Our Founding Fathers - 1846.

From The Presbyterian Banner: October, 1996.

In The Presbyterian Banner for March 1996 an outline of the life of Samuel Martin, the first ruling elder to sit in the newly formed Synod, was given. We turn now to the ministers.

The ministerial members of the first Synod were all well known in their day. Colin Stewart, MA (1800-86) was born at Ferintosh and was the brother of Rev Charles Stewart of Fort William FCS. He did an itinerating work in Hartley/Bowenfels district. A Gaelic-speaker he was not at notable as a preacher but he was a good teacher. A quiet and unobtrusive man he was affectionately called 'Parson' Stewart. He married a sister of the famous Dr Macintosh Mackay, but there were no children. He founded Cooerwull Academy at Bowenfels.

John Tait^[1](1809-1860) was from Moffat in Dumfriesshire. He married Elizabeth Blair in 1837, shortly before sailing for Australia, and two of their five sons (George and Lithgow) became ministers. His parish at Parramatta was small and somewhat split over the division, a significant section feeling keenly the loss of the government stipend. Perhaps in part because of this, Tait himself seems to have been satisfied with forming an independent Synod free of the compromising words 'in connection with the Established Church of Scotland'. His position boiled down to one of neutrality in regard to the Scottish churches. He maintained this line after he went to Geelong Free Church in 1851, and he ultimately played a significant role in the formation of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859. There were practical advantages in his approach but the great objection (apart from the obligation of ordination vows) was that it would mean a levelling effect in the testimony of the Australian Church, so that only the lowest common denominator of Scottish Presbyterian belief would be maintained.

William McIntyre, MA (1806-70)^[2] was unquestionably the ablest intellect of the three ministers and he also had the largest congregation - over 200 persons in several centres in the Maitland district which he had served from September 1841. He was born not far from Fort William, one of twelve children. With his brother Allan he conducted a school in Glasgow for some time, but came to Australia in 1837 at Dr Lang's urging. He was a Gaelic speaker and a man of scholarly bent. His preaching was not exactly popular in style but there was good solid meat, and he was very conscientious in the discharge of his duties. in 1844 he married Mary McIntyre, the sister and heir of the tough pastoralist Peter McIntyre (1783-1842) after whom the McIntyre River is named, the Rev James Forbes officiating. Although cousin marriage is common among Scots there is no clear evidence that William and Mary were so related. They had no children, and Mary's wealth was not insignificant in enabling William to organise various projects, including conducting the magazine The Voice in the Wilderness 1846-52, and founding 'the High School of Maitland' in 1855. Most of their money found its way into religious and charitable causes, including significant contributions to liquidating the debt on St George's Church, of which he was pastor (drawing no stipend) from 1862 until his death. McIntyre was always concerned for local ministerial training. In fact, the first Presbyterian minister trained in Australia was trained by him (James White, ordained 1847).

A fourth person who took the same position as the PCEA must be mentioned, namely, the Rev James Forbes^[3] of Melbourne. He had not been present at the meeting in 1846 which resolved not to change the name and break the connection with the post-1843 Established Church. Distance and prospects at Port Phillip were factors in suggesting a distinct Synod for what became Victoria, and so Forbes founded the Free Presbyterian Church of Australia Felix (afterwards Victoria).

Forbes (1813-1851) came from the Aberdeen area and was the youngest of the four ministers. He would have to be judged the most able and the most attractive personality among them. Certainly his praise is in all the churches to this day. Although young and lacking parish experience, Forbes embodied very much the ideal of the Presbyterian minister. Open and generous-hearted, he was clear and firm on the truths of the Word of God. He was not only evangelical in sentiment but evangelistic in outlook and action. An excellent visitor, a good man at ecclesiastical business, and a man committed to Christian engagement with society, his accomplishments were many. He is regarded as Melbourne's first public educationist, and was the chief influence in the founding in 1851 of a college designed to provide a course of training suitable to prepare men for the study of theology - a school now known as Scotch College. He conducted various other educational enterprises, a lending library, and adult education courses of an evening on everything from Classics to Practical Bookkeeping. Only one of his four elders in Scots Church was prepared to 'go out' with him in 1846: that one was Henrie Bell, a lovely Christian man whose remains lie next to Forbes' in the Melbourne Cemetery. Forbes also established and edited The Port Phillip Christian Herald (1846-51).

End Notes:

[1] Family details may he found in Memorial Reminiscences of Rev John Tait and Elizabeth Tait (London 1914).

[2] For a sketch of McIntyre's life see my article in R.S.Ward (ed), Presbyterian Leaders in Nineteenth Century Australia (Wantirna 1993) 82-97.

[3] For a sketch of Forbes' life see my article in R.S.Ward (ed). Presbyterian Leaders in Nineteenth Century Australia (Wantirna 1993) 37-53.