The first ordained minister for the Church of England in the Swan River Colony
Archdeacon Thomas Hobbes Scott was the first ordained minister for the Church of England in the Swan River Colony. His arrival though was not planned; an accident which proved to be fortuitous for the church.
Archdeacon Scott had resigned from his position as head of the church in NSW and was returning to his parish in Northumberland. The ship he was travelling on, HMS Success, was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1829. For Scott, this meant a delay of almost a year before he could return home. For the colony, he was the only ordained minister for two months until the arrival of Revd. Wittenoom in January 1830.
He set to work immediately, conducting services and baptisms in Perth and Fremantle. With land already set aside for the church, Scott worked to build a Church. It became known as the Rush Church as it was constructed with bulrushes. In his paper on Archdeacon Scott, Steve Errington (2015) suggests that the name of the church could easily be a reference to the speed in which the church was built.
In addition to his role in ministering, he also advised the colonial government. His relationship to the Noongar people, traditional owners of the land, is not known. On 6 July 1830 Colonial Secretary Brown in a letter to the Surveyor-General Roe wrote
“In commemoration of the residence of the Venerable Archdeacon Scott in this settlement as well as of the valuable benefits which he has conferred upon it, the Lieutenant Governor wishes the town about to be laid out on the Canning River to bear the name of the Archdeacon’s birth place, and to the henceforward designated Kelmscott” (cited in Errington, 2015)
Archdeacon Scott sailed for England in August 1830, returning to Whitfield parish. He died in Whitfield on 1 January 1860.
(originally printed in the May 2021 issue of the Anglican Messenger)
References
Errington, S. (2015). Thomas Hobbes Scott, Western Australia's first Clergyman. Early days: journal / The Royal Western Australian Historical Society (Incorp.). Accessed through Perth Diocesan Archives collection 2017/00024/001
Tonkin, John (2009). Anglican Church. In Jenny Gregory & Jan Gothard (Eds.) Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia. (pg 62-65) University of Western Australia Press
Ross Border, 'Scott, Thomas Hobbes (1783–1860)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-thomas-hobbes-2645/text3685, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 22 March 2021.
Williams A E. (1989). West Anglican Way, The Growth of the Anglican Church in Western Australia the first 100 days 1829 – 1929. Anglican Diocese of Perth