John Smithies

For the Australian artist and film expert, see John J. Smithies.

The Reverend John Smithies (1802–1872) was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary who served in Newfoundland, the Swan River Colony of Western Australia, and Tasmania.

Biography

Born in Yorkshire, Smithies was living in Sheffield in 1827 when he was received into the Methodist ministry. In 1828 the Wesleyan Missionary Society appointed him as a missionary to Newfoundland where he spent nine years. In 1832 he was married to Hannah, his fiancée from England who assisted him in his work of "visiting the sick, leading classes and prayer meetings, as well as conducting the school".[1]:p32

In 1837, following sectarian tensions on the island, he returned to England for two years, including 12 months in Derbyshire. He was assigned to Western Australia in 1839 and, aboard the Prima Donna, landed near Fremantle on 22 June 1840 with his wife and four children, one of whom had been born at sea two weeks earlier. He was immediately introduced to an established fellow missionary, Francis Armstrong. Smithies' double mandate was "the pastoral care of colonists and the Christianization of the Aborigines".[1]:p35

He was transferred to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1855 and remained there until his death in 1872.

References

  1. 1 2 McNair, William and Rumney, Hillary. Pioneer Aboriginal Mission: The Work of Wesleyan Missionary John Smithies in the Swan River Colony 1840-1855, University of Western Australia Press, 1981. ISBN 0855641789.


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