William Parkin

William Parkin established the Parkin Trust in 1872 and the Parkin Congregational Mission of South Australia in 1882.

Parkin was born at Glastonbury, Somerset, England on 24th August 1801. By the early 1830s he had settled at Plympton on the outskirts of Plymouth, Devon and on 16th May 1832 married Sarah Mary Carill.

William and Sarah Parkin came to South Australia in the “Recovery” which arrived at Port Adelaide on 19th September 1839. Fellow passengers included James Adamson and his family. Adamson’s eldest son, Adam Adamson, was later one of Parkin’s Executors.

WORK AND BUSINESS

Parkin farmed briefly near Willunga and then opened a drapery in Hindley Street Adelaide on the site later occupied by Miller Anderson’s. By 1852, he had moved to Rundle Street on the site of the Myer store. Robert Stuckey, who was treasurer of Stow Memorial Church from 1873 to 1897, sold the drapery section of his business in Rundle Street to William Parkin and George Williams Chinner in 1852. Chinner was the father of William Bowen Chinner and the grandfather of Norman Chinner who were organists of Pirie Street Methodist Church from 1869 to 1902 and 1939 to 1947 respectively.

By 1858, Parkin was the sole owner of this property which had a 49 foot frontage to Rundle Street. His business prospered and he retired to Plympton and devoted himself to politics. His Plympton house, which originally stood in nine acres of garden is still standing at Lewis Crescent, Plympton North. On 26th February 1878, Joseph Keynes and his wife visited Parkin and wrote “He has a very fine place there”.

Parkin was a member of the House of Assembly (1860-1862), and a member of the Legislative Council (1866-1877). During his “retirement”, he continued many of his business activities: he was a proprietor of the “Advertiser”, chairman of the Wallaroo and Kadina Tramway Company, and a director of the North Terrace-Glenelg Railway line.

CHURCH ASSOCIATIONS

Parkin and his wife became members of the Rev Thomas Quinton Stow’s Freeman Street (now Gawler Place) Chapel “on testimony of the brethren” on 29th May 1845. Parkin conducted a branch Sunday School at Magill, walking both ways. He was a member of the building committee for the “Stow Memorial Church”, now known as Pilgrim Church, which was opened on 12th April 1867, and which replaced the Freeman Street Chapel.

Following the death of his wife Sarah on 23rd March 1871, he married on 28th February 1872 Ellen Stonehouse, the eldest daughter of the Rev George Stonehouse who established the North Adelaide Baptist Church in 1848. Parkin transferred his membership to the Glenelg Congregational Church on 30th April 1873 where he continued as a member until his death on 31st May 1889 aged 87 years. There were no children from either marriage.

Parkin is buried in the West Terrace Cemetery (Road 3, Path 18) and his grave has a fine marble monument which was restored in 2001.

THE PARKIN TRUST INCORPORATED

Parkin established the Parkin Trust in the Declaration of Trust dated 23rd February 1872 and 4th October 1876 by a gift of one thousand pounds in cash (subsequently increased to eight thousand pounds) and about 4160 acres of land in the Northern Territory valued at two thousand pounds. The Deed of Settlement was signed on 11th October 1876 and the Trust was incorporated on 12th October 1876. The main purpose of the Trust was to train Congregational Ministers, but was not to become operative until the income reached one thousand pounds per annum. This took place in 1909, and Parkin College was established in 1910 at North Terrace, Kent Town.

After the death of his wife Ellen in 1925, additional property in Glenelg became the property of the Trust. His total gifts to the Parkin Trust were of the order of twenty thousand pounds.

Parkin College was amalgamated with Wesley College in 1969 in anticipation of the establishment of the Uniting Church, and now forms portion of Parkin Wesley College. The income from the Trust assists the work of Parkin Wesley College.

THE PARKIN CONGREGATIONAL MISSION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED

Parkin established the Parkin Congregational Mission of South Australia on 19th September 1882 by a Deed of Settlement. A further Deed of Settlement was approved on 14th September 1887. The Mission was incorporated on 13th January 1888. His gift comprised his Rundle Street property with a 49 foot frontage which was valued at approximately twenty thousand pounds. The Mission became operative on Parkin’s death on 31st May 1889.

The main purposes of the Mission were to:

¨ Pay “annuities of five pounds each to twenty poor God-fearing widows…”
¨ Pay “the stipends of Missionaries of the Congregational denomination appointed by the Governors……….the said Missionaries shall travel in the less settled districts of South Australia, that is to say beyond a distance of twenty miles from any now or hereafter existing Congregational Church.”

The Rundle Street property was sold in 1963 for 410,000 pounds, and the funds of the Mission were reinvested.

The available income of the Mission assists the work of the Uniting Church by grants to the Synod of South Australia for “The payment of grants to congregations, the Patrols and other ministries including Chaplaincies”.

The scope of the Mission has been broadened over the years to cover the new frontiers of ministry which include Chaplaincies. At Church union in 1977, the word “Congregational” was removed from the name of the Mission.

VALUE OF PARKIN’S GIFTS

Parkin’s original gifts amounted to approximately 40,000 pounds ($80,000), 20,000 pounds each for the Trust and the Mission.

The capital value of his gifts at Church union in 1977 amounted to approximately $1.6 million. (Trust $0.45 million, Mission $1.15 million.)

The value at the end of 2001 amounted to approximately $12.8 million. (Trust $2.7 million, Mission $10.1 million)

The contribution to the work of the Uniting Church in 1978 amounted to $90,000. (Trust $28,000, Mission $62,000.)

The contributions promised for 2002 amount to $660,000, (Trust $120,000, Mission $540,000.) and for 2003 amount to $700,000. (Trust $140,000, Mission $560,000.)
These are major contributions for the work of the Uniting Church from the Trusts set up by one person over 100 years ago and represent approximately 15% of the total Synod budget.

The contributions to the much smaller Congregational denomination prior to the establishment of the Uniting Church in 1977 were very significant.

Parkin did not want the denomination to have direct control of his Trusts. The only control exercised by the denomination, both in the past and at present is in the appointment of Governors. It is believed that this independence has been the strength of the Trusts.

PARKIN’S OPINIONS

Parkin’s opinions may appear intolerant, but were based on his high ideals and his expectations of the behaviour of other people.

Parkin had a firm belief that those who prospered had a duty to share their prosperity with the Church. This attitude brought him into conflict with many prominent members of the Church and with the Congregational Union which he criticized strongly. In a letter from Plympton in 1877, he declined the honour of chairing the annual public meeting of the Congregational Union and roundly condemned its members for not being as ready as he was to support the spread of the faith.

“If your Committee know what my opinion has been of them…… I think they would have hesitated a little before they ventured to offer so distinguished an honour on me.
…..Sir, I feel a contempt for men who would be inquisitive to know what this one or that one has done, and who shirk their own duty and button up their breeches pockets when asked to contribute a trifle for the good cause themselves.”

The setting up of the Parkin Mission has been very beneficial to the Congregational and Uniting Churches in South Australia. The following extract from “Congregationalism in Australia” by G. Lindsay Lockley based on the diary of the Rev F.W.Cox, 19th April, 1882 is as follows:

“Parkin originally put his projected scheme to the Rev F.W.Cox, the Hon.R.A.Tarlton, the Hon Augustine Stow and Mr J.F.Conigrave.

W.P gave an outline of his history and told us about his nephew whom he hoped to make heir to his property but, seeing the course he was going, he had told him plainly that as God had given him whatever wealth he had and to be used for His own purposes he would not let it go to the Devil’s purposes which could be the case if he left it to his nephew. So now he was going to carry out a scheme for the setting a number of Missionaries at work in the country beyond places where Churches existed….”

If Parkin had not felt as he did, the Parkin Mission would not have been established.

THANKS AND HOPES

We give thanks to God for the life of William Parkin and for his significant gifts. We hope that others may be inspired by his example.

If we become moved like William Parkin, we can help with the long term witness of the Church. We can make provision in our wills, large or small, for our local congregations or for the wider Church, thus fulfilling “our hope for years to come”.

Brian L Jones
6th July 2002

A Visit to some of the early sites of Methodism on the Gawler Plains.

On September 1, 2001, I joined 40 other people who had braved inclement weather to visit some of S.A. Methodism’s historic sites on the Gawler Plains (the tract of land between the Little Para and Gawler rivers).

Burton Cemetery

Burton Church and Sunday School

After assembling at the Uniting Church’s Freedom and Community Centre, Paralowie, the cavalcade of hired bus and private cars proceeded to where the Primitive Methodist church stood by the side of the Burton Road.

The church cemetery is all that remains of the original centre. There had once been a substantial church building, erected in 1915 adjacent to the original chapel. A memorial stone now marks the spot and the cemetery is at present being restored as a site of historical significance.

Rev Ted Curnow has reconstructed the history connected with the grave-sites and has published an index and biographical material concerning the 143 people who were interred at the Burton cemetery.

William Diment was a pioneer farmer at Burton. Of church interest is the fact that at 61 years of age, he was the first and only layman to become President of the Primitive Methodist Assembly in South Australia, first in 1883 and again in 1885. Probably his 1883 term of office provided a unique situation in S.A. Methodism. His 29-year-old minister son, William Diment jnr, was the Secretary for the Assembly for that year. It must have been confusing for delegates when matters were referred to ‘William Diment’ to know whether it was father or son who was being named.

As this was my first visit to the old cemetery, it called to mind that two sons of the Secomb family from Two Wells had courted and married two daughters of the Diment family. The younger of the brothers was my great-grandfather. I wondered whether the love-story had begun at one of the Anniversary tea-meetings which were such significant district social events in Primitive Methodism, indeed Methodism generally, in that era.

This old cemetery and church-site is cheek by jowl with a new suburban housing development. That would be something the old pioneers would never have envisaged. On the other hand, the significance of the site probably scarcely impinges, if at all, on the consciousness of these latter-day residents.

On to Sturton Chapel

The next port of call was the site of the Zoar Bible Christian chapel. Again, all that remains of this once thriving congregation is a cemetery. Here we are reminded of the particularly zealous ministry of Samuel Keen, after his arrival on the Gawler Plains in 1853. He diligently sought out the settlers, organised them into groups for worship and urged them to build a chapel as soon as possible. The result was, in Derek Whitelock’s phrase, the countryside “speckled with little chapels”. Keen had a penchant for giving the chapels under his ministry biblical names. In Isaiah 15:5 Zoar is named as “a place of refuge”. In his 1857 report to the Bible Christian Missionary Society in England, Samuel Keen wrote of those converted at Zoar during the past year as “twenty who escaped thither for their life”.

Sturton Chapel built 1856

Much of the original farmland in this area, once known as Peachy Belt, has been taken over by the Weapons Research Establishment and Edinburgh Airbase. The Jeffries family, originally from Canada, erected a small chapel on their property known as ‘Sturton’. This chapel was used by the Jeffries family and neighbours, but it always remained a small congregation.

This very small, very plain chapel still stands in reasonably good repair, thanks to the restoration work sanctioned by WRE. With restricted access to the area now applying, we had to have formal permission to visit. This was arranged by Mr Laurie Jeffries, a direct descendant of the pioneer family.

The chapel was built and opened in 1856. Regular services ceased in 1892, but the chapel has been used in more recent times for special Jeffries family occasions. As the latest group to attend, we said a prayer and sang the Doxology to add to the worship that had been offered to God on a regular basis more than 100 years ago.

Angle Vale Methodist Church

At Angle Vale the Methodist church was closed in the 1970’s. The original red-brick chapel still stands but the outside walls are now cement-rendered. The building is in good condition and used as a private home.

This was where Samuel Keen began his South Australian ministry in 1853. After a period of services being held in the homes of the people, this chapel was opened in September 1854, and was named Ebenezer. This is another biblical name, mentioned in 1 Samuel 7:12 – ‘Then Samuel took a stone and set up between Mizpah and Jeshanah and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, “Hitherto the Lord has helped us”.’
The setting up of a stone to mark a sacred place was something done in pre-historic times, long before the days of Samuel. It signified that which could not have been easily toppled. Keen was determined the Bible Christian cause would be on the Gawler Plains for a long time.

“Here I raise my Ebenezer:
Hither by Thy help I’m come.”
Methodist Hymnbook, 417.

(Words from a hymn by one of John Wesley’s preachers, Robert Robertson)

Samuel Keen

Carclew Chapel

With heavy rain about to descend on us, we made our final stop for the afternoon at the ruined Carclew Primitive Methodist church. The first brick building with a three-roomed cottage attached had been built in 1850 on a block given by Jonathon Roberts from the corner of his property, ‘Carclew’, named after the locality where he had lived in Cornwall.

Carlew Chapel

The building we were looking at had been built in 1870 to replace the original chapel. Although much-abused by vandals, the signs of it having been a fine building were still evident. It still proudly displayed the inscription over the remains of its stately entrance porch : PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH 1870.
Although regular services at Carclew ceased in 1919, the trustees kept the building in good repair, hoping it would be needed again. But it was not to be. After the centenary celebrations in 1950, the fittings and furnishings were disposed of, and the building left to the ravages of neglect. Unfortunately this has also been the fate of the little church cemetery adjoining.

Again the personal links came to mind, as I remembered my great-great-grandfather had come with his wife and two small children to farm on leased land in the area in 1851. Eighteen years later, he purchased land near Two Wells. During the Carclew years, my ancestors had come regularly to the very spot where I was standing, to worship in the Primitive Methodist chapel.

With the rain setting in for the rest of the day, our group had no alternative but to remember briefly and leave quickly.

There would have been others present who, like me, found the occasion was almost a pilgrimage in the original Christian sense of the word.

Kevin Secomb

This article is reprinted from the Society’s Newsletter of October 2001.