Our Address

43 Macquarie Rd
WILBERFORCE
NSW, 2756

Alternate entrance to Car Park via
Old Sackville Road
(next to cemetery)

Location Map St Johns
 

Church of Saint John

There have been clergy who visited Wilberforce from time to time, until the appointment of a resident minister at the Hawkesbury in 1810. He was the Rev Robert Cartwright, who held services at Wilberforce on alternate Sundays. In 1819 he was succeeded by the Rev John Cross. During his term (1819-1828) the fine church of St Matthew, under the architect Francis Greenway was erected at Windsor, as well as the charming Georgian rectory. It is possible that Greenway was again the architect for the rectory, the builder was William Cox.

In 1825 Pitt Town was separated from Windsor to become a parish, in which Wilberforce was included, and later Sackville. The first clergyman was the Rev M Devenish Meares, who attended at Wilberforce once a week until 1836 when he was appointed to the Illawarra. On 17 November, 1837, a correspondent, writing to ‘The Australian’, points out that 12 months have elapsed since the departure of Mr Meares, and no clergyman has been appointed in his place to preach to the 800 or more souls in the area. He asks the Lord Bishop to at once direct ‘a Minister of the Faith by law established’ to proceed to the district of Wilberforce to preach the Word of God. The Bishop’s answer was to send the Rev J E Keane who remained in the Parish of Pitt Town until 1841.

The Schoolhouse continued in use as a chapel until 1859; however on 4 November 1846, a Public Meeting had been called by the incumbent, the Rev T C Ewing, and held in the Schoolhouse. It was to discuss the possibility of obtaining support for the building of a church at Wilberforce. Among those who attended was the Rev H Stiles from Windsor, who donated towards the building fund.

A committee was appointed consisting of the Rev T C Ewing, John Dunston, Tristram Dunstan, Joshua Vickery, Christopher Vickery, Richard Cobcroft, John Cobcroft, David Dunstan, Michael Nowland and Paul Bushell, all from Wilberforce, together with Reuben Greentree and Robert Farlow of Freeman’s Reach, Thomas Tebbutt of Windsor and Stephen Tuckerman of Portland Head. All those attending the meeting stated they would make every effort towards gaining their objective.

In 1847 a plan of the proposed church, prepared by Mr Edmund Blacket, could be inspected at the Schoolhouse. The Committee stated that ‘the Church will not be commenced until the sum of $800 be in the Treasurer’s hands’.

Edmund Blacket came to Australia in the ‘Eden’ in 1842. He suffered greatly from seasickness as he describes in his Journal. He felt ‘queer’ every time the ship rolled and dwelt on Samuel Johnson’s statement ‘A Ship, Sir, is a prison with a chance of being drowned’.  A delicate man, Blacket may have wished that such a fate might end his sufferings. Yet, when the ship was on an even keel he showed great interest in the dinner menu. His diary is humorous and lively, and delightful little sketches, all too few in pen or watercolour, increase the enjoyment of the reader. He survived the journey to become one of Australia’s greatest architects.

Blacket began practising as an architect in 1845, but, already, in 1843 Bishop Broughton commissioned him to design a church for Singleton (Patrick’s Plains). Although Edmund Blacket designed all classes of buildings, among them the fine Gothic main building at the University of Sydney, he is known chiefly for his ecclesiastical architecture.

The wish expressed in July, 1849 by those concerned with Wilberforce Church, ‘we hope that the neat and elegant plans drawn up by Mr. Blacket (sic) will be strictly adhered to’ was successfully achieved by the contractor, James Atkinson, of Windsor. Building did not commence, however, until seven years had passed. Sufficient money had been donated, but as one writer has surmised, perhaps lack of labour caused the delay, so many having departed to try their luck on the goldfields. The boom of the gold discovery had caused rising prices. The church at Wilberforce was now to cost $1,500 instead of the original $800. Bishop Barker laid the foundation stone on 17 December, 1856.

It was not until 12 April 1859 that this simple Gothic building of Hawkesbury sandstone, laid in dressed 12 inch courses, was solemnly consecrated by Bishop Barker, and 29 persons were confirmed at this service. How beautiful the completed church must have looked on that autumn day. Hawkesbury sandstone can be rich in colour, ranging through shades of yellow and sienna, with sometimes a suggestion of delicate amethyst or occasionally bold streaks of umber. What a prayer of thanksgiving must have gone up to heaven from all those who had sought through the years to raise this edifice to God. What delight to hear the bell ringing out over the country-side calling them to worship.

The Sundial

On the north wall of the church is an interesting and vertical sundial.  It is marked out on the three uppermost stone courses and flanked by two of the lancet windows that pierce the side walls of the building. The style that casts its shadow on the Roman figures tells the time with reasonable accuracy. Although the Egyptians designed the first known shadow clock, the Greeks were the first to evolve various types of sundials including the vertical.  The Tower of the Winds in Athens possesses eight dials set in various positions facing the cardinal points. The most common form is the horizontal one used in many eighteenth century gardens.  The sundial at St John’s has the year of the consecration of the church, 1859, and the initials J W cut into the wall.  The initials stand for John Wenban who was responsible for the sundial. He was accidentally killed on 27 November of that same year and was buried in the adjoining cemetery.  He was the schoolmaster at the Schoolhouse from 1842 to 1859, and was also the Parish Clerk, as well as leading the stringed instruments providing the music for the church choir.

The bell turret is a typical Blacket feature.  The roof was originally covered by shingles that weather to a soft silver grey, but alas, in 1950 they had to be replaced by fibro slates. It is an open timber roof with hammer beams, a more attractive construction than the usual tie-beams, and the wall posts rest on stone corbels. The floor of the chancel and the aisle in the nave are stone flagged.  The pews and pulpit are of cedar.

The Communion Table and Rerodos, which are of oak, together with certain other memorials, given by the parishioners to mark the Centenary of the Schoolhouse, were dedicated by Dean Talbot at a special service on 18 December, 1920.

The three stained glass windows in the chancel are in memory of Elizabeth Dunstan died 1899 aged 80 years, and her husband John died 1876, aged 71. There are two windows in the western end of the nave, one is inscribed in memory of John Thomas Dunstan, for some time organist at St John’s, whose death occurred in 1878 at the comparatively early age of 34. There is another such window in the south wall, close to the chancel, given by John Henry Fleming, a church warden for 24 years, who died in 1894 at the age of 78.

Tristram Dunstan, who was born in 1816, lived to the great age of 93. He merits special mention.  He had a long association with the church at Wilberforce and also Sackville. Four of his sons entered the Church, one of them becoming an archdeacon.

In 1914 certain renovations were carried out and the exterior and interior stonework were tuckpointed. Since 1934 the church has been lit by electricity, but in the early days, if evening services were held they would be by candlelight.  Petroleum, from which kerosene is obtained, was not discovered until 1858, and sperm oil and coal oil were expensive means of illumination.  With the advent of kerosene being imported and coming into general use in this country, it became possible for St. John’s to introduce kerosene lamps. Three large hanging lamps were installed and suspended from the apex of the ceiling, whilst the brass hooks that still exist around the walls held wall lamps. Who, I wonder, had the task of trimming and filling all those lamps?

In 1936 Wilberforce became a separate parish, so a residence was built for the incumbent.  The brick rectory was completed in April, 1937, the first clergyman to occupy it being the Rev K F Saunders.

List of Clergy

The Registers

Until 1826 Births, Marriages and Burials occurring at Wilberforce were entered in the Parish Register at Windsor, and a number of early Wilberforce names appear there. A glance at the Registers at St John’s which commenced in 1826, shows that the first baptism was of twins to Richard and Susanna Rose.  They were born on 11 December, 1825, and baptised on 29 January, 1826.  Richard, the father, was a son of Thomas Rose, a free settler, who came out with his family in the ‘Bellona’ 1792. There were five free families in that vessel, and David Collins in ‘The English Colony in New South Wales’ comments that Rose was 'the most respectable of these people and apparently the best calculated for a bona-fide settler!’

Thomas Rose first began farming at Liberty Plains, near Homebush, where on his arrival he had received a grant of 120 acres and later a further 70 acres. In 1802 he came to Wilberforce, having purchased a farm, and there his efforts were much more successful than on the poor soil at Liberty Plains. There was another Thomas Rose who came out under restraint in the ‘Barwell’ in 1798. He eventually became the owner of a large estate at Mt Gilead and became famous for his experiments in water conservation.

The first marriage entered was on 20 February, 1826 between Edwin Baldwin and Alice Clarke, both of Wilberforce. They were married at St. Matthew’s. Then follow Joseph Cobson and Ann Farrell, married on 5 March, 1826 in the Macquarie Schoolhouse.  Solomon Wiseman and Sophia Warner were also married there in that same year.

The Schoolhouse in the beginning is referred to in the Register as the ‘Chapel’, in 1842 this is varied with ‘this Parish’, but from 1844 it becomes ‘this Church’ which is used from then on.

The first Registers at St. John’s containing Baptisms, Marriages and Burials were rebound in 1964 as the gift of Dennis Bruce Gosper in memory of his ancestors.

The Cemetery

When surveying Wilberforce in 1811, Governor Macquarie made provision for a burial ground of four acres and by proclamation directed that in future, all interments were to be made in this area, which had been consecrated by the Rev. Samuel Marsden. The proclamation stated that when a death occurred it must immediately be reported to the constable of the district, and he would notify the nearest resident chaplain in order that he might attend and perform the funeral service (28).

The burial ground is situated on the slope at the rear of the Schoolhouse.

The first burials recorded for Wilberforce were those of James Hamilton and Joseph Ware who were drowned on 12 December, 1811, and buried by the Rev Robert Cartwright on the following day. The early Register of St. Matthew’s gives the cause of many deaths as by drowning. The earliest headstone seems to be that of Anthony Richardson who arrived in the ‘Surprise’ in 1790.  He married Susannah Cross at Windsor on 2 February, 1812 and died in 1816, aged 41 years.  Matthew James Everingham, whose headstone bears a quaint inscription, came out in the ‘Scarborough’ in 1788, and died on Christmas Day, 1817, aged 48 years.  John Cobcroft, aged 90, Paul Bushell, 84, and Henry Buttsworth, 62 all died in the same year, 1853. John Cobcroft arrived in 1790 and received a grant of land at Wilberforce in 1795. His descendants still farm this grant today, an unbeaten record of land tenure in this country. Paul Bushell, who proved himself a good farmer, still has descendants in the Hawkesbury. Henry Buttsworth, as well as farming his land, also built and worked the mill that was in operation from 1837 to 1907.  In its latter years the mill passed out of Buttsworth hands.

Joshua Joseph Vickery, who attended the meeting in 1846, when it was decided to build a church, later went to the Ovens Goldfieds in Victoria, where he died on 2 January, 1953 aged 44.  His remains were brought back to Wilberforce and buried on 10 June, 1854, 17 months after his death.

The tale of mortality in the Wilberforce Parish in the nineteenth century of infants of only a few hours old, up to teenagers and those who had just reached their majority is poignantly revealed on many of the tombstones.  Out of 486 deaths recorded at St John’s from 1826 to 1899, 292 come into this category. Today increased medical and scientific knowledge have greatly reduced such tragic loss of young life.

As one walks about the Cemetery, familiar names are noted: Cobcroft, Greentree, Farlow, Beacroft, Izard, Dunstan, Turnbull, Bowd, Gosper, Stubbs and Rose, as well as many others.

It is sad to find that many of the inscriptions, on the tombstones, of those who contributed to the history of this early rural settlement, are, through weathering or neglect becoming indecipherable.

Wilberforce is still a farming area, and fortunately, has retained much of the peace and quiet of its rural beginnings. Let us hope that it long continues to escape the noise and bustle of the modern world.