Inscription:
The
FOUNDATION STONE
Of this Chapel for the use of the
WESLEYAN METHODISTS,
WAS LAID BY
The Rev. Benjamin Hurst,
On the eleventh day of May, In the year of our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty,
Being the Third Year of the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty,
Queen Victoria,
The Fourth Year of the Colonization of Port Phillip,
The One Hundredth and First Year of the Existence of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection,
And the Seventy-first Year of the Existence of
The Wesleyan Methodist Mission.
His Excellency, Sir George Gipps,
Governor-in-Chief of the Colony of New South Wales.
His Honor Charles Joseph Latrobe, Esquire,
Superintendent of the District of Port Phillip.
The Rev. Theophilus Lessey,
President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, and the
Rev. Robert Newton, Secretary.
The Rev. Jabez Bunting, D.D., Rev. John Buchan, Rev. Robert Alde, D.D., and the Rev. Elijah Heole,
General Secretaries of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society.
The Rev. John Waterhouse,
General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Missions in Australia and Polynesia.
The Rev. Nathaniel Turner,
Chairman of the Van Diemen's Land District.
And the Rev. John M'Kenny,
Chairman of the District of New South Wales.
Missionaries on the Port Phillip Station,
The Rev. Benjamin Hurst, Superintendent, and the Rev. Francis Tuckfield.
Number of ordained Ministers employed by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society: Three hundred andfifty-six. Total Wesleyan Ministers throughout the world: Three thousand four hundred and twelve. Number of members or communicants belonging to the Wesleyan Society in Melbourne, sixty; on the Mission Stations, seventy-two thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven; throughout the world, one million one hundred and twelve thousand five hundred and nineteen.
Provisional Trustees of this Chapel:
Messrs. John J. Peers, George Lilley, William Witton, Thomas Jennings, and William Willoughby.
On the 3rd October, 1840, the Rev. Joseph Orton arrived to assume ministerial charge. This is the reverend gentleman already referred to as having visited Melbourne, from Launceston, in 1836.
In May, 1841, there were only 599 Wesleyans in the town of Melbourne, and the county of Bourke, but they must have worked with a wonderful will in the prosecution of their good work, for during 1840 the new building made a large advance towards completion, and a subscription library containing about one hundred volumes had been procured. On the 1st January, 1841, the Wesleyan Church was thus officially represented in Melbourne.
Minister. — Rev. Joseph Orton.
Trustees. — Messrs. G. Lilley, J. J. Peers, W. Willoughby, Thomas Jennings, W . Witton.
Building Committee. — Messrs. G. Lilley, J. J. Peers, E. S. Parker, R. Bourne, J. Dredge, W. Witton, W. Willoughby, T. AVilkinson, R. Crockett, T. Forster, T. Jennings, and W. Overton.
The first resident minister was the Rev. S. Wilkinson who arrived from England via Sydney early in 1841, replaced Mr. Orton (temporarily acting) and grew into high appreciation for his divers good qualities. A zealous, pious, charitable man, he was remarkable for the frequency of his visits to the Immigrant ships then frequently coming into port, and the deep interest he manifested in the welfare of the new-comers. He was also courteous, cheerful, could in season be jovial, and had no objection to a joke at the proper time, even though, as occasionally happened, obliged to laugh at himself. He often narrated the following ludicrous accident that befel him, and thoroughly enjoyed the laugh that followed:—
