James FARRELL

FARRELL, JAMES (b. Ireland, 1803 d. Malvern, England, 26 April 1869) Anglican clergyman.

Educated at TCD, where he was reputed to be a member of the 'Rotunda School' of evangelicals, Farrell appears to have garnered an exiguous livelihood as a private chaplain to wealthy Englishmen living abroad. He was appointed by the SPG to serve as an Anglican missionary clergyman to SA in 1840, where he joined the overworked C B Howard (q.v.). He established a congregation at St John's, Halifax St in 1841. When Howard died in 1843, Farrell succeeded to his posts as Colonial Chaplain and incumbent of Holy Trinity, Adelaide, and married his predecessor's widow.

Described in 1842 as inclined to 'drive away at the fundamentals of religion', and as having a high view of the Church of England and its episcopate, he was however not chosen by the British government to be first bp of Adelaide, a post which went instead in 1847 to the high churchman, Augustus Short.

The new bishop shrewdly appointed Farrell as dean, senior clergyman of the diocese, a post he had de facto occupied among the original, mainly evangelical, clergy since Howard's death. Farrell showed managerial skills in allocating the funds provided by the colonial government during the brief period of state aid (1846-5l), and in assisting Short in getting the synodal system of church government established in the diocese, even though his own parish was suspicious of the scheme.

Farrell seems to have been brief and uncomplicated as a preacher, but firm in his basic evangelical commitments. He wrote in 1848 that he had 'endeavoured to preach Christ and him crucified as the sinner's sole and sure hope; persuaded that there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved'. Bp Short, however, was alarmed at his willingness to mix socially with such wealthy unitarians as Arthur Hardy.

Farrell presided over the affairs of his parish, as well as the clergy of the diocese, with declining vigour in the 1860s. His journey to England in 1868-9 was designed to recuperate his failing health. At the memorial service in Adelaide to mark his death, Bishop Short spoke of his 'unaffected sincerity and genial kindness of heart founded on the love of Christ'. His will provided significant capital resources to the near bankrupt Collegiate School of St Peter (which began in association with Holy Trinity). The School perpetuates his name in various ways.

B Dickey, Holy Trinity Adelaide (Adelaide, 1988); D Hilliard, Godliness and Good Order(Adelaide, 1986)

BRIAN DICKEY