CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY, 1808-1854.

Object of Memoir - Family, and Early Life Entrance into Ministry-Irish Home Mission-St. Mary's, Edgehill-Marriage— Illness-Protestant Feeling in Liverpool-Church for PoorScripture Readers' Society-Death of his Brother Auriol-Removal to Baslow- Reminiscences of Ministry at Edgehill.

IT is not the object of this memoir to furnish anything like a complete biography of the late Bishop Barker, but rather to present such a picture of his work as a Bishop of the Church of England in the province of Australia as may enable those who read the story to form a just estimate of its nature and character. It is much to be regretted that no such narrative has hitherto been given to the Church of the work accomplished by his predecessor, Dr. William Grant Broughton, the first Bishop of Australia. His noble and self-denying character and labours were specially referred to on different occasions by Bishop Barker, as entitling him to grateful remembrance and imitation. And when the latter entered upon the practical duties of his office, it was his expressed desire to build upon the foundations which Bishop Broughton had already laid.

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The Church of England in Australia is under deep obligations to both these prelates. Though in some respects widely differing from each other, they were nevertheless of one mind in desiring to lay the foundations of the Church firmly and securely in that southern land, to ensure its practical efficiency, and to provide for its expansion and growth in union with the Church in England.

It will be seen in the following pages what were the methods by which Bishop Barker aimed at the accomplishment of these ends, and with what result they were attended. And if the sketch which is here attempted shall enable those who may give it their attention to form anything like a correct estimate of the work which was carried on by him for upwards of a quarter of a century, the design of this memoir will be attained.

By way of introduction, and as leading up to the larger sphere of labour to which, in the providence of God, Bishop Barker was called, some account is now to be given of his early life and ministry, by the aid of such materials as are available. But so many of his contemporaries have passed away from whom information might have been obtained, especially with regard to his Liverpool life and ministry, that the account is of necessity much briefer than could have been desired. Enough, however, has been gathered to show how highly he was esteemed as a parochial clergyman by his brethren in the ministry, and how zealous and indefatigable he was in his endeavours to bring all classes of his parishioners to a participation in the blessings of the Gospel, and to build them up in the true faith. And not only so, his Christian

INTRODUCTORY, 1808-1832.

3

energies took a wider scope, embracing objects which aimed at the spiritual welfare of the masses in the great commercial city of Liverpool. And such were the tact and judgment by which he was distinguished in dealing with difficulties, that he was often somewhat playfully designated Frederic the Wise.'

FREDERIC BARKER, whose episcopate forms the subject of this memoir, was born in the Vicarage of Baslow, in Derbyshire, on the 17th of March, 1808. He was the fourth son of the Rev. John Barker, who was for thirty years Vicar of Baslow, one of a family which came from Dore, in Yorkshire, in the seventeenth century, and whose heads had been agents to the successive Dukes of Devonshire. His grandfather had accompanied one of the Dukes to Ireland, as Chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, and, according to the fashion of that day, had been rewarded with the Deanery of Raphoe. Of the five sons of the Rev. John Barker, two entered the army, two took Holy Orders, and the youngest, Richard, adopted the profession of a civil engineer—he died, however, at the early age of twenty-three.. Of the other four sons three were over six feet in height, Frederic being facile princeps. On one occasion the Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief of the army, while on a shooting excursion with the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland, attended Divine Service in Baslow Church, and was struck with the sight of four tall youths standing in the front pew. Who are these?' he inquired. These are my Chaplain's four sons,' was the reply. And before many days. had passed a commission arrived, with the Com

mander-in-Chief's compliments, for the Vicar's bestlooking son.

Their mother's influence was strongly felt by all the sons, but by none more than by Frederic. Her life was characterised by strong religious principle, the practical effect of which was seen in a conscientious and careful attention to all her duties. And, through the grace of God, Frederic imbibed much of the same spirit. In his youth he had become a decided Christian. His school life was spent at Grantham, after which he entered at Jesus College, Cambridge, and pursued the usual course of study for the B.A. degree. He was distinguished as an athlete, as several of our Church dignitaries have since been.

Canon Norman, rector of Bottesford, who maintained a lifelong friendship with him, writing of him. since his death, says :—

My earliest recollection of him was when he was at college, and I was just going to school. His parents were dead, and he lived, when at home, with his brother Auriol, who had succeeded to the living of Baslow. During the long vacation of 1827 (when he was nineteen years old) I frequently met him, and joined in expeditions to different dales in the neighbourhood of Bakewell and Baslow. On these occasions he always introduced subjects of profit, and he was, to my mind as a schoolboy, a very holy and spiritual man. Everybody looked up to him-even his brother, who was older than he, looked up to him—as living much in the presence of GOD, and in near communion with Him. The affection which I felt for him was never cooled by long absence from England.

This brief glimpse into the social life of his early

INTRODUCTORY, 1808-1832.

5

years shows more clearly than many words could do what manner of man he was. And amongst the influences which helped to form his character, 'it is not improbable,' says one who knew him intimately from his youth, 'that the situation and surroundings of the Baslow home may have been one. Situated

on the banks of the Derwent, which breaks into music over a slight fall, the quiet beauty and the murmurs of the river may have had no slight influence in moulding the character of one whose restfulness was evinced even by the tone of his voice.'

Such a youth could hardly fail to make a useful clergyman. In the year 1832 he was admitted to Deacons' Orders by the Bishop of Chester, Dr. John Bird Sumner, and appointed by him at once to the charge of the Perpetual Curacy of Upton, in Cheshire, not far from Liverpool. In after life he used often to say that he had never been a curate, in the ordinary sense of the term, not having been placed as assistant to the incumbent of a parish, but put in charge of Upton as sole minister. 'This pretty village,' writes a friend who knows the place well, 'stands on a hill near the end of the broad tongue of land which juts out into the sea between the estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey. From the breezy heath of Bidton, immediately behind it, can be seen the Mersey and all its shipping, with the town of Liverpool rising up to Edgehill. On the west the Dee and the Welsh hills beyond, while far to the north, on a clear day, the outline of Black Coombe seems to rise out of the sea, the western outlier of those lake mountains which were to be so closely linked with his future life. The