Matthew Blagden Hale
Encyclopedia
Matthew Blagden Hale (18 June 1811 – 3 April 1895) was the first Bishop of Perth and then the Bishop of Brisbane
.
Born in Alderley
, Gloucestershire
, England
, Matthew Hale was the son of Robert and Lady Theodosia (née Bourke). His maternal grandfather was The Earl of Mayo
, Lord Archbishop of Tuam
. After completing his education at Wotton-under-Edge
, he attended Trinity College
, Cambridge
, and obtained his B.A.
in 1835 and M.A.
in 1838. He was eventually conferred an honorary D.D.
as well. He was ordained in the Church of England
in 1836.
In 1840, Hale married Sophia Clode, which whom he would have three children before her death in 1845. He became Archdeacon of Adelaide in 1847. The following year he married Sabina, daughter of John
and Georgiana Molloy
. In 1855, Hale returned to England without his family. The following July he arrived in Western Australia on the Guyon, and in November his family arrived there from South Australia. In March 1857, Hale returned to England with his family, where on 25 July 1857 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Perth in a ceremony at the Lambeth Palace Chapel.
Returning to Western Australia on the Nile early in 1858, he took office as Bishop of Perth, and that year opened the first Boys' College in the colony
. Modelled after England's public schools
, it remains the oldest boys' school in Western Australia, and has been renamed Hale School
in his honour.
Matthew Hale was Bishop of Perth until 1875, whereupon he became Bishop of Brisbane
until 1885. He eventually returned to England, retiring at Clifton, Bristol
where he died on 3 April 1895.
A statue of Bishop Hale was erected outside the Cloisters
in central Perth in March 2008.
In 1836 James Stirling
's cousin, Frederick Irwin
, went to England and Ireland to establish the Western Australian Missionary Society. The society then purchased an 866 acres (3.5 km²) site near Guildford that stretched from the Swan River into the hills; the 69 acres (279,233.3 m²) "Swanleigh" property at Middle Swan
is all that remains today and is now under the control of the Perth Diocesan Trustees.
The society appointed a cleric with the surname of Giustiniani as their first missionary and he arrived at the Middle Swan site in 1836. Giustiniani built two houses, his home and an Aboriginal mission. After some controversy involving his advocating on behalf of Aboriginal people, Giustiniani left the colony in 1838.
Giustiniani's replacement, the Reverend William Mitchell, his family and a governess named Anne Breeze arrived in 1838. Within a month Mitchell established a mission school on the Middle Swan site for settlers children and Aboriginal children with Breeze assisting.
A second Anglican school was established at Fremantle by George King in 1841 which continued until 1850. In 1841 Abraham Jones re-opened Giustiniani's mission school it also continued until 1850.
The Reverend John Wollaston
arrived at Fremantle in April 1841 and by May 1842 had proposed a plan to remove Aboriginal children from "the baneful influences of heathen customs" to schools where they would be educated at the cost of settler families who would then have the option of employing them as domestic servants.
In 1843 Mitchell established a second mission school at Middle Swan and, at Upper Swan, Postlethwaite established a mission school for settlers and Aboriginal children which ran until 1848.
In the 1850s the Swan Cottage was built at the Swan site to accommodate young "native" girls for the mission school.
Also in the 1850s Wollaston was granted 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) in Albany and the children from King's Native School of Fremantle was moved there. Henry Camfield and his wife Anne managed the Albany Institution: Mrs Camfield being Anne Breeze who had worked in Mitchell's Middle Swan School over a decade earlier.
In 1871 the Albany Native Institution was the longest operating educational establishment for Aboriginal children in the colony and the Camfields wanted to retire. The bishop offered his resignation in order to run the Albany institution. A delegation encouraged him to change his mind, and Hale subsequently purchased a block in Perth adjacent to Bishop's House where he built a house to accommodate and educate Aboriginal children from Albany at his own expense.
This two-storey building was known as Hale House and the "Native and Half Caste Institution" operated there for the next sixteen years under the direction of Hale and his successor, Parry.
Bishop Parry, took over the management of the Institution until 1888 when he moved the children to the newly established the Swan Native & Half Caste Mission on part of the Middle Swan site. The "Hale House" land was eventually absorbed into the Bishop's See.
Bishop of Brisbane
Queen Victoria created the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane and in 1859 appointed the Right Reverend Edward Tufnell as the first diocesan bishop. Tufnell designated St John's Cathedral in Brisbane as the pro-cathedral...
.
Born in Alderley
Alderley, Gloucestershire
Alderley is a village and civil parish in the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England, about fourteen miles southwest of Stroud and two miles south of Wotton-under-Edge. It lies underneath Winner Hill, between two brooks, the Ozleworth and Kilcott...
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Matthew Hale was the son of Robert and Lady Theodosia (née Bourke). His maternal grandfather was The Earl of Mayo
Joseph Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo
Joseph Deane Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo was an Irish peer and clergyman who held high offices in the Church of Ireland.-Family:He was the second son of John Bourke, 1st Earl of Mayo and Mary Deane. In 1760, he married Elizabeth Meade, daughter of Sir Richard Meade, 3rd Baronet and Catherine Prittie...
, Lord Archbishop of Tuam
Archbishop of Tuam
The Archbishop of Tuam is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Roman Catholic Church.-History:...
. After completing his education at Wotton-under-Edge
Wotton-under-Edge
Wotton-under-Edge is a market town within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. Located near the southern end of the Cotswolds, the Cotswold Way long-distance footpath passes through the town. Standing on the B4058 Wotton is about from the M5 motorway. The nearest railway station is...
, he attended Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, and obtained his B.A.
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1835 and M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1838. He was eventually conferred an honorary D.D.
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
as well. He was ordained in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
in 1836.
In 1840, Hale married Sophia Clode, which whom he would have three children before her death in 1845. He became Archdeacon of Adelaide in 1847. The following year he married Sabina, daughter of John
John Molloy
Captain John Molloy was an early settler in Western Australia. He was one of the original settlers of Augusta.-Early life:...
and Georgiana Molloy
Georgiana Molloy
Georgiana Molloy was an early settler in Western Australia, who is remembered as one of the first botanical collectors in the colony....
. In 1855, Hale returned to England without his family. The following July he arrived in Western Australia on the Guyon, and in November his family arrived there from South Australia. In March 1857, Hale returned to England with his family, where on 25 July 1857 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Perth in a ceremony at the Lambeth Palace Chapel.
Returning to Western Australia on the Nile early in 1858, he took office as Bishop of Perth, and that year opened the first Boys' College in the colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
. Modelled after England's public schools
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
, it remains the oldest boys' school in Western Australia, and has been renamed Hale School
Hale School
Hale School is a selective, independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located in Wembley Downs, a coastal suburb of Perth, Western Australia....
in his honour.
Matthew Hale was Bishop of Perth until 1875, whereupon he became Bishop of Brisbane
Bishop of Brisbane
Queen Victoria created the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane and in 1859 appointed the Right Reverend Edward Tufnell as the first diocesan bishop. Tufnell designated St John's Cathedral in Brisbane as the pro-cathedral...
until 1885. He eventually returned to England, retiring at Clifton, Bristol
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...
where he died on 3 April 1895.
A statue of Bishop Hale was erected outside the Cloisters
The Cloisters, Perth
The Cloisters is located at 200 St Georges Terrace, opposite its intersection with Mill Street, in Perth, Western Australia. It is a two-storey dark coloured brick building, which terminates the vista at the top of Mill Street and is a landmark in the rise of the street to the ridge of the...
in central Perth in March 2008.
Diocese of Perth and indigenous issues
Hale was widely seen a social and educational pioneer, noted for advocating the protection of Australia's Aborigines.In 1836 James Stirling
James Stirling (Australian governor)
Admiral Sir James Stirling RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. His enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British Government to establish the Swan River Colony and he became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia...
's cousin, Frederick Irwin
Frederick Irwin
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chidley Irwin was acting Governor of Western Australia from 1847 to 1848.Born in 1788 in Enniskillen, Ireland, Frederick Chidley Irwin was the son of Reverend James Irwin. In 1808, he was commissioned into the 83rd Regiment of Foot...
, went to England and Ireland to establish the Western Australian Missionary Society. The society then purchased an 866 acres (3.5 km²) site near Guildford that stretched from the Swan River into the hills; the 69 acres (279,233.3 m²) "Swanleigh" property at Middle Swan
Middle Swan, Western Australia
Middle Swan is a rural suburb of Perth, Western Australia in the Swan Valley, and forms part of the City of Swan local government area. The suburb is bisected by the Swan River...
is all that remains today and is now under the control of the Perth Diocesan Trustees.
The society appointed a cleric with the surname of Giustiniani as their first missionary and he arrived at the Middle Swan site in 1836. Giustiniani built two houses, his home and an Aboriginal mission. After some controversy involving his advocating on behalf of Aboriginal people, Giustiniani left the colony in 1838.
Giustiniani's replacement, the Reverend William Mitchell, his family and a governess named Anne Breeze arrived in 1838. Within a month Mitchell established a mission school on the Middle Swan site for settlers children and Aboriginal children with Breeze assisting.
A second Anglican school was established at Fremantle by George King in 1841 which continued until 1850. In 1841 Abraham Jones re-opened Giustiniani's mission school it also continued until 1850.
The Reverend John Wollaston
John Wollaston
Reverend John Ramsden Wollaston , was an Anglican clergyman who was instrumental in the establishment of the Church of England in Western Australia....
arrived at Fremantle in April 1841 and by May 1842 had proposed a plan to remove Aboriginal children from "the baneful influences of heathen customs" to schools where they would be educated at the cost of settler families who would then have the option of employing them as domestic servants.
In 1843 Mitchell established a second mission school at Middle Swan and, at Upper Swan, Postlethwaite established a mission school for settlers and Aboriginal children which ran until 1848.
In the 1850s the Swan Cottage was built at the Swan site to accommodate young "native" girls for the mission school.
Also in the 1850s Wollaston was granted 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) in Albany and the children from King's Native School of Fremantle was moved there. Henry Camfield and his wife Anne managed the Albany Institution: Mrs Camfield being Anne Breeze who had worked in Mitchell's Middle Swan School over a decade earlier.
In 1871 the Albany Native Institution was the longest operating educational establishment for Aboriginal children in the colony and the Camfields wanted to retire. The bishop offered his resignation in order to run the Albany institution. A delegation encouraged him to change his mind, and Hale subsequently purchased a block in Perth adjacent to Bishop's House where he built a house to accommodate and educate Aboriginal children from Albany at his own expense.
This two-storey building was known as Hale House and the "Native and Half Caste Institution" operated there for the next sixteen years under the direction of Hale and his successor, Parry.
Bishop Parry, took over the management of the Institution until 1888 when he moved the children to the newly established the Swan Native & Half Caste Mission on part of the Middle Swan site. The "Hale House" land was eventually absorbed into the Bishop's See.