CHAPTER XII.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS: THEIR FOUNDATION AND FIRST CELEBRATIONS.
SYNOPSIS: —Rev. Joseph Orton. —Divine Service on Batman's Hill. —First Wesleyan Service. —J. J. Peers, Builder of the First Chapel. —William Wilton and Jas. Dredge. —The First Organist. —The Church's Early Struggles. —The Buntingdale Mission Station. —Mr. C. Stone's Arrival. —The First Chapel in Collins Street. —Laying the Foundation Stone of the New Church. —A Comprehensive Inscription. —Wesleyan Population in 1841. —Church Representatives. —Rev. S. Wilkinson, First Resident Minister. —A Ludicrous Incident. —A Minister's Hasty Retreat. —An M.L.C.'s Predicament. —Opening of the New Wesleyan Chapel. —Mr. J. A. Marsden. —Foundation of Chapel at Brunswick. —Rev. Mr. Wilkinson's Departure. —Rev. Mr. Schofield's Arrival. —Rev. Mr. Orton's Death. —The First Bazaar in Melbourne. —Mr. Jas. Croke, the First Purchaser. —Mrs. Marsden a "Trafficking Angel." —Foundation of Chapel at Brighton. — Rev. Mr. Schofield's Departure. —Rev. Mr. Sweet man. —Bazaar, No. 2. —"The Man at the Wheel." Opening of Church at Little Brighton. —Foundation of Chapel at Richmond. —Death of the Rev. J. Dredge. —Opening of the Geelong Chapel. —Rev. Mr. Boyce's Visit. —Foundation of Chapel at Belfast. —Brunswick Street Chapel. —Sacrilege at Geelong. —Enlargement of Collins Street Chapel. —Wesleyan Population, 1851 and 1881, and 1886-7. —Foundation of Methodist Missionary Society.
The Wesleyan Methodists.
OF all the Christian denominations, the Wesleyans, who were first in the field in Melbourne, commenced on a wider basis of operations, though in a very small way. The first clergyman to set foot in Port Phillip was the Rev. Joseph Orton, a Hobartown divine. Hearing of the wonderful discoveries over the Straits, and anxious to see and judge for himself, he came across; and he it was who read the Church of England service at the She-oak Gathering on Batman's Hill. Proceeding to the Geelong country, he selected a suitable site on the Barwon, which was afterwards known as the Buntingdale Missionary Station. He paid special attention to the condition of the aborigines, and to his Society in England communicated some very interesting facts about them. Through his exertions the Rev. Messrs. Hurst, Tuckfield, and Skeavington were commissioned from home, and arrived in the colony in 1839. Mr. Orton returned to Van Diemen's Land and came to Melbourne again in 1838, but did not remain. Of the first Wesleyan service in the colony Mr. Orton was the celebrant in the tent of Dr. Thomson by the banks of. the Yarra. This was in May, 1836, and after that class-meetings were held by some religiously disposed laymen, the earliest of these pioneers being a Mr. James Jennings, and the first assembly took place in the cheerless "bothie" of a tailor named George Worthy (no inappropriate name) who lived, or existed, somewhere about the site of the Australian wharf. Willliam Witton, a carpenter, occupied a dwelling (the site of the now White Hart Inn) in Little Bourke Street, which was more commodious and convenient than the "Worthy" mansion, and on his invitation the class-meetings moved from the vicinity of the brackish water and came more inward. Mr. John Jones Peers a philharmonic building contractor, had secured the allotment at the north-west corner of Swanston and Little Flinders Streets, where the Queen's Arms Hotel has been making money for ever so many years; and, being an ardent Wesleyan, he offered to put up, free gratis, on this land, a diminutive brick-built chapel, on condition that he should be paid the building expenses in the event of the congregation going away to any other place. This was agreed to. The chapel was built, capable of holding 150 persons. The congregation left, but whether Peers was refunded his building money history or tradition sayeth not. It is a pity that the little chapel did not "go off" somewhere when the class-readers bade it good-bye, for it remained to be put to the ignoble use of kitchen to the hotel, and as such remained for several years. On looking at a rough sketch
