Congregational aka Independent

[[Organisations/churches/johnston.html| Johnston Memorial Church: Congregational]]

Errington:
Presbyterians and Congregationalists
The Presbyterians would not open their first church in Fremantle until 1890, but there was, briefly in 1853, a resident Presbyterian minister. Most of the colonists from Scotland were Presbyterians, as were some members of the 20th Company Royal Sappers and Miners who landed on the Anna Robertson in December 1851 to oversee the building of the Convict Establishment and other public works. In February 1853, the sappers and miners successfully petitioned Governor Charles Fitzgerald for use of the government schoolhouse for the 'celebration of Divine Worship'. This was said to be 'in connection with the Church of Scotland', but in Western Australia, little distinction was made between the Church of Scotland and the 'Free Church of Scotland' that had formed in Scotland following a major schism in 1843. The Presbyterian minister was the Rev. Daniel Boyd who was then conducting a boys' school in Perth. He moved to the port in July 1853, where he preached in the old courthouse on Arthur Head, but left the colony in November.
By the 1850s, the Independents or Congregationalists were also becoming established. They were known for their total opposition to state aid for religion and education. Pioneer Fremantle historian, J.K. Hitchcock, recorded the genesis of the Independent church in his town:
"It was in the year 1852 that about half a dozen persons met in a private house in Fremantle for the purpose of discussing ways and means of establishing the Independent form of Divine worship in this town. A resolution was passed that it was desirable that an Independent Chapel should be built as soon as possible and the small sum of £5 was subscribed towards this project It was further decided that application be made to the Colonial Missionary Society for a minister and that the Rev. Jas. Leonard, B.A., and Mr H. Trigg, of Perth, be requested to communicate with the society on the subject."
Congregational minister Rev. Joseph Johnston (1814-92) arrived on the Sabrina in June 1853, having been appointed by the Colonial Missionary Society. 42 He rented a four-roomed cottage for his family and held divine service there on 17 July. Johnston would remain in office for 33 years but when he arrived and found the Independent chapel unfinished and no congregation ready to receive him, he had to be persuaded not to move to Adelaide.
Working together
An early feature of religious practice in Fremantle was the positive spirit of cooperation between the clergy, particularly amongst the non-conformists. In his diary entry for 25 September 1853, Johnston recorded that he preached 'morning and evening at my own house, and in the afternoon for Mr Boyd the Presbyterian minister'. On 2 October, he preached 'morning and evening in the Wesleyan chapel'. The following Sunday he preached 'morning and evening at the Court House for Mr Boyd ... who is unwell'. By 27 November, Boyd had left the colony and the old courthouse was allocated to the Congregationalists. By now, Johnston's congregation had increased to about 40 people.
Early in 1854, Johnston was invited to occupy the pulpit of the Wesley Chapel. He preached at the courthouse on Sunday mornings and at Wesley in the evenings, until the new Congregational chapel in Adelaide Street was opened for divine service on Sunday 4 June 1854. He was able to move his family into a new parsonage in 1862. With the congregation now about 80, but drawn from various religious denominations with different views concerning church government, Johnston found it impractical at first to formally constitute a church on the Congregational model. He was not able to do this until 2 April 1869. George Bland Humble, headmaster of Fremantle Boys' School, was then chosen as the first deacon.
Though the Wesleyans had been the first to erect a church, its use was intermittent. It was abandoned again after the Congregational chapel opened in 1854, and it became an eyesore over the next decade, slowly swallowed by sand hills and slipping into decay and ruin. However, in October 1864, it re-emerged following repairs as a neat chapel partly enclosed by a stone wall. On Wednesday 26 October, the Rev. Thomas Bond reopened the chapel with divine service. A lay preacher continued the Wednesday night services for some time but this proved to be another false start: apart from Sunday services conducted by a visiting minister in June 1866, there is no record of its further use until 1880-81 when it was rented for use as a boys' school.
In 1881, a resident minister was appointed and the chapel renovated again and re-opened in September of that year. Rev. James Mouland officiated, assisted by Joseph Johnston. In 1882-83, the building had to be enlarged. Reference to Table 1 reveals a tenfold increase in followers in the decade after Mouland's appointment (the Presbyterians enjoyed a similar boost after their minister arrived in 1886), and within a few years, a new chapel was needed. On 7 March 1888 George Shenton, Mayor of Perth and pillar of the Wesleyan Church, explained that 'the time had arrived when Methodism in Fremantle should be represented by a more suitable building. Mrs Shenton laid the foundation stone of the present church followed by the placing of traditional contributions on the stone while the choir sang 'Bringing in the Sheaves'. The church opened with an afternoon service on 4 December 1889. In 1893, a two-storey manse was built in Cantonment Street, next to the 1842 chapel.
By then the Anglicans also had a larger church. In October 1875, the Rev. Daniel Watkins was appointed Rector of St John's and chaplain for Fremantle at an annual salary of £250. One of his first tasks was to build a new church. By January 1879, all was hustle and bustle in King's Square: seventy men were at work, laying the foundations for the new church and fund-raising was under way with 'musical entertainments' and bazaars. Bishop Henry Parry laid the present foundation stone of St John's on 28 January 1879, and consecrated the new church on 4 July 1882.
Voluntaryism
The Congregationalisms rejection of government aid for building churches and ministers' wages was part of a mindset called 'voluntaryism', which the Macquarie Dictionary defines as 'the principle or system of supporting churches, schools, etc., by voluntary contributions or aid, independently of the state'. Joseph Johnston was its chief proponent in nineteenth-century Fremantle. He made it a matter of public debate in 1868 when, on 30 July, Wesleyan lay preacher John Wall Hardey gave notice in the Legislative Council that he intended to move that:
"the sum placed on the Estimates for Ecclesiastical purposes be equally divided amongst Ministers of all denominations or that the sum raised by any congregation for the support of a Minister shall be supplemented by a like sum from the public chest."
Johnston immediately wrote a letter of protest to the Fremantle Herald because he believed that 'pure and undefiled religion will always be maintained by the zeal and liberality of its votaries'. Another contributor responded to the newspaper with twelve arguments. This prompted Johnston to pen a pamphlet called Reasons for not Accepting Pecuniary Aid from the State for Support of Religion. In South Australia, state aid for religion had been abolished in 1851, 53 but in Western Australia grants continued until the Ecclesiastical Grant Abolition Act was passed in September 1895.
Johnston was a very popular preacher and soon his chapel was too small to hold his congregation. The foundation stone of a new church called the Johnston Memorial Church was laid on the same site of the original church in Adelaide Street on Christmas Day 1875. Construction was delayed when the western wall collapsed during wet weather in July 1876, but it was completed and officially opened in July 1877. The much-loved Johnston remained as pastor of the Adelaide Street chapel until November 1886 when, after 33 years, Sydney's Rev. A.G. Fry succeeded him. When Johnston died in February 1892, there was an outpouring of grief. All Fremantle businesses closed on the afternoon of his funeral, and a public meeting later raised funds to erect a large memorial stone on his grave at the Skinner Street cemetery.
Presbyterianism was finally established in the colony in 1879 when the Established and Free Churches of Scotland sent the Rev. David Shearer to Western Australia. By 1882, he had built a church in Perth. Then, in 1886, the Free Church of Scotland sent the newly ordained minister Robert Hanlin to work in Fremantle. He arrived with his family in September, with his first service on 10 October in the Oddfellows Hall in William Street He later recorded that:
"my first piece of Christian work was to sweep it out on a Saturday afternoon. No table was available and an impromptu pulpit was provided by a packing case which had contained a contribution of hymn books from the English Presbyterian Church. The case was covered by my travelling rug."
The following Sunday he took the morning and evening services. The congregation grew, and in February 1888, they moved into the supper room of the new Town Hall, but councillors initially had reservations about the Sunday School children using the space. When the need for a new building became obvious. Shearer secured a block of land in South Terrace. Hanlin went on a fund-raising tour of the eastern colonies, and the Colonial Committee of the Free Church sent a loan of £500. Architect Talbot Hobbs was commissioned to design the church and John Forrest MLC, Commissioner of Crown Lands, laid the foundation stone on 26 March 1890 for Scots church. The Reverends Bird (Wesleyan), Johnston (Congregational) and Matthew (Church of England) were among the guests. The church formally opened on 26 November 1890 and an election of elders was held in December. Hanlin remained at his post until 1920 when he was made Moderator of the Church in Western Australia.
...
Relations between the three non-conformist churches—the Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Wesleyans—were always very friendly. One measure of their cordiality was the conduct of the Fremantle Spring Fete, run each year from 1893 until 1898. Initiated by the Congregationalists, the popular fete was run by and benefited each church in turn. At the opening of the fourth annual fete in September 1896, the Rev. W.F. Turton of the Johnston Memorial Church said:
"Although in many places the churches did not work in unison, in Fremantle he was happy to say, a kindly spirit towards each other prevailed. The present fete was being held for the benefit of the Congregational Church. Next year it would be in the hands of the Primitive Methodists, and so on right round the list."
In 1897, the Wesleyan Methodists actually ran the spring fete. In the fete's official opening, the Rev. William Potts again highlighted the friendly relationship between the non-episcopal congregations in the town. Errington 2016: 151-156.

References and Links

Burton, Canon Alfred 1929, 'The diary of Joseph Hardey ', Early Days, vol. 1, part 6: 17-28.

Errington, Steve 2016, 'Places of worship in Fremantle, 1829 to 1900', Studies in Western Australian History, 31: 145-158.

Strong, Rowan 2012, 'Religious lives in Fremantle', in Paul Arthur Longley & Geoffrey Bolton, Voices from the West End: Stories, People and Events that Shaped Fremantle, WA Museum: 64-85.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 8 March, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/organisations/congregational.html (it was last updated on 24 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.