coal was reduced to 8s" and even went as low as
6s. 6d. per ton at the shipping places.
As before stated, in
1847 the monopoly terminated with the concurrence of the
A. A. Company.
Lancelot Edward Threlkeld.
411
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
d e(1 on t IIe preparation of
this Two
a 'Years' labour has been
. expen
c ' p p~r.
T~le se~rch for material necessitated considerable
h~::;~~~~e~~ceinIll~~dl~n;d letters ~o, the London_l\~issionar,Y Societ;
Canbe.
g.
A VISIt to the NatIonal Librarv at
cl II Lr~ab was made; much research was nndertaken in the 'Mi'tIe
I rarv at Svdnev and al
' tl
P
.
'
: '
so III Ie ublIc Librarv of New
S tl n' I ' .
S tl·.
ou I "a es III that Cltv The N
Lands also
"
. "
"ew. ou I "ales Department of
localities in :1~~i:I~~:e~ubl:IftOl;ant Illforn~at.ion relatih£, to the
made to the Lake M
J"
f ~he p,apel l.tlJoured, "\ ISItS were
any available local ::io~~l~~~O:.IStl'lCt WIth a view to lll~- obtaining
of m~~iS paper c?uld not have been prepared without the assistance
the lif/ Ofo~ld f;;endt; ho compiled f?r me the various details of
i
~~~ ~brSariCalnI~f ~~I: L~nd~nT~~~~~~~~r;l~o~i:;):,~~I::l(;n~h~~bfe~;~:~,
. . . lamplOn· who obtamed
t f t' ' f
.
,
to 1\£1'. Threlkeld's'
t
1 mos 0
JIe III ormation relating
his life in Sydney . ~~ces;rs an" descendants, and t.he details of
the data co;cernin' tl;'
hale, A.~.A. (,'ust.), who collated
of
.
fi I . g
e penod of the mlsslonal'y-minister's period
s~rvIce, d rst y III the South Sea Isla.nds, and then at lake 1'11:
qual'le; an who revised and .
1 1 I
,acaper t
't
expam e( t Ie original draft of this
P
o I s present extent and
'1 .
deliver'
V '
"
superVIse( lis preparation for
have ~e'en d~~lOUS o~~ler le:-sons helped me c'J'lsiderably, and thev
y men lOne m the course of the paper.
.
',?' \,
, ."
.