CHURCH LANDS
- Mr. Surveyor White has been fully employed here during the past
week in surveying small portions of the crown lands for sale and
measuring grants for the Protestant, Catholic, and Wesleyan burial
places, and also an acre of land for the Protestant community on
which to build their church, and which presents a capital site for
that purpose. Mr. White, during his short sojourn here, has docked
a few estates of their fair proportions. Three hundred acres of
land, with a new stone cottage thereon, with orchard and other
improvements, were swept away from one estate as the property of
her Majesty. From the Maitland Mercury February 1846
The above survey in 1846 was in response to applications from
settlers of the district. Tenders were called for Carpenters
and stonemasons to begin work on the St. John's Anglican
Church soon after and it was Around this same time that a
cemetery was established at Wollombi.
Yesterday the newly
erected church of St. John the Evangelist, Wollombi erected from
the designs of Edmund Blackett, Esq., of Sydney, architect, was
consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Newcastle, in the presence of a
numerous congregation. At eleven o'clock, his Lordship, attended
by his chaplains, the Rev. G. R. Boodle, M.A., and H. O Irwin,
M.A., was met at the entrance of the church by the Rev. C. P. N.
Wilton, M.A., acting as chancellor, C. Child, Esq., B.A., acting
registrar, the Revds. R. T. Bolton, M.A., C. Spencer, M.A., R.
Chapman, B.A., J. Cooper, J. Rodwell, E. Williams, and J. F. R.
Whinfield, and some of the principal inhabitants of the district.
The petition for consecration having been read by the acting
registrar, his Lordship commenced the service of the day by
reading the appropriate prayers; and the deed of consecration
having been read by the chancellor, the service was proceeded with
by the Rev. R. T. Bolton, the officiating minister; after which an
excellent sermon was preached by Rev. H. O. Irwin, and the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered by the Lord
Bishop, assisted by the Rev. G. R. Boodle. After the service at
the church was concluded, his Lordship, attended by the clergy and
a great number of the inhabitants, proceeded to the burial ground
prettily situated on the Maitland road, which was then consecrated
according to the usual form. The church of St. John the
Evangelist, which is the first church consecrated by the Lord
Bishop of Newcastle is a neat specimen of the pointed Gothic
style, and, though small, is a great ornament to the romantic
valley of the Wollombi.
Maitland Mercury
February 1849
