Calvin MacKenzie
Chaplain of New South Wales. On the second Lord’s Day after dropping anchor in Port Jackson, Johnson preached his first sermon on Australian soil at Sydney Cove – claimed from the dispossessed indigenous inhabitants as “colonial” soil in the name of the British Sovereign. Assembled in front of him were more than 759 convicts, with 13 children born on the voyage, the Governor, his officials, their servants and a detachment of 213 Marines – just over 1000 souls in all. He stood under a tree on a “grassy hill” near the foreshore, at a spot we now know as the corner of Bligh and Hunter Streets in the Sydney City Business District, where a monument commemorates that important occasion and quotes Johnson’s text: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12) This suitable text gives us a glimpse into the character of the man who acknowledges, in his first sermon, the Lord’s goodness in preserving the fleet to arrive safely at their destination. The first communion service followed two weeks later and was held in Lieutenant Ralph Clark’s tent, which had been borrowed for the occasion. The event was recorded by Clark in his journal: “I will keep this Table also as long as I live for it is the first Table that ever the Lord’s Supper was eat of in this country”.2
It is notable that the Governor, not long after he heard that first sermon, requested Johnson to keep to moral subjects in his preaching. Arthur Phillip was apparently not well pleased that his Chaplain was a “Methodist”!3 From the colony’s very beginning then, the rational approach to religion was being espoused by the Colonial authorities, and this was at variance with Johnson’s Evangelical view that man’s first need was saving faith. Johnson was first and foremost a preacher of the gospel and, despite the opposition, he turned his attention to his spiritual duties with all diligence.
In the early years of the colony, there were also the pressing needs of acquiring shelter and securing the provision of food in a harsh environment vastly different from that with which they were familiar. Johnson’s early training in farming was to come in very handy as he set about providing for his wife and household. He was credited with raising wheat and vegetables
1The previous articles described Richard Johnson and his beliefs. This English Evangelical set sail for Australia as the first chaplain to the colony of New South Wales in 1787.
2Journal extract, 17 Feb 1788, by Lieutenant Ralph Clark, Manuscript 1/27a, State Library of NSW. (This is also the spot on which the first church was built in 1793 at Johnson’s own expense.)
3Murray, Australian Christian Life, p 4.
in their first year and he established a grove of orange trees from the pips he acquired in Rio de Janeiro, among other farming pursuits which were even more successful. The settlement in general was hard pressed to emulate Johnson’s private horticultural success and was almost brought to starvation by 1790 after crops failed and supplies from Britain were delayed.4
Johnson’s priority however was to minister to his flock and, given his Anglican background, he sought to do that in a place of worship designed for that purpose. The Governor, although appearing to be sympathetic, never did build the church that was provided for in the supplies that arrived with the First Fleet. Arthur Phillip was focused on establishing order and essential infrastructure for the settlement and the administration of government, to the point that, while even other officers were better catered for, Johnson’s family lived until 1791 in a hut thatched with cabbage tree foliage that leaked when it rained. Johnson, upset at the delay in erecting a church building, wrote to his friend Fricker at the end of 1788: “Other things seem to be of greater notice and concern and most would rather see a tavern, a play house, a brothel – anything sooner than a place for public worship”.5
A Spanish expedition commanded by Alejandro Malaspina which arrived on 13 March 1793 was amazed when, after five years of habitation, there was still no Anglican church building. One of the accompanying Roman Catholic priests mentioned: “Had the place been settled by our nation, a house of God would have been erected before one for man”.6 What an indictment of the cold rationalism of the Colonial authorities that they did not care to provide a house for the God they professed to worship, despite bringing with them materials provided expressly for that purpose.
In December 1788, Johnson’s parish was extended west to include Parramatta, (or Rose-Hill as it was first known) and Toongabbie, where convicts were being put to work. This extension at first necessitated monthly boat trips of several hours up the Parramatta river from Sydney Cove to take the Sabbath service, but then fortnightly journeys of 14 miles on horseback to stay for the weekend. Johnson maintained this schedule until the later arrival of Samuel Marsden who settled in Parramatta.
Richard Johnson, despite his critics, treated the convicts with great sympathy while ministering to their spiritual and, often, their temporal needs. The notorious Second Fleet arrived under the command of Government contractors in 1790, depositing just 759 starved, abused and almost-dead
4Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 45-46.
5Johnson to Fricker, 15 Nov 1788. Quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 59.
6This comment is attributed to a Professor Wood, who does not give a source to verify it. Quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 68.
individuals, out of the 1017 able-bodied convicts despatched from Portsmouth. Those that lived to disembark needed medical care and remedies that the colony was in no position to provide. Failed crops and the scarcity of much-needed supplies had reduced the colony to a pitiful, parlous state. One Second Fleet convict who survived wrote home some time later: “I believe few of the sick would recover if it was not for the kindness of the Rev Mr Johnson, whose assistance out of his own stores makes him the physician both of soul and body”.
In 1793 Johnson said of the convicts: “Though lost to all sense of virtue, and abandoned and seemingly given up to all kinds of vice, I cannot but consider them as my fellow creatures and as men and women possessed of souls that are immortal”.7
Here was a man – a gospel preacher – of whom it could be said that his professed Christianity manifested itself in every aspect of his life. Late in 1792 Johnson wrote his Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island. This tract was the epitome of Evangelical preaching and practical moral exhortations to keep God’s law; it was aimed at all the parishioners he was unable to minister to personally, due to the increase and difficulties of his labours. He sent the tract to John Newton, who had it published in London after some editing. The careful reader of this tract is rewarded with a very clear statement of the faith Johnson loved and preached, and is left in no doubt about Johnson’s pastoral care for his flock.
The tract commences: “I beseech you, brethren, suffer this word of exhortation. Your souls are precious. They are precious in the sight of God. They are precious to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are precious in my esteem. O that you yourselves were equally sensible of their value.”
Running to 12 000 words, the pastoral letter is full of practical teaching from the Word of God, rebukes where necessary, and exhortations to repent. Mindful of the great eternity to which all were hastening, Johnson repeatedly exhorts his flock to seek the Lord earnestly while He may be found. Richard Johnson had a pastor’s heart.
Commending the letter to his people’s earnest attention, he pleads: “Read it a second, a third, and a fourth time, till your hearts are affected by it. Remember, this is the advice of a friend, of one who sincerely seeks, wishes, and longs for your happiness. It is the advice of your minister, expressly appointed to watch over your souls, and who must shortly give an account of his mission to the Great Judge of all. Whether I shall die amongst you, or be separated from you while living, we shall, at last, meet before Him. Then
7Richard Johnson Papers, p 146. Quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 54.
I must answer for my preaching, and you for your hearing. O that this awful day of judgement may be often, yea, always, present to your thoughts, and to mine! That we may live in constant expectation of its approach! So that when the last loud trumpet shall sound, we may stand with acceptance and boldness in His presence, and be admitted as believers in the great Saviour, into His heavenly kingdom, with a ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord’ (Mt 25:23).
“This will be my daily prayer to God for you. I shall pray for your eternal salvation, for your present welfare, for the preservation, peace, and prosperity of this colony: and especially for the more abundant and manifest success of the Redeemer’s cause and kingdom, and for the effusion and outpouring of His Holy Spirit, not only here, but in every part of the habitable globe. Longing, hoping, and waiting for the dawn of that happy day when the heathen shall be given to the Lord Jesus for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession: and when all the ends of the earth shall see, believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God (Ps 2:8).”
During the first four years in the colony, Johnson suffered much from ill health, no doubt brought about by poor diet and the stress of his situation, but his sufferings were to increase with the departure of Governor Arthur Phillip to Britain and the appointment of Major Francis Grose as Lieutenant Governor of the colony in his place. During a two-year incumbency, Grose replaced the civil magistrates with military officers from the New South Wales Corps he helped raise; he favoured them with extra rations, grants of land and convicts to work it. This led to a monopoly on farming and trade – particularly spirituous liquors – and ensured the wealth of what came to be known as the “Rum Corps”.8 Grose clashed with Johnson virtually from the first day and so severe was his dislike of the Chaplain that he opposed him at every opportunity, undermined his standing in the Colony and maligned his character both in the settlement and in Britain. When Samuel Marsden arrived on 10 March 1794, Grose provided him with a level of comfort which he had withheld from Johnson.9
Upon arrival Marsden wrote to a friend: “As I enjoy some privileges which Mr Joh[ns]on at present does not, this hurts him a good deal . . . to see the Gov[ernor] pay me more attention than he does him gives him much pain. Mr J[ohnson] has been treated unkindly. I must and will take his part in what I see he is right, but then I must not, it is not my duty to be at variance with the Gov[ernor] here if I can consistent with my duty and conscience avoid it.”10
8Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 63. 9Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 62-75.
10Marsden to Mrs Stokes, Hassall Correspondence, II, pp 1-5 in ML. Quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 62-75.
In a letter to Wilberforce, Marsden said: “Mr Joh[ns]on] is a man of uprightness and integrity, and in my humble opinion hath acted becoming the dignity of his sacred office. . . . I could not take the Lieut Governor’s part because he appeared to me to have acted unbecoming his office and character. . . . The Lieut Governor hath been civil to me so far, but I am sorry to say neither Mr Joh[ns]on] nor I are likely to be supported in our ministerial office, but many hindrances thrown in our way.”11
With the departure of Grose to Britain and the appointment of John Hunter as Governor in 1794, Johnson enjoyed, for the first time, the genuine support and pious example of the highest ranking Government official in the colony as Hunter set about raising the moral tone of the settlement and restoring Johnson to the civil magistracy.12 In Johnson’s first sermon after Hunter’s arrival he “exposed the last Government, their extortion, their despotism, their debauchery and ruin of the colony, driving it almost to famine by the sale of liquors at 1200 percent profit. He congratulated the colony at the abolition of a military government and the restoration of a civil one, and of the laws.”13
Return to Britain and Legacy. After 12 years in the colony, suffering from fatigue and in ill-health, Richard Johnson packed up and returned with his family to Britain in company with Governor Hunter in the Buffalo, arriving on 24 May 1801. Johnson was to find that prejudice against Evangelicals, which made so many of his years in the colony a bitter affliction, was as prevalent at home as it had been in New South Wales. For several years Johnson had to rely on the proceeds of the sale of his farms and produce in the colony, and it was not until 1810 that the Church made provision for him, finally recognising his labours and service. It is most likely that William Wilberforce was championing Johnson’s cause and with the death of Jerome de Salis, Rector of the church of St Antholin in 1810, King George III, on the advice of the evangelical Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, bestowed the living of St Antholin’s on his “trusty and well beloved subject” Richard Johnson.14
Richard Johnson was to labour for 17 years at St Antholin’s before passing away on 13 March 1827, aged 74. His farewell sermon to his flock was preached from Philippians 1:23-24: “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you”.14
11Marsden to Wilberforce, 4 May 1794. Richard Johnson Papers, pp 153-160. Quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 62-75.
12Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 62-75.
13Palmer to Lindsay, 15 September, 1795, HRNSW, II, p 881; quoted in Macintosh, Richard Johnson, pp 62-75.
14Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 96.
A tablet was erected in St Antholin’s and inscribed thus: “To the memory of the Rev Richard Johnson, BA, who died March 13th, 1827, aged 74 years. He was the first, and for many years the only, Chaplain appointed to the extensive colony of New South Wales, and afterward seventeen years Rector of these parishes, where he faithfully preached Christ and Him crucified”.15
Despite many deprivations, slights and 12 years of life-sapping labour as a gospel minister, sometime civil magistrate, successful farmer and educationalist, Richard Johnson pioneered the way for the Evangelical wing of the Church of England in Australia and brought the gospel to a hitherto unploughed branch of the Lord’s vineyard. Concerning the nature of the Evangelical Christianity he brought with him, Johnson shall speak for himself: “I have told you again and again, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that there is no coming to God with comfort, either in this world, or in that which is to come, but by Him. He has told you so Himself. And the Apostle assures you that there is no other name under heaven, given unto men, whereby they can be saved. Look unto Him, and you shall be saved; if not, you must be damned. This is the plain truth, the express declaration of the Bible. Life and death are set before you.
“Permit me then, as your minister, your friend, and a well-wisher to your souls, to press these serious and weighty considerations home upon your consciences once more. I hope and believe that I have asserted nothing, but what can be proved by the highest authority, the Word of the living God.
“They certainly deserve your closest and most careful attention, since it is plain beyond a doubt, that upon your knowledge or ignorance, your acceptance or rejection of this gospel, your everlasting happiness or misery must depend.”16
Johnson remained faithful to the precious doctrines of grace in the Colony and his work was built upon by Samuel Marsden and others that followed – Calvinistic Anglicans and Methodists as well as Presbyterians. It is no small coincidence in God’s providence that the Church of England in NSW today is still influenced by those who hold to the Evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. Although it is by no means a perfect Church and, in fact, is sadly lacking in many areas, it still confesses and preaches the precious doctrines of a crucified Christ as the only remedy for a fallen world and the need for a personal experience of the Redeemer’s life-changing and saving power through faith in a risen Saviour.
Richard Johnson sought with all his being to establish the gospel in New
15Macintosh, Richard Johnson, p 100.
16Rev Richard Johnson, An Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island, London, 1792, (facsimile edition).
South Wales and, although he bemoaned the opposition of the state and his apparent lack of results, he left the most precious legacy any minister can leave behind him: that he had done all that was in his power to do and had left no stone unturned to advance the Redeemer’s kingdom. Surely Johnson could have said with the Apostle Paul: “Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27).