Matthew Hale

Early life

Mathew Blagden Hale was born on 18 June 1811 at Alderley, Gloucestershire, the third son of Robert H. Blagden Hale (5 May 1780 – 20 December 1855) and Lady Theodosia Hale (née Bourke). His maternal grandfather was The Earl of Mayo, Lord Archbishop of Tuam. After completing his education at Wotton-under-Edge, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained his B.A. in 1835 and M.A. in 1838. During his time at Cambridge he met Harold Browne and they became lifelong friends. Both came under the influence of Charles Simeon who celebrated fifty years of evangelical ministry at (Holy) Trinity Church in 1832. The antislavery movement driven by William Wilberforce also influenced Hale and he wanted to minister to the newly emancipated slaves, particularly in the West Indies, but was not encouraged to do so neither by his family nor by the missionary society working in that region.

Hale was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1836, and priest in 1837 by the Bishop of Bristol and Gloucester. From 1836 to 1838 he was curate of Tresham. In 1838 he acted as curate of Wootton-under-Edge, then from 1839 to 1845 Perpetual Curate of Stroud, an expanding woollen-cloth manufacturing centre in Gloucestershire. In 1840 Hale married Sophia Clode, with whom he would have three children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. Sophia died in early 1845 followed by Hale's mother a few months later. Hale had an emotional breakdown and resigned. Subsequently, he served briefly as Rector of Alderley in 1845 and 1846, and then as Perpetual Curate of Atworth with Wraxhill in 1846 and 1847.

South Australia

In 1847 he met Bishop Short at a friend's house, and was persuaded to accompany him to Adelaide. Hale, with his two surviving daughters and two servants in late December 1847 arrived in South Australia, where he was appointed first Archdeacon of Adelaide. The following year during a pastoral visit to Western Australia with Bishop Short he married Sabina, eldest daughter of John and Georgiana Molloy. Subsequently, after Hale returned to Adelaide, he was appointed the first rector of St Matthew's church at Kensington.

In early 1850 Hale approached the Governor of South Australia proposing an institution for young Aborigines where they would live in one little community to learn practical skills in farming and domestic arts and to receive Christian teaching. Later that year he volunteered his services as mission superintendent. His offer was accepted and the Natives' Training Institution was opened at Poonindie, near Port Lincoln, in October 1850. Hale and his family moved to Poonindie soon afterwards and Mathew and Sabina's eldest surviving son, Mathew, was born there in July next year. The Institution prospered and when Bishop Short visited in February 1853, there were 54 Aborigines resident, eleven of whom were baptised by the Bishop.

Western Australia

In 1856, Hale resigned to accept an invitation to serve as Bishop of Perth. In July 1856 he arrived in Western Australia on the Guyon, which had diverted to Port Lincoln to pick him up, along with his two eldest daughters and sister-in-law Georgiana Molloy, and in November the rest of his family arrived there from South Australia. In March 1857, Hale returned to England with his family, where on 25 July 1857 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Perth at the Lambeth Palace Chapel. The sermon was preached by Hale's longtime friend from their university days, Harold Browne. According to its usual custom Cambridge University awarded the new bishop an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. While Hale accepted this academic honour, he was reluctant to adopt the style and title of "My Lord", maintaining that as a colonial bishop he would be better without it. However, the legal authorities ruled that he must accept it and he did so.

Leaving his family in England, Hale returned to Western Australia on the convict ship Nile early in 1858, to take up office as Bishop of Perth. It had been an eventful and dangerous voyage. The problems arising from transportation were evident when Hale had made his initial tour of his diocese-to-be and he had prepared a report on The Transportation Question, advocating measures to make Western Australia a reformatory colony rather than a penal settlement. This was published while he was in England. Hale's report demanded change in the colony's penal system. When copies reached Perth before he returned from England, there was a storm of criticism in the local news media, claiming that Hale's report was "full of misrepresentations and errors". However, when Hale's own account of his voyage on Nile and the behavior of the convicts on it was published, he was vindicated and newspaper editors were commending Hale, even as the Colonial Governor was disapproving because of "embarrassment to Her Majesty's Government".

In June 1858, after he returned from England, Hale opened a boys' school for both boarders and day pupils. The Bishop's School was modelled after England's public schools. Many of the pupils who attended it came from leading families in the colony; many of them went on to become prominent in Western Australian business and politics. Hale had continuing problems in finding suitable schoolmasters and funds to support his school. Eventually this proved too much for him and the Bishop's School closed on 1 March 1872. However it continued on under different management and eventually became today's Hale School. Bishop Hale is generally recognised as the pioneer of secondary education in Western Australia.

Leaving

Hale was Bishop of Perth until 1875. On 5 April that year he received letters from Bishop Barker of Sydney and Bishop Short of Adelaide asking for his consent to be nominated as second Bishop of Brisbane. He was reluctant to accept this new responsibility, since he was in his mid sixties and looking forward to retirement in a few years time, and did so only on the condition that he had the unanimous support of all the Australian bishops.

There was a public farewell to Hale on 30 October 1875 at which an address from the congregation of St George's Cathedral and members of other Christian communions was read. Hale's ministry and influence in Western Australia had not been confined to the Anglican Church but involved active co-operation with other Christian groups in matters of common interest. In particular the Congregationalists commended him for originating and fostering "institutions for promoting the moral and religious welfare of the community" and for his "truly missionary spirit". They were pleased that he was always ready to contend for the truth "as it is in Jesus, ..." They attributed the "truly evangelical and peaceful character of his episcopate to his true love for the Bible, the word of God; ... ." They also recognised his "hearty co-operation with others" not belonging to his church, concluding that they united with members of his church and all Protestant fellow colonists, in praying for his future welfare, peace and happiness.

The bishop acknowledged each address, thanking "his dear friends" for their very kind words, sometimes suggesting that his own contribution was not as much as stated, other times reminding "his Sons and Daughters in the Lord Jesus Christ" to whom he had ministered, that "... my sole aim in my teaching has been to set forth faithfully and simply the blessed truths which are to be found in God's Holy Word". He also referred to the "mutual kindness and good will which exists between members of the different religious bodies in this country who hold to those great Scriptural doctrines which were ... brought to light a second time at the period of the Reformation, and which are to us more precious than rubies". In concluding his various replies he asked for their prayers for him in his difficult new task and assured them of his continuing prayers and interest in their affairs.

The editors of the local newspapers were lavish in their praise of the departing bishop. The Western Australian Times' farewell editorial began with the words "We admire great men and give genius its due need of fame, but the good man gains not only our admiration but our hearts ... After outlining Hale's many contributions to the life of the colony the editorial concluded with the following commendation of Hale "He has shown us what a true christian pastor can do, and how the holding of a high and honoured office is not inconsistent with a brotherly bearing towards all, and that a helping hand and a kind word, go more to make up real christianity, than austere looks, and obstinate theories; and without disparagement of others, we fear we may say that 'take him all in all we'll never see his like again'."

Queensland

Hale received an enthusiastic welcome when he was installed as second Bishop of Brisbane in St John's Pro-Cathedral on 15 December 1875. In his first address to his new flock Hale made it clear that he had been brought to Queensland to deal with the problem of providing ministry to people in vast areas of country where there were no churches or clergymen. He would be powerless to do anything about it because of his lack of resources; resources, which in the absence of any state aid for religion in the colony, only could come from the freewill offerings of established congregations and individuals.

To deal with this lack of resources the General Church Fund was launched at a meeting in Brisbane on the evening of 23 March 1876. It was intended that each congregation in the diocese would contribute to the fund by passing on to the Diocesan Council the money received from weekly offerings on two Sundays every year. At the same time direct contributions were to be solicited from individuals to build up the capital sum. Hale himself was disappointed that some of the speeches at the meeting did not indicate a sense of "the importance and the gravity of the matter which we met together to discuss". His opinion was supported by the lack of donations received.

Hale toured his region widely. He hoped and devoutly prayed that his visits from place to place would serve to bind Church of England people in the colony more closely together. Hale's determined goal was to see the church "act more in concert one with another than we have done". We must realise "that we are all one body, united in our blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, as to one Head, being all members one of another, as members of His body". Hale felt the concern of the present period of commercial depression, commenting "That which hinders the performance of good works and holds people back from making adequate offerings to God, is very rarely the real inability to give. The hindrance arises in almost all cases from the want of a proper estimate of what is really owing to God, and from the weakness of men's faith ....... "

Twelve months after Hale had arrived in Brisbane what had been given to the fund so far was completely inadequate. Hale felt that this situation indicated that his coming to Brisbane had been a mistake and so in January 1877 he submitted his resignation to Bishop Barker. After intervention by Bishop Barker, the people and churches in Brisbane were shamed into a commitment to support the General Church Fund and Hale withdrew his resignation. Nevertheless, despite Hale's generous personal donations, the funds received were never sufficient to meet the needs.

Return to England

Bishop Hale and his wife left Brisbane for Sydney on 27 March 1885. Four days later he handed his resignation letter to the Primate, Bishop Barry. Hale and his family sailed for England via Colombo in the P&O mail steamer Thames on 2 May. After changing ships they arrived in England on 14 July. Hale lived in retirement at Clifton, Bristol, where he died on 3 April 1895. He was buried in the churchyard at Alderley, Gloucestershire. He was survived by his second wife Sabina, five sons and three daughters.

Legacy

2004: The Mathew Hale Public Library was established in Brisbane.

2005: St Matthew's church at Poonindie was reopened after restoration on the 150th anniversary of its completion by Mathew Hale.

2008: In March a statue of Hale by Greg James was erected outside The Cloisters, the building Hale built to house his school, in central Perth.