A square brass plate is riveted to one end of a sandstone sarcophagus in the St John's Cemetery, Parramatta. It has the following engraved inscription:
To the Memory
of
ELIZABETH MARSDEN,
the beloved wife of the
REVd SAMUEL MARSDEN,
who departed this life October 2nd 1835
Aged 63 Years;
also
to the Memory of the
REVd SAMUEL MARSDEN,
Minister of St Johns Church Parramatta
for nearly half a century,
and one of the first Chaplains who arrived
in this Colony.
He departed this life May 12th 1838,
Aged 73 Years.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.
Biographical information from Wikipedia:
"Reverend Samuel Marsden (25 June 1765 – 12 May 1838) was an English-born priest of the Church of England in Australia and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society. He played a leading role in bringing Christianity to New Zealand. Marsden was a prominent figure in early New South Wales and Australian history, partly through his ecclesiastical offices as the colony's senior Church of England cleric and as a pioneer of the Australian wool industry, but also for his employment of convicts for farming and his actions as a magistrate at Parramatta, both of which attracted contemporary criticism.
"Born in Farsley, near Pudsey, Yorkshire in England as the son of a Wesleyan blacksmith turned farmer, Marsden attended the village school and spent some years assisting his father on the farm. In his early twenties his reputation as a lay preacher drew the attention of the evangelical Elland Society, which sought to train poor men for the ministry of the Church of England. With a scholarship from the Elland Society Marsden attended Hull Grammar School, where he became associated with Joseph Milner and the reformist William Wilberforce, and after two years, he matriculated, at the age of 25, at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He abandoned his degree studies to respond to the call of the evangelical leader Charles Simeon for service in overseas missions. Marsden was offered the position of second chaplain to the Reverend Richard Johnson's ministry to the Colony of New South Wales on 1 January 1793.
"Marsden married Elizabeth Fristan at Holy Trinity, Hull on 21 April 1793. The following month William Buller, the Bishop of Exeter, ordained him as a priest.
"Marsden travelled as a passenger on the convict ship, William to Australia, his first child Anne being born en route. He arrived in the colony on 2 March 1794, and set up house in Parramatta, 15 miles (24 km) outside the main Port Jackson settlement. In 1795, Governor John Hunter made the chaplains magistrates. Marsden's role as magistrate at Parramatta, attracted criticism in his lifetime.
"In 1800 Marsden succeeded Johnson and became the senior Church of England chaplain in New South Wales; he would keep this post until his death.
"Marsden was given grants of land by the colonial government and bought more of his own, which were worked with convict labour, a common practice in Australia at the time. By 1807 he owned 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land. Successful farming ventures provided him with a secure financial base, although they also formed a plank of contemporary criticism of Marsden for alleged over-involvement in non-church affairs. In 1807 he returned to England to report on the state of the colony to the government, and to solicit further assistance of clergy and schoolmasters.
"During his time at Parramatta, Marsden befriended many Maori visitors and sailors from New Zealand. He cared for them on his farm, providing accommodation, food, drink, work and an education for up to three years. He gave one Maori chief some land on which he could grow his own crops and taught other Maori to read and write English.
"Marsden is generally remembered favourably in New Zealand, which he visited seven times (the longest trip lasting seven months) ... Marsden was on a visit to the Reverend Henry Stiles at St Matthew's Church at Windsor, New South Wales when he succumbed to an incipient chill and died at the rectory on 12 May 1838." [Excerpts ex-Wikipedia: Reverend Marsden ]
Address: St John's Cemetery, O'Connell & Aird Streets, Parramatta, NSW, 2150, Australia
Visited: 0946, Thursday, 27 December, 2018