I have long desired to explain to my non-Australian readers the derivation of the name 'The Blogging Parson'. Byron Smith suggested it to me first in an off-hand comment, and I just couldn't resist it as a blog-name.It recalls the Rev Samuel Marsden, the second Chaplain to the colony of New South Wales, who has gone down in history as 'The Flogging Parson'. He acted as magistrate as well as Chaplain: and, according to the Irish (and Catholic) convicts, he inflicted more severe punishments on the misbehaving convicts than even other magistrates in the colony. He was not a popular figure - regarded as intolerant and argumentative even by his peers. The mythology of Marsden the monster was given further impetus by Australia's most famous (and now notorious) historian, Manning Clark, a child of the manse himself and an atheist. Clark's personal resentment of Christianity fairly oozes from his pages...
Of course, the truth is more complicated: in amongst this undoubted severity was also a great love for humankind and desire to see the gospel of grace preached. His life was in fact marked by many remarkable good works as well as the flaws. A Yorkshireman by birth, Marsden arrived in the colony in 1794 with his wife Elisabeth and their newborn daughter. He had had an early association with William Wilberforce, the anti-slave reformer. He was an extremely able - and eventually wealthy - man, and succeeded in shipping wool from Australia to England, and was reputedly the first to introduce sheep to NZ. But more importantly, he was also the first to bring the gospel to NZ, largely at his own expense. He was particularly fond of the Maori people. Interestingly he is remembered far more fondly in NZ than in Australia, where his name is used for schools and streets. You would never see that in Australia.
Let's not excuse the flaws: though I would have to say that it should be remembered that the colony of NSW was a prison camp in an alien environment, and that fear of convict mutiny must have been a daily companion, especially when the Irish rebels - ideological prisoners and not just petty thieves like the others - were sent in large numbers. But his determination to witness for Christ to the end of the earth - literally! - ought to be remembered and honoured, too.
10 comments:
You'll need to bulk up a bit Michael if you want to carry the link over into your self image - Marsden looks a little on the porky side!
I am betting he ate a lot of mutton in his time!
They say he used to preach in Sydney town on a Sunday morning, then walk the fifteen miles or so to Parramatta to preach for the evening service. Doesn't seem to have made a difference to his girth...
And speaking of Parramatta, Michael, you've obviously been away too long -- Marsden Street, Parramatta, not to mention Marsden Road, Carlingford, and Marsden High School, between Ermington and West Ryde.
(Or you were just never a westie..)
Greg Anderson
Ah, well done - and no, I never was a westie.
However, the contrast between the way Marsden is remembered in NZ and in Australia is quite marked.
Hi Michael,
When I was in NZ in January last year, I visited Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands. Two of NZ's oldest European buildings can be found there, built by CMS but now owned by the NZ National Trust. The literature there basically accuses Marsden & CMS of having blood on their hands because they (allegedly) sold muskets to the Maori. The Chiefs who bought the muskets then used them to attack & enslave their neighbours, setting off an arms race that affected both NZ Islands, as well as the Chatham Islands. So there are Kiwis who definitely are doing their best to cut down Marsden's reputation.
Roger
According to my sources, CMS sacked a missionary Thomas Kendall for trading in arms with the Maori in 1822. I am not aware that Marsden was directly involved.
Hi Michael,
Greg left out Marsden Park, a semi-rural district SW of Riverstone.
Attached is a link to the NZ Historic Places Trust website, which accuses Marsden of being heavily involved in selling guns to the Maori:
http://www.historic.org.nz/magazinefeatures/2002may/2002_05c_single.htm
Hey I went to Marsden High in West Ryde! But did I ever learn anything about Samuel Marsden...I don't think so.
Hmmm. While I was in the Mitchell Library recently I read a note detailing a fine that Marsden imposed on an official 'flogger' who had absconded after refusing to flog (for the second time) a convict who Marsden was torturing (flogging) a confession out of. It certainly lowered my opionion of Marsden. Is there a point where someone's evil-doing in fact robs them of any honour due for their evangelistic zeal?
I don't want to defend the indefensible, but:
I do think we need to reckon with the distance between the frontier society that Sydney Town was (with 5/6 of its population convicted criminals of course!) and our more sophisticated bureaucracy of justice. I think the flawed picture of Marsden ought always to be presented, of course.
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