Jane Sophia BARKER

BARKER, JANE SOPHIA (née HARDEN) (b. Windemere, England, 5 April 1807; d. Randwick, NSW, 9 March 1876). Wife of Bp Frederic Barker (q.v.).

Jane Barker sprang from a cultivated background. Her father, John Harden, of Irish origin, was a member of the local gentry in the Lake District. Artists and poets visited the house and family ties were close and loving. As the elder daughter, Jane imbibed many of her father's artistic interests and she also became an accomplished horsewoman. The chief influence in her life, however, was the piety of her mother and especially of her aunt, Agnes Ranken. On her deathbed, Jane was to pay tribute to her aunt as the means of her conversion.

On her mother's death, she ran the household for a number of years, finally marrying Frederic Barker in her mid-thirties. They had no children. Barker was vicar of the middle-class Liverpool parish of Edge Hill when he was invited to the See of Sydney as its second bishop.

When they arrived in 1855, Jane Barker set about working closely with her husband in his huge and fast growing diocese. She travelled widely with him and was burdened for the isolated women and children of the outback. On observing the daughters of the parsonage at Molong who had no prospect of a worthwhile education, she determined to found a boarding school for clergy daughters. After an early struggle, St Catherine's School, Waverley was firmly established as the first Anglican school for girls in the colony.

Jane Barker found the summer heat and the mosquitoes of the Antipodes very trying. She disapproved of many of the High Church clergy whom Bp Broughton had left behind. She was also uneasy at the levity and materialism of Sydney society. Nevertheless, she vigorously supported 'dear Frederic' and exercised a pastoral ministry in visiting the sick and poor. She also worked hard for the Church Society, the Randwick Sunday School and on various ladies' committees. Her chief love was the monthly prayer meeting at Millers Point where she and her husband and friends read the Scriptures and prayed earnestly for their flock. As time went by and the church expanded greatly, she became more optimistic but her health was failing. She died before her husband worn out by the relentless pace she had set herself. The tributes were many: 'a lady of rare gifts and graces. In presence, in culture, in intelligence, in disposition, in command, in aptitude for business, in kindness ... she had few, if any equals.'

K J Cable, 'Mrs Barker and her Diary', JRAHS, 54 (1968): 67-105; Barker Papers - Uncat. Mss 45s, ML; The Melbourne Messenger, 13 April 1876, In Memoriam, Mrs Barker ML; D Friskell, John Harden of Brathay Hall, 1772-1847 (Kendal, 1974)

JANET WEST