James Mark INNES

INNES, JAMES MARK (b. Scotland, 8 Nov 1826; d. Vic, 8 Dec 1886). Early Congregational-Presbyterian minister in WA.

The details of Innes' early life in Scotland and his academic training are obscure. He may have been a teacher before he entered the ministry. Innes was sent to Perth in 1862 by the Colonial Missionary Society to help re-establish the Perth Independent Church after a decade of difficulties.

Barely a year after the founding of Perth in 1829, a group of 'Dissenters' (Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Wesleyans) began to meet together for worship services. In 1841 following the arrival of a Wesleyan missionary this group split, with those of a more Calvinistic outlook eventually gathering together under the leadership of Henry Trigg in what became the Perth Independent Church. This group of believers received a Colonial Missionary Society missionary in 1852 but a period of decline ensued, with the missionary leaving in 1856 and the Independent Church closing the following year. Many members of the congregation then began to attend the Wesleyan chapel. However, the Arminianism there proved too much for the newcomers who, in 1860 under the leadership of Trigg went their separate ways again. Trigg was a 'vigorous and evangelical preacher with Calvinistic tendencies' (Cox, 1916: 15). Following requests to the Colonial Missionary Society in London, a new missionary was sent to Trigg's group, Rev James Innes, late pastor at Brampton in the northern English county of Cumberland.

Innes arrived in Perth in September 1862 along with his wife Alison, a school mistress, and their five children. Almost immediately the Independent group revived, to the extent that a new building for worship was constructed on St George's Terrace, Perth. Trinity Congregational Chapel was opened on 6 Sept 1865 and seated 300 people. The late 1860s were a time of debate concerning the organisation and funding of primary education in the isolated western colony. As an active member of the General Board of Education Innes was in the thick of things especially as a prominent advocate of the free use of the Bible in public schools. The public battles Innes faced, were matched by difficulties within Trinity, for the commitment to the building program hat over-extended the congregation financially. This tense time climaxed in March 1868 when Innes resigned. George Randel, a leading colonial figure and member of Trinity, wrote at the time: 'Mr Innes was popular as a preacher and very esteemed as a pastor ... he ... was very fluent and also thoroughly evangelical having but a little time before he left Scotland been actively engaged in the great revival in Airdrie. The probabilities are that but for domestic and financial troubles he would have continued for many more years a Trinity pastor ... His farewell sermon ... was largely personal to one member of the church and was heard by Mr Innes' friends with much regret, although some of the strictures were deserved.' (Cox, 1916: 22)

From Perth Innes moved in 1868 to Newcastle (WA) where his involvement with education became more regional (he was elected secretary of the Toodyay Board of Education) and personal (Alison Innes became the local school mistress with lessons being held in their home). The inland district around the Toodyay valley had, within its bounds, some of the best agricultural and pastoral land so far discovered in the colony. A number of wealthy Scottish settlers had moved into the region. These settlers had in turn brought shepherds whose faith was the Presbyterianism of their homeland. These were to be the members of the first Presbyterian church in the colony and Innes was to be their minister. As in Perth, Innes had a very active ministry '... holding three services at Newcastle every Sunday, as well as weekday services at some of the private homes in this large district'. (Erickson, 1974: 213) Innes was also involved in the temperance movement in his Newcastle years. In 1873 James Drummond, the principal local donor, died and the Presbyterian church seems to have run into financial difficulty. Innes left to take up a position in Grafton, NSW, at the request of the Presbyterians there. On his departure from WA a newspaper correspondent noted: 'To say that Mr Innes has been an active, zealous and self-denying minister of the Gospel in this country would fall very short of what is due to one who has wrought so much spiritual good in the community, and whose efforts to improve the moral and social welfare of his fellow men have ever been foremost in promoting the end in view.' (Inquirer and Commercial News, 13 Aug 1873)

Whilst the Congregationalists were to continue after Innes left them, the Presbyterians were to languish until the arrival in 1879 of David Shearer (q.v.). Shearer was eventually to decide to develop Fremantle rather than Newcastle as the next centre of Presbyterianism after Perth itself. While in NSW Innes served at Grafton (1874-76); Glen Innes (1876-78); Moruya (1879-83). His final parish was Bacchus Marsh and Melton, Vic (1883-86). He attempted to re-enter the Congregational ministry during these years but was unsuccessful. Innes was especially important while in WA in seeking to further the cause of 'non-conformist' Christianity with its stress on the Bible and education.

S M Bonnington, 'The Beginnings of Presbyterianism in Western Australia', Reformed Theological Review, 50, (1991), 30-36; S H Cox, The Seventy Years History of the Trinity Congregational Church (Perth, 1916); R Erickson, Old Toodyay and Newcastle (Toodyay, 1974); D Mossenson, State Education in Western Australia 1829-1960 (Nedlands, 1972)

STUART M BONNINGTON