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Samuel Marsden, 1765 – 1838
Colonial Chaplain, Missionary Pioneer
Samuel Marsden presents not merely a study in contrasts, but of two vastly different characters: one the “flogging parson” and clerical crook of Australian legend, the harsh chaplain who preached long sermons on Sunday, and then as magistrate meted out lashes in liberal doses on Monday. Although there is some truth in this standard image, much of it is distortion, tracing back to his contemporary detractors who vilified Marsden unmercifully in print.
The other image, and principal concern of this present article, is of Marsden the “Apostle of the Maoris”, a national icon of New Zealand, for as such he is revered to this day in that country’s heritage. Monuments to and geographical features bearing the Marsden name proliferate across the northern sector of the North Island. The contrast is so sharp that one almost wonders whether Marsden the “judicial hypocrite” of New South Wales tradition and Marsden the missionary saint of New Zealand are the same person.
Early Life and Education
 Samuel Marsden was born near the farming village of Farsley, near Leeds, on 25th June, 1765, the son of Thomas and Bathsheba Marsden. Though dependent mainly on local tradition, it is clear that the rural life was in the young Samuel’s blood from the beginning, and was to prove crucial in the development of both New South Wales and the New Zealand mission. Moreover, the Marsden home bore a strong Methodist influence: the preaching of John and Charles Wesley had borne rich fruit in the region.
When we emerge from tradition into actual records we find Marsden in 1786 entering the home of Rev. Samuel Stones, curate of Rawdon Chapel, and one of the new breed of evangelical clergymen. Here Marsden first contacted the Elland Society, formed for promotion of evangelical Christianity, and education of evangelicals for the Anglican ministry. Marsden was to become one of their renowned graduates, while other clerical subscribers of the Society read as a virtual roll call of eighteenth century evangelical greats: Romaine, Haweis, and Simeon, and none other than William Wilberforce, M.P. who became Marsden’s patron and supporter through his career in the early colony.
In 1788 Marsden began the second stage of his preparation when he came to Hull Grammar School to serve under Joseph Milner, another prominent evangelical and brother of Isaac Milner, who was instrumental in the conversion of Wilberforce during their European tour in 1784. Milner’s ministry at Holy Trinity Church declared forthrightly the utter depravity of human nature and its propensity for vice. This led to a profound sense of God’s grace in Marsden’s own inner self, but it also later on made for a robust zeal for public morals, which was to land him in trouble from opponents in the vice-ridden colony of early New South Wales.
Having secured a scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Marsden entered in 1790, he came under his most influential mentor, Charles Simeon, vicar at Trinity Church, Cambridge. So absorbed was Marsden with Simeon that he would often arrive back at College after lock-up time and incur fines! Apart from strong evangelical sermons, Simeon encouraged Marsden with that missionary vision which was to enliven him for the remainder of his life.
During the 1790s, in reaction to the horrors of the French Revolution then in progress across the Channel, a frenzy against all Dissenters and perceived republicans drove Marsden and others of the Elland Society into the arms of strong Tory conservatism. Herein we can understand his strong support for the penal system in the Colony, and especially his treatment of transported Irish political prisoners, who had by then already absorbed the revolutionary ideas from France.
Early Years in New South Wales
Opportunity came to Marsden in 1792 at the suggestion of Wilberforce to go to New South Wales as an assistant to Rev. Richard Johnson, already the chaplain of the infant colony. Prominent members of the London Eclectic Society urged him to accept, and the following January his appointment was confirmed. While waiting for passage Marsden married Elizabeth Fristan, a niece of Thomas Scott, the Bible commentator, a most suitable match for his future endeavours, and then he finally embarked on the William on 27th July, 1793. After a voyage of more than seven months, and not a little frustration, he arrived in the colony in early March, 1794.
 On the voyage Marsden mused much on what the Lord had in store for him in the South Seas, and to stimulate his vision he read from David Brainerd’s Diary about his work among the American Indians. He was also concerned about the crew and passengers and the lack of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day, but met with resistance from the captain. Eventually the latter relented and organised Sunday worship, albeit with a bad grace. Marsden’s journal for the voyage also shows a constant sense of deep unworthiness, and sole confidence in Almighty God for the tasks before him. His prayer on departure reads:
“Oh that God would make my way prosperous, that the end of my going may be answered in the conversion of many poor souls.”
God would answer that prayer mightily through the work in New Zealand, although Marsden had no inkling of that at the time.
When he arrived, not only had Elizabeth given birth to a daughter, Ann, but he found the colony in a poor state. Governor Phillip had left, leaving matters in the hands of the Lieutenant Governor, Major Francis Grose, founder of the infamous New South Wales Corps, known to history as the Rum Corps, a byword for exploitation, extortion, corruption, and trade in spirits. Grose had no regard for Christianity or its moral duties, especially not Johnson’s “Methodism” (i.e. Evangelical convictions). As one might expect, the moral tone in Sydney Town left much to be desired: full of every vice imaginable, while Richard Johnson confronted an intransigent Grose.
Likewise Parramatta, Marsden’s place of residence, “was no less a scene of everything immoral and profane…The Lord’s Day was generally spent in riot and dissipation by the settlers, soldiers, and prisoners.” And this was not all, by any estimation.
 In fact Grose did all he could deliberately to obstruct the work of the chaplains. For example, he allowed a mere 45 minutes for Divine service at 6 am in the summer months, ostensibly to avoid the heat, and woe betide either Johnson or Marsden if they transgressed the limits! The first church building of any sort was not erected in Sydney until 1793 (and Grose expected Johnson to foot the bill), but upstream in Parramatta a permanent structure in the form of St. John’s was a long time coming.
Marsden becomes a Magistrate
At this time Marsden made a fateful decision: because of the desperate shortage of personnel in the colony Gov. Hunter pressured him to accept the position of magistrate in addition to his ministerial duties. While Marsden had for long been conscience stricken about this dual role, in the end he accepted. In explaining himself to Miles Atkinson of the Elland Society he reasoned that:
“A magistrate has it in his power to rectify many abuses in the place where he resides when properly supported by the superior powers.”
He really had little option due to (i) the lack of educated personnel; and (ii) the position of an Anglican minister as an establishment figure, seen by the governors as a “moral policeman” in the apparatus of state. What the magistracy meant in practice was aligning with a brutal penal system, strongly dependent on the power of the lash to enforce conformity. Marsden’s own use of the system, within the prerogative of magisterial “discretion”, proved to be perhaps somewhat more severe than that of other magistrates, but within the standards of justice of the time.
Awakening of Missionary Passion
For Marsden, various developments in the colony provoked inner thoughts on the future of the new land. It should, he envisaged, be a “godly community” in the South Seas, and a powerhouse for missionary outreach, and this missionary passion for him made the magistracy and farming merely sidetracks. Opportunity began when in 1798 a ship, the Nautilus, arrived from Tahiti with eleven frightened missionaries of the London Missionary Society, whom Marsden welcomed warmly, and provided accommodation for them at Parramatta. He arranged for ministerial duties for at least two of them, although they were mostly Dissenters. One fugitive was Rowland Hassall, whose son Thomas later married Marsden’s eldest daughter Ann, beginning an honourable line of Christian testimony during the nineteenth century. For Marsden himself the encounter began a long relationship with the LMS (he became its official agent in 1804), and awakened interest in South Seas missions.
During this same period, 1798 – 1806, Marsden met occasionally some New Zealand natives, when they arrived on whaling ships. Thus in 1803 a chief called Tippahee arrived and impressed Marsden with his interest in European ways and the God of the Bible. Two years later another chief, Ruatara, with some companions called at Port Jackson (Sydney), whom Marsden again lodged at his home in Parramatta. His conclusion was that the New Zealand natives were capable of civilization, and of Gospel reception. Sadly, his outlook was different regarding the Australian Aborigines.
Return to England, 1808-9
Urged by a sense of inner constraint for mission work, combined with frustration at sideline activities in the colony, he petitioned and received permission from the recently arrived Governor William Bligh (of Bounty fame) to return to England and put the case the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for a New Zealand mission. While there he also saw key bureaucrats in the Colonial Office to report first hand on conditions in the colony, especially the activities of the “Rum Corps”. However, while absent the “political storm” Marsden had predicted came about: the Rum Corps deposed Bligh and ruled the colony themselves.
Also during his time in England, he met with the leaders of the Eclectic Society, and put to them the case for a New Zealand mission. His hallmark vision was for “civilization with a view to Christianization. He laid out his principle as follows:
“The arts and religion should go together…I do not mean that a native should learn to build a hut or make an axe before he should be told anything of Man’s Fall and Redemption; but these grand subjects should be introduced at every favourable opportunity, while the natives are learning any of the simple arts."
Naturally, by “civilization” he meant the British version, and as a staunch Anglican he was allied to the establishment, but for all that his policy, duly stripped of its British imperial trappings, is recognisable as that of many a missionary society today.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Secretary appointed Lachlan Macquarie as the new governor, who duly arrived in early 1810 with a charge to break up the Rum Corps. While the new administration did bring a change for the better, Marsden was later to have many disagreements with Macquarie during the latter’s long tenure of office, during which Marsden’s reputation in New South Wales would suffer both from the Governor himself by an abuse of power, and from various jaundiced critics.
Preparation for New Zealand
When Marsden returned from England in 1809, on the ship Ann, who should be on board as well but Ruatara, the chief whom Marsden had entertained at Parramatta some years before. This providential opportunity enabled the chaplain to learn much about the chief’s home territory, the Bay of Islands region, as well as of the rapacity of white sailors who had misused him abominably on his journey to England. Marsden also used the time to learn much of the Maori language, at least the vocabulary; the grammar was to come later. Also aboard were two artisans destined for the New Zealand mission, John King and William Hall.
Soon after arrival in early 1810 there was bad news: the ship Boyd and its crew had called in to the Bay of Islands region and suffered an almost total massacre from the natives. However, it was the captain who had brutally treated Tara, the son of a chief, while other singular outrages from the crews of European ships had provoked the wrath of the natives. In all this it was Marsden’s own investigations that led to the truth being told. He was instrumental, with the collaboration of Gov. Macquarie, in a proclamation being made to protect all South Sea Island natives from such provocations on pain of stiff penalties.
 Impatient with procrastination from both the LMS and CMS regarding a ship purchase, he moved ahead by using his own resources. With his considerable land holdings and agricultural enterprises in NSW Marsden was now quite a wealthy man, hence in 1813 he purchased a brig of 120 tons, the Active, for a price of £1400, and spent a further £500 in outfitting the vessel. His own personal funds were also to finance the upkeep of the ship and payment of its crew for the next six years until even he could no longer sustain it.
Revival in Tahiti
During this interim period of organising the New Zealand mission some wonderful news was coming from Tahiti. As a result of inter-necine warfare a company of LMS missionaries had returned from there to Port Jackson in 1810 but at Marsden’s pleas and encouragement several returned to Tahiti the following year.
There they found that King Pomare had requested baptism, and a flood of islanders now attended mission schools. Mass conversions followed, and demand for the Old and New Testaments kept two of the missionaries busy for evenings on end in translation work, while Marsden, back at Sydney and now Foreign Director of the LMS (from 1812), arranged for their printing. A climax came in 1815 when villagers all over the islands held bonfires when they threw their idols into the flames, and Pomare proclaimed Christianity as the national religion.
Voyage to New Zealand
Meanwhile, Marsden was at last preparing for his initial visit to New Zealand. On 18th Nov. 1814, with three Maori chiefs aboard (including Ruatara), plus Marsden’s own staff of Hall, King, and Kendall he set sail. The crew, half of which were Polynesians, Marsden paid at the current rate for European sailors, an arrangement unprecedented at that time. On 17th Dec. the Active finally arrived after a rough passage near Whangaroa, where the Boyd massacre had taken place. After encouraging contacts with the natives the Active pushed on to Matauri Bay where Marsden went ashore. It was dangerous, but Marsden, through his Maori intermediary “George”, played peacemaker and felt safe enough to spend the night in their camp, although he felt apprehensive at possibly finishing up as roast dinner!
Courage like this, however, impressed the chiefs, who came on board the Active next morning when Marsden introduced his team and gave presents. Then the ship proceeded to the Bay of Islands, and by Saturday 24th Dec. the missionaries had disembarked in a cove at Te Puna, near Rangihoua on the northern headland. Ruatara constructed a pulpit on the shore, and laid out the scene for the Christmas morning.
Inaugural Christian Sermon
In the morning Marsden and his party came ashore; the chiefs Ruatara, Korokoro, and Hongi Hika had assembled the people for divine service, who took their place in the enclosure. Marsden ascended the pulpit, gave out the 100th Psalm, and then preached from Luke 2:10, “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy”. To a people who had seen little but brutal mistreatment from Europeans this was radically different: a servant of God who genuinely loved them proclaimed the glad tidings of a Saviour’s birth. Since Marsden’s grasp of the Maori language was not yet fluent enough for him to preach in it, Ruatara explained the sermon afterwards to the assembly. Marsden sensed this as a great moment in Gospel history, as he records in his journal:
“In this manner the Gospel has been introduced to New Zealand; and I fervently pray that the glory of it may never depart from its inhabitants till time shall be no more.”
Continue to Marsden 2
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