Forum
HV Families
Webmistress
The Diocese of Maitland 1866-1966
The Rev. Father Harold Campbell, the author of this volume, was a priest of the Diocese. Newcastle born, Father Campbell was educated at the Marist Brothers' High School, Hamilton, and after four years as an engineering apprentice the Broken Hill Pty. works, Newcastle, entered St. Columba's College, Springwood. He completed his Theological studies at St. Patrick's College, Manly and was ordained in St. John's Pro-Cathedral, Maitland, by the late Bishop Gleeson in 1952.
Father Campbell has served successively in the parishes of Krambach, Branxton,Cardiff, East Maitland, Maitland and Wickham. He was Editor of the "Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel" and Director of Catholic Missions for the Diocese of Maitland.
Now retired and living at Maitland, Father Campbell has given me permission to reproduce chapters of his book which is now out of print.
Catholicism in Newcastle (below) Father Therry & the Hunter River Mission (below) Father Therry's Registers and Diary |
We pass over the coming and going of the "convict priests" and the deportation of Rev. Father J. O'Flynn as none of these ever came to the Diocese of Maitland. But Father O'Flynn's deportation to England by Governor Macquarie raised such a storm in the British Parliament that two Catholic chaplains, Father Philip Connolly and Father John Joseph Therry, were appointed to New South Wales. They arrived in Sydney in May, 1820.It is certain that each of these priests visited the northern settlements and that they were the first to do so.*
The first priest ever in the Newcastle-Hunter Valley area was the unsung Father Connolly. Father Connolly visited Newcastle and then Port Macquarie in 1822.
Columbas Fitzpatrick, about whom Monsignor Duffy has been recently writing, tells of this first visit of any priest:
"In 1822 I accompanied Father Connolly to the penal settlements of the North. We got a passage in the little Government brig called the Nelson, and made Mewcastle without difficulty where we went ashore, but Major Morisset, the commandant, was not fond of priests, so Father Connolly did not remain but continued his voyage to Port Macquarie where he met a very different reception from Captain Allman, the Commandant of that place. Father Connolly was entitled to respect and attention as an official chaplain going to the religious wants of the soldiers and prisoners of his own religion, but although Captain Allman was not a Catholic he not only gave him all the honour due to his position but took him to his own table and made as much of him as if he were a brother. I had a very fine time of it for the fortnight that we remained there, and was very sorry we did not remain longer. I remember a great blackfellow called Bob Bassett they had at the settlement to catch bushrangers. Father Connolly was a very stout-hearted man or he would not have gone to Port Macquarie at that time, as steamers were not thought of, and there was a very bad bar or sand-bank at the entrance of the harbour over which the surf beat at times in a fearful way, but his duty impelled him and he knew no fear, from which place he never returned" |
This was the first visit of any priest to our Diocese and the first and only visit of Father Connolly. We shall not delay to record the earlier or later career of Father Connolly. He was the companion of Father Therry when the first chaplains were appointed to Australia, but then he chose the Hobart Mission and spent many years there in what was then, perhaps, the more difficult situation. Being the senior of the two priests and the superior, it could well be that he chose for himself the more difficult task. Father Therry, of course, remained in New South Wales and became the founder of the Church in this State and really in this continent.
We say that Father Connolly was the first priest in the Diocese of Maitland. Whether he said Mass here is, of course, a matter of debate. He would certainly have said Mass at Port Macquarie and fulfilled the other duties of the official chaplain at that place.
Concerning Newcastle and his activity there, we have no record. The commandant was not friendly and that would probably exclude his visiting the convicts, but it would not prevent the priest saying Mass. Columbas Fitzpatrick says, "Father Connolly did not remain." That may imply a visit of a few hours or a few days. It is certain the the "Lady Nelson" would remain, at least, a few hours, and more likely a few days or at least one day, so it would not be unreasonable to suppose that Father Connolly did spend that time ashore and that he would have said Mass in some convenient, if inconspicuous place. He would have had all the necessary equipment and he had his altar-server, for that was the function of Fitzpatrick.Probably then, to Father Connolly, must go the honour and the credit of saying the first Mass in the Diocese of Maitland as we know it.
*The late Monsignor Hartigan ("John O'Brien") writing in 1944, says: Chroniclers of early Catholic Australian History get over a sea of troubles by making Father Therry's name a handy stop-gap. "Father Therry, of course, visited, or Father Therry must have visited, etc" surmounts a lot. The wonder is that Father Therry distributed himself as widely as he did and as early as he did; but it would have been quite impossible for the much travelled pioneer to have visited all the places where his admirers have placed him. In the first stages of his career he had enough work around Sydney and its environs to keep many men busy, and perhaps Father Connolly did more work than he is given credit for, Columbas Fitzpatrick, who when a business man of repute in Goulburn in the sixties wrote his reminiscences, claimed that he did. Since Monsignor Hartigan wrote these lines there has been less of the "Father Therry must have visited" type of chronicle. But Monsignor Hartigan himself admits the claims of the Hunter Valley. |
Father Therry & the Hunter River Mission
Whatever about the unsupported assumptions of Father Therry's visits to so many other places in New South Wales, there can be no doubt about his visits to Newcastle, Maitland, Singleton and the Hunter River. The first of these visits certainly took place in the late 1820's and very likely in the early years of that decade. The two chaplains, Father Connolly and
The first resident Bishop of Maitland, Bishop Murray, speaking on one occasion, repeated a conversation he had with a resident of East Maitland, who told him that his mother had been baptised by Father Therry before the town had been established on the site chosen by Major Mitchell who surveyed the are for the two townships. That would set the date as early as 1829 at the latest. We will show later that he had established the Church of St. Joseph at East Maitland by 1830.
Many of the early visits were rushed and hurried. The so-called modern grapevine was working then perhaps even better than it is today; the word would come through that the priest was needed here of needed there, that an execution was scheduled to take place; a soul was about to meet its Maker. It is not for no reason that the Church of St. Joseph at East Maitland faces Stockade Hill, the place of execution.
The first St Joseph's stood on the same spot and the Catholic Chapel and the gibbet faced each other across the narrow valley bisecting stockade hill. Before the chapel was built, it was on the same spot that the condemned man could confidently expect that Father Therry would be waiting to meet him before the gallows did their ghastly work. And always it must be remembered that Father Therry was suspended by the Governor of the day in 1825 on a charge that has been long since discredited. Father Therry, who was offered £300 to leave the colony, refused to go and continued what he knew was his God-given work. From then onwards for some eight years, although Father Therry remained in the Colony and continued as before, he was forced to be more circumspect in his ministrations and to some extent even secretive. Because he no longer held even the lowly official status of Catholic Chaplain there were many who, because of their innate animus, did everything they could to thwart him in his movements and his ministrations.
Dean Kenny, who came to Australia as a student with Bishop Polding in the 1830's, and so was very close to all the making of the history of Catholicism in early New South Wales and published "Progress of Catholicity in Australia", records;
"..... The Rev. Father was prohibited from visiting the sick in the hospitals and infirmaries - when he could not administer to them the consolations of our Holy Religion. To show the fortitude and address of this apostolic man, whilst under ban, he went to visit a dying man at one of the hospitals. He was stopped by the guard when about to enter. Father Therry said to him, 'the salvation of this man depends on my ministration; this is your first duty?' The guard, recognising the right of the man of God, lowered his arms and permitted him to pass. At another time he was going into the infirmary to attend a sick person, when the doorkeeper told him to stop until he ascertained from the attendant surgeon whether he could be admitted. Whilst he was away, Father Therry, who knew all the passages of the place entered, gave the sick person consolation, and when returning met the official, who told him he could not be admitted. Many of the petty officials were very insolent to Father Therry and his flock, taking advantage of the circumstances. It was permitted to have divine service in the old Court House, a large building, now a public school in Castlereagh Street, but because their pastor was not recognised by the Government, the door was locked against them. But in defiance of such insolence the door was forced open. It is said Mr.Wentworth, the lawyer, was consulted as to the steps the Catholics ought to take to secure the Court House for divine service, as they had as good a right as others to use it for that purpose. 'What will you do?' said Wentworth. 'Why take a crowbar and break the door open; and if they take you to court, send for me, and I'll defend you.'" |
Writing in 1932, the late Dan Ryan, who did much research into the early history of Catholicity in the Hunter Valley, was able to write:
"Father Therry must have been a frequent visitor to Maitland, as he was held in reverence by the old settlers, and his memory was a treasured one with their children." |
He wrote a series of articles in the early "Sentinel" and we gratefully acknowledge their value and assistance here and now. Much that John O'Brien wrote in "In Diebus Illis" was, as he himself said, "lifted from there". Quoting Bonwick, Ryan says: Bonwick in his "Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days" refers to Father Therry in these words:
"Hospitals and goals were closed against him. Even criminals sentenced to execution could only obtain his services by special memorial. He had to go about by stealth to his ministrations. As with all our Protestant prejudices, we have a personal respect for the good old priest, we cannot but regret that twelve years atonement was judged necessary for the utterance of a hasty word under some provocation. This was a dark time for Roman Catholics." |
ABN 18909909400 - © NetGenie (All Rights Reserved)