church

The importance of Milton Hall in Launceston’s history

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Milton Hall, sold in 2022 by the Baptist Union of Tasmania, is a hugely important place in the history of Launceston.

It was built in 1842 and paid for by supporters of the Independent pastor Rev. John West as the St John Square Congregational Chapel.

John West biographer Patricia Ratcliff wrote that he was “arguably the most influential of the middle class dissenters, a person of colossal intellect, a dynamic orator with a mellifluous voice.”

The Rev. West arrived in Launceston in 1839 and initially held services in an infant schoolroom in Frederick St, between Wellington and Charles streets.

By 1841 his congregation had grown so much that a proper church was needed.

A block of land was bought further up Frederick Street and money was pledged to erect a new chapel. The prominent Baptist minister Henry Dowling laid the foundation stone on Thursday, September 2, 1841.

It took builder George Gould nearly a year to complete the Doric Temple style chapel with the dedication service held on Friday, August 12, 1842.

The first services were held on the following Sunday with sermons by Rev. Dowling, Rev. Joseph Beazley, of the Kempton Congregational Church, and Rev. William Garrett, of the Presbyterian Church.

John West and members of his congregation established a number of important community and charitable institutions in Launceston.

They include the Mechanics’ Institute (predecessor to the Launceston Library and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery), the City Mission and a general cemetery.

He also supported the establishment of business organisations like the Cornwall Insurance Company and The Examiner newspaper.

John West wrote the leading article in the first edition of The Examiner attacking convict transportation and its detrimental effect on building a respectable, sound and prosperous society.

From 1842 to 1854 his editorials championed social reforms.

In 1849 John West designed a flag for the Anti-Transportation League that was unveiled at a national meeting in Melbourne. It is considered to be the model of the Australian flag

He published his History of Tasmania, printed at The Examiner, in 1852 and it is still widely quoted and considered an important source of information on Tasmania’s first 50 years.

His series of essays entitled Union of the Colonies, written in Launceston in 1854, outlined his vision for the federation of the Australian colonies.

Convict transportation to Tasmania had ended when John West resigned as pastor of the St John’s Square Chapel in 1854 to accept the position of editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.

He died in 1877 and it is quite remarkable that so many of the institutions he helped establish continue to benefit Launceston.

Image — TOP: Frederick Street in 1866 shows Chalmers Church, John West’s Congregational Chapel (Milton Hall) and schoolhouse. Picture courtesy State Library of Victoria.

The historic Wesleyan Chapel in Paterson Street

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Launceston’s second church, near the corner of Cameron and George streets, held its first service on Sunday 4 March 1827, in a chapel built by the Wesleyan Missionary Society.

The Wesleyans were only a little over a year behind the Church of England in erecting a place of worship in Launceston with St John’s Church holding its first Devine Service on 16 December 1825.

That first Wesleyan chapel no longer exists but its successor in Paterson Street, now known as Pilgrim Hall, was completed in 1835 and has survived for 188 years. It was recently announced the building was to be sold.

The Tasmanian and Port Dalrymple Advertiser, on Wednesday 6 April 1825,reported that the Wesleyan Missionary Rev. John Hutchinson had just arrived in Launceston from Sydney to minister to the free and convict residents of Port Dalrymple.

The only other minister in northern Van Diemen’s Land at the time was Church of England chaplain John Youl who had begun his ministry in 1819.

As the church of the British Empire, the Church of England had all its costs covered by the colonial government that initially declined to provide similar support to other denominations.

In 1825, Launceston had a population of about 1,200, half or whom were convicts, and Rev. Youl was overseeing the construction of Launceston’s first proper church, St John’s.

Rev. Hutchinson conducted his first service two weeks after his arrival in a house in Cameron Street, opposite John Fawkner’s Cornwall House (later the Cornwall Hotel).

By February 1826, shortly after the first Church of England service was held in St John’s, it was reported that between £200 and £300 had been pledged by Launceston residents for the construction of a Wesleyan chapel in the town.

Rev. Hutchinson however was ordered to leave Launceston and in March 1826 he departed for the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga to undertake missionary work.

His removal slowed work on the chapel and in July 1826 the treasurer of the building committee, brewer William Barnes, requested residents to pay the money they had pledged “for the erection of this place for public worship” as funds had been “entirely exhausted.”

It wasn’t until Sunday 4 March 1827 that a lay preacher officiated at the first Divine Service in the new Wesleyan chapel near the corner of Cameron and George streets (near where the Anglican Holy Trinity Church now stands).

A new minister for the chapel could not be found and there was outrage when it was learnt in 1829 that the Wesleyans were planning to sell their Launceston chapel. Despite the protests the government bought the property and the chapel became a school and the parsonage was turned into a government store.

The proceeds of the sale were held by John Fawkner who later passed the money on to the Scotch National Church for the erection of their first church in Charles Street in 1831.

Rev. John Manton, a Wesleyan missionary who had been ministering at the Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur convict stations since 1831, was ordered to Launceston in 1834 and the following year Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur granted land in Paterson Street for a new chapel.

The foundation stone was laid on 20 April 1835, and the Launceston Advertiser reported that the site for the chapel was on open space fronting on Paterson Street.

“The builders are to be Messrs Weir and Ferguson, of this Town, whose tender was accepted by the Committee. The plan, drawn by Mr S. Jackson, we have before noticed, as of one of the prettiest buildings we have known designed in Van Diemen’s Land.”

On Christmas Day 1835 (a Friday), Rev. Manton preached at the first Divine Service in the chapel and in 1839 a parsonage was built next door.

With a growing congregation more land was obtained to the west of the chapel and the foundation stone for the more imposing Paterson Street Methodist Church was laid on 18 September 1866.  The church was opened for services on 21 February 1868.