John FAIRFAX

FAIRFAX, JOHN (baptised Warwick, England, 24 Oct 1805; d. Sydney, NSW, 16 June 1877). Newspaper proprietor, philanthropist.

Son of William Fairfax and Elizabeth Jesson of a long-settled middle-class family in Warwickshire, John was strongly influenced by his mother's independent (ie 'Congregational') Christian faith. Apprenticed at age 12 to a bookseller, librarian and printer, he spent two years with the London Morning Chronicle as a typesetter, then returned to Leamington Priors where he set up business as a printer, bookseller and stationer, and married his childhood friend from chapel, Sarah Reading.

In 1828 he began his first newspaper, the Leamington Spa Sketch Book, which gave way later that year to the weekly Courier, and (from 1835) the Leamington Chronicle. In this he showed his political principles to he 'decidedly liberal' (especially regarding the 1832 Reform Bill), though leaning towards liberal conservatism. Bankrupted in a series of libel cases (of which he was acquitted) Fairfax migrated to Sydney with his family in 1838. He took up positions as a typesetter, then librarian with the Australian Subscription Library while freelance typesetting. He also established a journal for the NSW Temperance Society.

He joined the diaconate of the Pitt St Congregational Church, whose pastor Robert Ross (q.v.) and another deacon, Ambrose Foss were on the committee for the Subscription Library with the Rev Ralph Mansfield (q.v.). Also deacons at Pitt St were David Jones (q.v.), the prospering Welsh merchant, and leading draper Joseph Thompson. This close network of energetic nonconformist businessmen, associated through chapel and business, grew together in wealth and influence. Their opponents called this 'a Venetian oligarchy', though their influence was more economic than political. With Charles Kemp (the Sydney Herald's parliamentary and court reporter) Fairfax bought the Herald for the huge sum of £10 000 in February 1841. By 1856, the (now Sydney Morning Herald had the third largest circulation in the Empire. In 1853, he bought Kemp out, and in 1856 brought his son James into partnership, changing the name of the company to 'John Fairfax and Sons', a dynasty which was to last for the next 134 years.

Conservative, magisterial, and hugely successful, the Herald became the benchmark for Australian newspapers. Fairfax branched out into all forms of business, among others as a foundation director of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, and the Australian Gaslight Company, which were to become huge conglomerates in their own right. His appointment to the NSW Legislative Council and the Council of Education was recognition of commercial success and moral character.

Renowned for his religious tolerance, Fairfax was active in such interdenominational Christian efforts as the YMCA and the Ragged Schools Committee, and such movements for moral renewal as the anti-transportation campaigns. In church life he remained senior deacon of Pitt Street until his death, assisted in the foundation of Camden Theological College, and was open-handed both with hospitality and money. Serious, energetic, moral, gentlemanly, moderate, conservative, by second nature religious, yet non-sectarian, Fairfax represented that class of Christian businessmen who sought to spread moral enlightenment by creating those institutions of a civil society which educated, assisted and restrained. Bourgeois, oligarchic and wealthy, with 'his leanings and prejudices', Fairfax was the self-made man who put his fortune down to hard work and faith in God: his favourite motto being 'Pray without ceasing'. Ambition there was, but as often for the good of others as for the prospering of the self. His wife Sarah died on 12 August 1875, at his Bellevue Hill family home, Ginahgulla (now a part of The Scots College). Fairfax followed her two years later, quite firm in his destination. As he said to his pastor, James Jefferis, a few days before his death, 'I am looking up. I am going home'.

ADB 4; G. Souter, A Company of Heralds (Melbourne, 1981); work on the Thompson family by Paul Cooper, personal correspondence.

MARK HUTCHINSON