The Sydney Family Album – 3 – William Cowper

From Dr. Mark Thompson’s introduction to his The Sydney Family Album series, first published in 2011 –

“Evangelicals in Sydney have especially good reasons to remember our forebears and give thanks to God. The strong and clear evangelical witness of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has not been an accident. Under God, it has been the result of the faithful labour of many men and women.

I propose periodically over this year to post brief entries reminding us about some of the key figures who have shaped Sydney Anglicanism. I will inevitably miss out many who should be mentioned, and my selection is bound to reflect my own limited knowledge, so please accept my apologies in advance if your favourites are omitted. Undoubtedly, there is good reason to start at the beginning …”

The third post in this series comes from guest blogger Peter Bolt:

William Cowper came to New South Wales immediately from Hull, in Yorkshire, where his faith had been nurtured in Evangelical circles, especially under the ministry of Thomas Dykes. After returning bruised from his stint as Chaplain in Sydney, Richard Johnson was Dykes’ curate at this time. At the end of 1807, when Samuel Marsden arrived to recruit more clergy for New South Wales, he enlisted Robert Cartwright and William Cowper.

Cowper preached at St Phillip’s the day after he had disembarked (20th August)— the first sermon of a ministry that would last for forty-nine years in that parish. Here Cowper established patterns of ministry learned in Yorkshire, and over time he also influenced the patterns of ministry that were established elsewhere in Sydney Town. Cowper’s evangelical vision of life and ministry led him to give himself to preaching, to prayer and worship, to championing the importance of the Sabbath and the sanctity of marriage and its necessity for the good of society. Like a true evangelical, his sermons were peppered with Bible texts; preaching was central to his Church services; he established a Thursday evening Lecture; he tirelessly visited his parishioners, whether convict, military, or free. The vision of our early evangelicals included the building of a wholesome society, in which the worship of God was the centre from which human beings and human society would be rebuilt, reformed and rejuvenated— especially important in a penal colony moving towards becoming a proper civilized society. This was the day of establishing ‘societies’, and whatever new society was formed in early nineteenth century Sydney, William Cowper was almost certainly associated with it.

In the 1840s some tension opened up between Cowper and Bishop Broughton when a new breed of clergy began to arrive, influenced by the Tractarian teaching emerging from Oxford. Increasingly dissatisfied with their Bishop, Sydney’s laity turned to William Cowper, who emerged as the clear leader of the Evangelical cause in Sydney. In August 1852, when Broughton went to England, he left Cowper in charge — now a very old man. When Broughton died, Cowper continued to run the Diocese, while praying for ‘a godly Bishop’, suitable to the evangelical laity of Sydney. In May 1855, he was overjoyed to be able to welcome Bishop Barker, someone who shared his evangelical faith and vision.

Just three years after Barker arrived, in July 1858, the city closed down while 25,000 people (that is, one third of Sydney) pressed around Cowper’s funeral procession—a testimony to the deep impact the St Philip’s clergyman had made on his parish and beyond.

Further Reading: P.G. Bolt, William Cowper (1778–1858). The Indispensable Parson. The Life and Influence of Australia’s First Parish Clergyman (Studies in Australian Colonial History 2; Camperdown, NSW: Bolt Publishing Services, 2009), and its companion Commemorative Pictorial Edition.

Thanks Peter for helping us to remember a very important member of the family.

Portrait of the Rev William Cowper modified from an image in the State Library of New South Wales.