REVEREND HENRY JAMES FULTON: 1/3/1761 – 17/11/1840
Arrived at Sydney on Minerva on 11 January 1800 - political prisoner
This is the story of my great-great-great-grandfather, Reverend Henry James Fulton. He was born on 1 March 1761 at Lisburn, Antrim, Ireland, son of John Henry Fulton and Anne Mary (Walker) Fulton. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin graduating B.A. in 1792. It was during these student years that he became interested in the Irish people's cause to win freedom from England. He eventually joined the Society of United Irishmen, and swore the oath “Union, Truth, Liberty or Death”. Little did he know that it would lead to his banishment from his native Ireland.
After graduating from Trinity College in 1792, Henry worked for his father in India for two years. He was ordained into the Church of Ireland by Bishop William Knox and his first ministry was in 1796 as Curate of the Kilmore Union and Vicar of Monsea, both in County Tipperary. Later he was posted as a curate to a parish in East Galway (Acheson, Dictionary of Evangelical Biography).
He married his sweetheart Ann Walker, daughter of Rev. James Walker of Waterford, in whose parish Fulton served for a short time.
Fulton came under suspicion during the Irish troubles of 1798. He was arrested, charged with sedition and other offences, and sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay for life. Unlike other political prisoners who sailed in the Minerva for Sydney from Cork, Fulton had not surrendered for self-transportation', as friends had declared that his Confession was extorted by fear of a species of torture at that time too common. The “Convict Indent” on which Fulton appears clearly delineates those who self-surrendered and those who were convicted of political crimes, and Fulton is recorded as being in the latter. He arrived in Port Jackson on 11 January 1800, accompanied by his wife Ann and two children who came as ‘free’ travellers - her aunt had paid the exorbitant price of 120 guineas for their three passages and they had been afforded a cabin together for the five-month voyage.
On board were military officers who were joining the New South Wales Corps - their leader was William Cox, travelling with his wife and children. (This association went on to become a long-running friendship - William Cox was appointed by Governor Macquarie to construct a road across the Blue Mountains and two of the Cox boys becoming key landowners in Fulton’s parish and being named as executors of his Will.)
Arrived at Sydney on Minerva on 11 January 1800 - political prisoner
This is the story of my great-great-great-grandfather, Reverend Henry James Fulton. He was born on 1 March 1761 at Lisburn, Antrim, Ireland, son of John Henry Fulton and Anne Mary (Walker) Fulton. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin graduating B.A. in 1792. It was during these student years that he became interested in the Irish people's cause to win freedom from England. He eventually joined the Society of United Irishmen, and swore the oath “Union, Truth, Liberty or Death”. Little did he know that it would lead to his banishment from his native Ireland.
After graduating from Trinity College in 1792, Henry worked for his father in India for two years. He was ordained into the Church of Ireland by Bishop William Knox and his first ministry was in 1796 as Curate of the Kilmore Union and Vicar of Monsea, both in County Tipperary. Later he was posted as a curate to a parish in East Galway (Acheson, Dictionary of Evangelical Biography).
He married his sweetheart Ann Walker, daughter of Rev. James Walker of Waterford, in whose parish Fulton served for a short time.
Fulton came under suspicion during the Irish troubles of 1798. He was arrested, charged with sedition and other offences, and sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay for life. Unlike other political prisoners who sailed in the Minerva for Sydney from Cork, Fulton had not surrendered for self-transportation', as friends had declared that his Confession was extorted by fear of a species of torture at that time too common. The “Convict Indent” on which Fulton appears clearly delineates those who self-surrendered and those who were convicted of political crimes, and Fulton is recorded as being in the latter. He arrived in Port Jackson on 11 January 1800, accompanied by his wife Ann and two children who came as ‘free’ travellers - her aunt had paid the exorbitant price of 120 guineas for their three passages and they had been afforded a cabin together for the five-month voyage.
On board were military officers who were joining the New South Wales Corps - their leader was William Cox, travelling with his wife and children. (This association went on to become a long-running friendship - William Cox was appointed by Governor Macquarie to construct a road across the Blue Mountains and two of the Cox boys becoming key landowners in Fulton’s parish and being named as executors of his Will.)
The Minerva’s ship’s surgeon, J.W. Price, singled out Fulton to Governor Hunter as a man of good behaviour and should be allowed to leave the ship ahead of other convicts. This recommendation solved Governor John Hunter's dilemma about how a man such as Fulton, 'bred up in a genteel life', should be employed. The Governor took the departure of Richard Johnson for England, the principal chaplain, as an opportunity for Fulton to resume his profession.
On 8 November 1800 Fulton was conditionally emancipated and on 20 November the Government Gazette reported that, as assistant chaplain, “the Rev Mr Fulton will perform divine service at Hawkesbury on Sunday 7th December next”. In February 1801 he was transferred to Norfolk Island where he acted as chaplain. He was granted a full pardon in December 1805 by Governor King.
On 8 November 1800 Fulton was conditionally emancipated and on 20 November the Government Gazette reported that, as assistant chaplain, “the Rev Mr Fulton will perform divine service at Hawkesbury on Sunday 7th December next”. In February 1801 he was transferred to Norfolk Island where he acted as chaplain. He was granted a full pardon in December 1805 by Governor King.
In 1806 he returned to Sydney to take up the duties at Sydney and Parramatta of Reverend Samuel Mardsen who had been given leave of absence; he also served on the Civil Court and the Commission of the Peace. On 8 June 1806 Reverend Fulton conducted the marriage ceremony of Elizabeth Boggis and Charles Tompson Snr, an educated convict who had arrived in 1804. Charles Jnr was born in Sydney 26 June 1807 and the families remained long-time friends.
A loyal supporter of Governor Bligh, Fulton and several others were dining with the Governor on the night of 26 January 1808 when Major George Johnston, lieutenant-governor of the colony, led the NSW Corps down to Government House and arrested Bligh. Henry Fulton and Mrs Mary Putland, Bligh’s daughter, tried to prevent the solders from entering - Fulton was standing guard behind the locked door when he was nearly killed by a soldier thrusting his sword through the door, just missing him. One of Johnston’s first acts was to suspend Fulton from his Chaplain’s position.
Twice in 1808 he wrote to Bligh testifying to his justice and impartiality, and twice in 1809 he wrote letters to Viscount Castlereagh giving accounts of what had happened and severely censuring the conduct of the officers.
Immediately after the arrival of Governor Macquarie, Fulton was reinstated as Assistant Chaplain. Reverend Marsdon arrived back in the colony in May 1810 on the ship Mary. On board was the Reverend Robert Cartwright who became a close friend of the Fulton family (their daughter Elizabeth would marry Fulton’s son John Walker Fulton in 1822).
Fulton was called to England as a witness at the court martial of Colonel Johnston, and on returning to Sydney in 1812, was appointed to St Phillip’s Church Sydney during the illness of Rev. William Cowper. Next Governor Macquarie appointed Fulton to the position of parson at Castlereagh and Richmond, New South Wales in July 1814. Macquarie trusted Fulton - he was one of the few emancipists to be asked to dine at Government House and was one of the first magistrates to be appointed for the Evan and Castlereagh districts.
Reverend Fulton opened a school at Castlereagh on 11 July 1814, believed to be the first private Academy in Australia offering a limited classical curriculum. It was a large brick cottage sixty feet by twenty feet with a shingled roof, draughty and cold in winter ...
for the accommodation of a few young gentlemen not exceeding 12. Wherein are taught the Latin and Greek classics, French and English grammatically, writing and such parts of the mathematics both Theory and Practice, as may suit the scholar, according as he may be intended for Commercial, Military, or Naval Pursuits – Terms 50 sterling per Annum, besides Books, Bed and Bedding, Washing, etc. (Sydney Gazette, 25 June 1814).
A skillion on one side of the building provided two small rooms for a schoolmaster to conduct a separate school for the children of poor settlers. Fulton was anxious to add to his supply of text books for his pupils and advertised for a Latin Dictionary, Caesar’s Commentaries, and the poems of Ovid and Virgil – unobtainable from the limited shops in Sydney, hopefully held by private individuals (Sydney Gazette 8 July 1815). One of the school’s first students was the gifted Charles Tompson Junior, whose poetic talent was encouraged by Fulton - for Charles wrote the poem Ode to Spring when he was twelve years of age.
In 1826 Charles Jnr’s book of poetry entitled Wild Notes, from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel was the first book to be printed in Sydney – a facsimile copy of which is held in the Arthur Phillip Chapter Library. He dedicated his book to Fulton. In his first poem Retrospect he acknowledged with gratitude the debt he owed his former “tutor of (his) early hour”. He reflected on the happy times he had at Castlereagh and shared his feelings for the place, its beauty and “rural stillness”.
A loyal supporter of Governor Bligh, Fulton and several others were dining with the Governor on the night of 26 January 1808 when Major George Johnston, lieutenant-governor of the colony, led the NSW Corps down to Government House and arrested Bligh. Henry Fulton and Mrs Mary Putland, Bligh’s daughter, tried to prevent the solders from entering - Fulton was standing guard behind the locked door when he was nearly killed by a soldier thrusting his sword through the door, just missing him. One of Johnston’s first acts was to suspend Fulton from his Chaplain’s position.
Twice in 1808 he wrote to Bligh testifying to his justice and impartiality, and twice in 1809 he wrote letters to Viscount Castlereagh giving accounts of what had happened and severely censuring the conduct of the officers.
Immediately after the arrival of Governor Macquarie, Fulton was reinstated as Assistant Chaplain. Reverend Marsdon arrived back in the colony in May 1810 on the ship Mary. On board was the Reverend Robert Cartwright who became a close friend of the Fulton family (their daughter Elizabeth would marry Fulton’s son John Walker Fulton in 1822).
Fulton was called to England as a witness at the court martial of Colonel Johnston, and on returning to Sydney in 1812, was appointed to St Phillip’s Church Sydney during the illness of Rev. William Cowper. Next Governor Macquarie appointed Fulton to the position of parson at Castlereagh and Richmond, New South Wales in July 1814. Macquarie trusted Fulton - he was one of the few emancipists to be asked to dine at Government House and was one of the first magistrates to be appointed for the Evan and Castlereagh districts.
Reverend Fulton opened a school at Castlereagh on 11 July 1814, believed to be the first private Academy in Australia offering a limited classical curriculum. It was a large brick cottage sixty feet by twenty feet with a shingled roof, draughty and cold in winter ...
for the accommodation of a few young gentlemen not exceeding 12. Wherein are taught the Latin and Greek classics, French and English grammatically, writing and such parts of the mathematics both Theory and Practice, as may suit the scholar, according as he may be intended for Commercial, Military, or Naval Pursuits – Terms 50 sterling per Annum, besides Books, Bed and Bedding, Washing, etc. (Sydney Gazette, 25 June 1814).
A skillion on one side of the building provided two small rooms for a schoolmaster to conduct a separate school for the children of poor settlers. Fulton was anxious to add to his supply of text books for his pupils and advertised for a Latin Dictionary, Caesar’s Commentaries, and the poems of Ovid and Virgil – unobtainable from the limited shops in Sydney, hopefully held by private individuals (Sydney Gazette 8 July 1815). One of the school’s first students was the gifted Charles Tompson Junior, whose poetic talent was encouraged by Fulton - for Charles wrote the poem Ode to Spring when he was twelve years of age.
In 1826 Charles Jnr’s book of poetry entitled Wild Notes, from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel was the first book to be printed in Sydney – a facsimile copy of which is held in the Arthur Phillip Chapter Library. He dedicated his book to Fulton. In his first poem Retrospect he acknowledged with gratitude the debt he owed his former “tutor of (his) early hour”. He reflected on the happy times he had at Castlereagh and shared his feelings for the place, its beauty and “rural stillness”.
Fulton was still chaplain at Castlereagh in 1833 and in that year published a pamphlet of some forty pages entitled Strictures Upon a Letter Lately Written by Roger Therry, Esquire. In 1836 his name appears as a member of a sub-committee at Penrith formed to work against the introduction of the system of national education as had been established in Ireland.
He continued with a tireless ministry throughout the Castlereagh and Penrith districts - in 1838 conducting 20 weddings, 45 baptisms and 29 burials in Castlereagh. In 1839 he was appointed as the first Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Penrith, holding the position until 1840. The load proved to be too much, his last baptism was on 8th November and he died on 17 November 1840. He was buried with his wife Ann, who died four years earlier, at Christ Church of England, Castlereagh, near the site of his school and parsonage. They are buried in the family vault built by his daughter for her husband, John MacHenry.
He continued with a tireless ministry throughout the Castlereagh and Penrith districts - in 1838 conducting 20 weddings, 45 baptisms and 29 burials in Castlereagh. In 1839 he was appointed as the first Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Penrith, holding the position until 1840. The load proved to be too much, his last baptism was on 8th November and he died on 17 November 1840. He was buried with his wife Ann, who died four years earlier, at Christ Church of England, Castlereagh, near the site of his school and parsonage. They are buried in the family vault built by his daughter for her husband, John MacHenry.
The following Death notice appeared in The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, NSW 1838-1841, Monday 23rd November 1840, page 3 (image to the left is the Fulton family vault):
After a short illness, at the Parsonage, Castlereagh, on the 17th instant, the Reverend Henry Fulton, B. A., aged seventy-nine. He departed this life a glorious instance of those Gospel truths he inculcated from the pulpit for the last forty years. His latter moments were calm and peaceful, and his hopes of another and a better state rested solely on the all sufficiency of a crucified Redeemer. It may be truly said, he never made an enemy or lost a friend.
My family line: Henry and Ann had two sons, Henry and John and three daughters and two little children who died – James Walker Fulton in November 1800 at Norfolk Island and a girl named Jane. Henry had a property at Oberon, later at Bathurst. John Walker Fulton, my great-great-grandfather, who married Elizabeth Cartwright, was Clerk of Petty Sessions at Parramatta, also farmed at Castlereagh. John and Elizabeth had three daughters, Ann Amelia is my great-grandmother; another daughter married George Wentworth, step-brother to William Charles Wentworth.
For further reading:
The Unexpected Chaplain: Henry Fulton and Early Colonial Evangelicalism, an essay that gives more details about Henry Fulton’s life.
Jump up to: Fulton, Henry. Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
Smee, C.J. and Provis, J. Selkirk, comp., The 1788-1820 Association's Pioneer Register, second edition - volume I. Sydney, N.S.W., The Association, 1981
Australian Dictionary of Biography, ANU
The Unexpected Chaplain: Henry Fulton and Early Colonial Evangelicalism:
http://integrity.moore.edu.au/article/download/6/5
Links for reference:
https://australianroyalty.net.au/family.php?famid=F17019&ged=purnellmccord.ged
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32186853?searchTerm=Reverend
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/100983377?searchTerm=John
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/136321105
http://simplyaustralia.net/article-castlereagh.html
http://acrossthebluemountains.com.au/article-castlereagh2.html
https://www.geni.com/people/Reverand-Henry-James-Fulton/6000000008576340142
https://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/henry-fultons-baptism-burial-and-marriage-records-of-1801-1806-on-norfolk-island/
Researched for Mary Bluett - FF Friend #180
By Gillian Doyle
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2022 -
Images from the internet: https://www.google.com.au
After a short illness, at the Parsonage, Castlereagh, on the 17th instant, the Reverend Henry Fulton, B. A., aged seventy-nine. He departed this life a glorious instance of those Gospel truths he inculcated from the pulpit for the last forty years. His latter moments were calm and peaceful, and his hopes of another and a better state rested solely on the all sufficiency of a crucified Redeemer. It may be truly said, he never made an enemy or lost a friend.
My family line: Henry and Ann had two sons, Henry and John and three daughters and two little children who died – James Walker Fulton in November 1800 at Norfolk Island and a girl named Jane. Henry had a property at Oberon, later at Bathurst. John Walker Fulton, my great-great-grandfather, who married Elizabeth Cartwright, was Clerk of Petty Sessions at Parramatta, also farmed at Castlereagh. John and Elizabeth had three daughters, Ann Amelia is my great-grandmother; another daughter married George Wentworth, step-brother to William Charles Wentworth.
For further reading:
The Unexpected Chaplain: Henry Fulton and Early Colonial Evangelicalism, an essay that gives more details about Henry Fulton’s life.
Jump up to: Fulton, Henry. Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
Smee, C.J. and Provis, J. Selkirk, comp., The 1788-1820 Association's Pioneer Register, second edition - volume I. Sydney, N.S.W., The Association, 1981
Australian Dictionary of Biography, ANU
The Unexpected Chaplain: Henry Fulton and Early Colonial Evangelicalism:
http://integrity.moore.edu.au/article/download/6/5
Links for reference:
https://australianroyalty.net.au/family.php?famid=F17019&ged=purnellmccord.ged
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32186853?searchTerm=Reverend
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/100983377?searchTerm=John
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/136321105
http://simplyaustralia.net/article-castlereagh.html
http://acrossthebluemountains.com.au/article-castlereagh2.html
https://www.geni.com/people/Reverand-Henry-James-Fulton/6000000008576340142
https://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/henry-fultons-baptism-burial-and-marriage-records-of-1801-1806-on-norfolk-island/
Researched for Mary Bluett - FF Friend #180
By Gillian Doyle
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2022 -
Images from the internet: https://www.google.com.au