Michael Whiting Michael Whiting is an Anglican priest and an Archdeacon Emeritus in the Diocese of Adelaide. Prior to retiring in 2012, he was chaplain to the archbishop of Adelaide and archdeacon for education and formation. For over thirty years he led Roman Catholic and Anglican schools, his final appointment being as deputy headmaster and chaplain of St Peter's College, Adelaide. Since 2014, Michael has been a Visiting Research Fellow in History at the University of Adelaide. The study of Bishop Augustus Short has been a special interest for many years. This volume was preceded by Augustus Short and the Founding of the University of Adelaide, commissioned and published by the University of Adelaide Press in 2014. AUGUSTUS SHORT The early years of a modern educator 1802-1847 by Michael Whiting with a Foreword by The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy Published in Adelaide by University of Adelaide Press Barr Smith Library The University of Adelaide South Australia 5005 [email protected] www.adelaide.edu.au/press The Barr Smith Press is an imprint of the University of Adelaide Press, under which titles about the history of the University are published. The University of Adelaide Press publishes peer reviewed scholarly books. It aims to maximise access to the best research by publishing works through the internet as free downloads and for sale as high quality printed volumes. © 2018 Michael Whiting This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This licence allows for the copying, distribution, display and performance of this work for non-commercial purposes providing the work is clearly attributed to the copyright holders. Address all inquiries to the Director at the above address. For the full Cataloguing-in-Publication data please contact the National Library of Australia: [email protected] ISBN (paperback) 978-1-925261-69-1 ISBN (ebook: pdf) 978-1-925261-70-7 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20851/short-educator Book and cover design: Zoë Stokes Dedicated to Janine for her ever loving-kindness ( 'hesed' Heb.), inspiration and encouragement. Contents Foreword XI The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy Preface XIII 1 Westminster School 1807-20 1 Education in England 1 Westminster School 2 Life in the classroom 6 Life outside the classroom 12 Religious faith and practice 12 King's Scholar 14 Westminster and Short 17 2 Student of Christ Church: Undergraduate 1820-23 21 Oxford University and Christ Church 23 Social and religious life in Christ Church 27 Academic life in Christ Church 30 The tutor 33 Thomas Vowler Short's influence and example 34 The proctor 39 The learning experience 40 Collections 42 Whither a new curriculum? 42 Christ Church and Short 44 3 Holy orders and teaching at Christ Church 1824-35 47 The path to ordination 49 Charles Lloyd's influence and example 52 The ordained life: A curacy 1827-28 60 The ordained life: Teaching student 1828-35 62 4 Reform and revival in Church and society 1800-50 71 Reform in England 73 'No Peel' 74 The 1830s 77 English Christianity: Revivals and reforms 78 Methodism and the Evangelicals 81 Pamphleteering for Church reform 83 The Church Temporalities Act 1833 86 'The religious movement of 1833' begun in Oxford 88 5 Rural vicar and Oxford matters 1835-47 95 Vicar of Ravensthorpe 95 Select Preacher 1838 100 The professor of poetry 1841 102 Tract 90 (1841) 105 WG Ward and the Convocation of 1845 108 The Bampton lectures 1846 111 6 A bishop of the colonial Church 1847 115 The other turning point of 1840-41 116 Bishop Charles Blomfield's initiatives and influence 117 Bishop Broughton and the Reverend Edward Coleridge 120 A diocese for South Australia? 124 Miss Angela Burdett Coutts and a benefaction 125 VIII AUGUSTUS SHORT 1802-1847 A diocese of Adelaide and an invitation to Augustus Short 131 The consecration in Westminster Abbey 142 Departing for South Australia 145 Postscript 151 The view and vision from Christ Church Meadow Appendix A 155 Biographical excerpts from The Westminster School Register Appendix B 157 Augustus Short and Henry Bull Appendix C 161 Excerpts from the Colonial Church Chronicle References 169 Index of selected terms 181 Acknowledgements 185 AUGUSTUS SHORT 1802-1847 IX Foreword Christ Church, Oxford, has a proud history of founding higher education establishments. Halford Mackinder founded an extension college of Christ Church at Reading in 1892, and this has now grown into a truly global university. Two decades before, and on the other side of the world, Augustus Short, first Anglican Bishop of Adelaide, was the pivotal intellectual and strategic founder, and became the first vice-chancellor, of the University of Adelaide in 1874. That university, Australia's third, was founded by a spirit of benevolent, altruistic and entrepreneurial educational vision, inclusive of equal education for women and of the granting of science degrees. This crucial role of Augustus Short was well documented in Michael Whiting's companion volume, Augustus Short and the Founding of the University of Adelaide (2014). Short's spirit of adventurous innovation and creativity in education owed much to his experiences at Christ Church, first as an undergraduate and then as a teacher between 1820-35. This volume, Augustus Short: the early years of a modern educator 1802-1847, details how Short's wisdom, and enterprise in education, arose from his early education at Westminster School, and then his university life at Christ Church. Here he came under the influence of some stirring intellectuals of his day, especially Professor Charles Lloyd, Thomas Vowler Short, WE Gladstone, and the initial leaders of the Oxford Movement, John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey. During these formative years, Short found himself a participant in some of the events of the most intense period (1820-50) of social, political, cultural and religious reforms experienced in England for generations. Christ Church and Oxford were central to these vibrant and challenging times. This volume brings to life how Augustus Short was maturing into an impressive churchman, especially devoted to education, in the years prior to his arrival in South Australia in 1847, at age forty-five. It documents for the first time the early Short story, and it is equally an Oxford — and Christ Church story. Short believed that education was character forming and provided the satisfaction of curiosity, as well as the means of social and cultural advancement for all — his own scholarships at school and university enabled him to realise education's enduring gifts and he was to amply repay those AUGUSTUS SHORT 1802-1847 XI benefits in his later years in South Australia. I thoroughly commend Michael Whiting's outstanding book. It represents a very real contribution, not just to the history of Christ Church and one of its distinguished alumni, but also to the history of a modern educator in colonial South Australia. The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy The Dean, Christ Church, Oxford XII AUGUSTUS SHORT 1802-1847 Preface The focus of this study, intended for the general reader interested in Australian religious history, is the early life of Augustus Short before he arrived in South Australia on 28 December 1847 as the first bishop of Adelaide in the United Church of England and Ireland. Born on 11 June 1802 at Bickham House near Exeter, Devon, he was forty-five years old at the time he embarked for South Australia on 1 September 1847. Two previous biographies of Short have been written. In 1887, FT Whitington published Augustus Short, First Bishop of Adelaide: A Chapter of Colonial Church History. In 1974, Judith Brown published Augustus Short, D.D. Bishop of Adelaide. Short's early years, however, are relatively unexplored in these biographies. Recounted in this volume are many key experiences and influences, people and events, which shaped Short before 1847. Most biographies take an approach similar to portraiture in art; this volume errs towards that of the landscape. Ever-changing foregrounds, middle- and backgrounds are delineated; figures come into view and fade; the atmosphere is at once rich in drama, and then appears tranquil. All the while, we view Short coming to maturity amidst the embracing presence of the established United Church of England and Ireland. Christ Church, Oxford, featured prominently in Short's life from the age of eighteen to forty-five and thus it is a recurring presence in this study. Its impact on Short (and later through him on the society of South Australia) is recounted here — at times a dominant presence, then an understated background, but always there. Short cherished his learning, at both Westminster School and Christ Church, and became expert in using the intricacies of words in English and the Classical languages to express his thoughts and understandings. Even in adolescence, his learning soon led into careful and prudent actions. His habits of behaviour and belonging matured in early adulthood to focus on his religious beliefs. All the time, his character — his beliefs maturing at the core — concerned him as he came to believe that it was the foundation of his destiny. In his way — orthodox, traditional, conservative — he grew to believe that his destiny revolved around obedience to God, trust in His Providence, and assurance of His love. Ordained and consecrated a bishop of the established Church a brief two months before embarkation, he thrilled to the challenge of his calling. His first forty-five years had prepared him well.