The move to establish a training college for clergy was borne out of intense pressure to find ministers for the vast territory of the new colony. PETER BOLT investigates the struggle to get Moore College off the ground.

This year is the sesquicentenary (150th) celebrations of Moore College. Thomas Moore’s will was proved in 2nd February 1841, but the College he endowed did not open for a further fifteen years. Where were the clergy of New South Wales trained in the meantime?

William Grant Broughton was the Bishop of Australia at the time of Moore’s death, and one of the first Trustees of Moore’s Estate. He originally arrived as the second Archdeacon of New South Wales in 1829 and during a visit to England was then consecrated as the first Bishop of Australia in 1835. He would be the only bishop to ever hold that title, for gradually, at his initiative, the territory was divided up into other dioceses and by 1847 he would be merely the Bishop of Sydney.

Broughton’s letters, housed in Moore College library, show a man constantly under pressure to supply clergy for the vast territory under his care. When Broughton became bishop, he first thought his clergy would come from the English universities. He quickly realised that this was not going to happen. He appealed for help even from the ‘lesser’ English schools: surely somewhere in England some young men could be found to serve in the Colony on the other side of the world. But, once again, his hopes were not to be adequately fulfilled. Something needed to happen locally. From December 1836 through to January 1852, Broughton himself would ordain 45 labourers for his corner of the vineyard – some sent from England by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, some ‘home grown’.

Initially, the Bishop was excited about Moore’s bequest. He had often enjoyed the hospitality of Thomas and Rachel Moore during his visits to Liverpool. When ‘the old gentleman’ spoke with him about his plans, Broughton initially dissuaded him, since, at that stage, Rachel and her son Andrew had a prior claim on the estate. When they died, however, Moore changed his will to bequeath some of his estate to the founding of a college to train young men of the Protestant persuasion. Broughton wrote home, proclaiming this a wonderful part of God’s Providence. Unfortunately, when Moore died, the Moore Bank property was leased – at a pittance, in the Bishop’s opinion! – and so Broughton would have to wait 16 or 17 years before receiving any benefit. He began to plan for a small interim college next to his house in Darlinghurst. In June 1842, he wrote to his friend, Rev Edward Coleridge, a master at Eton, asking for a supply of young men fresh out of school, to be trained in this local college. One month later, he also spoke of the possibility of an institution being set up in England for the special purpose of training colonial clergy.

This is where events ‘at home’ outstripped him. Coleridge actively pursued the latter idea, and his exertions eventually led to the formation of St Augustine’s College, Canterbury, which began teaching in 1849. As it was coming together, Broughton enthusiastically supported this scheme, and even entertained hopes of becoming Principal. Nevertheless, his needs for clergy still pressed upon him and something had to be done in the meantime. Broughton continued to pursue the idea of a local college, which he now hoped would be a branch of St Augustine’s – should it prove worthy! The Canterbury College would send clergy for the most important cures. The local college would make up the numbers. Clergy trained for the colonies were regarded as ‘second class’ anyway. The ones trained locally were to be well down the pecking order!

Broughton found it difficult to raise much interest in St Augustine’s in Sydney. Its founders were avowedly High Church, and, from the time the scheme went public, it existed under a cloud of suspicion that it was Tractarian – a movement with Catholic tendencies, at that time gathering steam. Broughton was High Church and he was also sympathetic to much the Tractarians were seeking to achieve. In Sydney, however, several influential clergyman had been speaking out against the Tractarians, including that bastion of colonial church life, William Cowper from St Phillip’s Church Hill. Sydney’s evangelical laity were also suspicious, and this group also largely favoured the establishment of an institution to train clergy locally.

Broughton opened his local College in St James’ Church, King Street, in 1845 and moved it to ‘Lyndhurst’ in 1847. By 1849, the College had closed. Although there were several reasons for this meteoric demise, the suspicions about being ‘Tractarian’ that hung over the St Augustine’s scheme, also bedevilled the college in Glebe. News came from England that, in October 1845 John Henry Newman had been received by the Roman Catholic Church, and, a year later, that he had been ordained a Roman priest in Rome itself, where he also received a Doctorate of Divinity. The defection of this leading Tractarian figure shocked many and did not make the situation any better for Broughton in Australia. To make matters even worse, in 1848, two Sydney clergymen, Thomas Makinson and Robert Sconce, followed Newman’s example and went over to Rome. This wouldn’t have helped the reputation of Broughton’s College, for Sconce had been one of the clergy who taught at St James, and reports quickly emerged that his teachings had smacked of Catholicism.

After St Augustine’s College opened its doors in 1849, three Australians were amongst the first graduates. There was no local college for them to go to – even if they had wanted to. Upon graduation, they returned to Sydney. By the end of the century, St Augustine’s would supply a total of 70 clergy to Australia. But, despite Broughton’s high hopes for St Augustine’s, only five of that number came to his diocese.

Broughton died whilst visiting England in 1853. His successor, Frederick Barker, was enthroned in St Andrew’s on 31 May 1855. Less than two weeks later, he sat with his fellow Trustees to talk about Moore’s will, and on 1st March 1856, Moore’s College opened its doors at Liverpool. Clergy would still be drawn from England and Ireland for some time to come, but under the aegis of an evangelical Bishop, and the care of a firmly evangelical (acting) Principal, William Macquarie Cowper, the college would have the good will of Sydney churchmen. Clergy training could now go local.

And go local it did. By 1900, Moore College students had been ordained for service not only in Sydney, but also in Melbourne, Goulburn, North Queensland, Bathurst, Brisbane, Ballarat, Newcastle, Grafton and Armidale, Tasmania (and even London) – 199 in all.

Peter Bolt will speak on Thomas Moore on three occasions in 2006 – St Luke’s Liverpool on March 5, Moore College on April 27 and the Park Hyatt at the Rocks on 28 October. Call Vicki at Moore College on 9577 9798 for more information.