Samuel Chambers KENT

KENT, SAMUEL CHAMBERS (b. Wangford, Suffolk, England, 1 Jan 1826; d. Elsternwick, Vic, 28 Oct 1911). Congregational minister, then Anglican clergyman.

Before coming to Australia, Samuel Kent was Congregational minister at Braunton, Devon. Dr Robert Ross (q.v.), the minister of Sydney's Pitt Street church and colonial agent of the LMS, who also assisted Presbyterians in the Pacific Islands, sponsored Kent's arrival in Australia in 1855. The 'fundamental principle' of the LMS, to promote 'the glorious Gospel of the blessed God' and leave the choice of church order to converts, was to he reflected in Kent's subsequent career.

He became minister of the substantial Newtown church, where prominent laity—including real estate magnate Thomas Holt (q.v.), John Fairfax (q.v.) of the Sydney Morning Herald, David Jones (q.v.), and the Rev John West (q.v.)—prevailed on him in 1864 to become the founding warden and resident chaplain of Camden College, established at Newtown to train students for the ministry. The college and its associated boys' school were sited at Camden Villa, a former residence of Robert Bourne, who had been a missionary of the LMS in Tahiti. Two of Kent's discourses to young men, delivered at the Sydney YMCA had been published and displayed his ability. They dealt knowledgeably with 'the great work of saving souls' and with 'George Whitefield and John Wesley'. They also reflected the type of warmth and unction expected of evangelicals.

In 1868, when his wife died, John West and other prominent NSW ministers officiated at her funeral. Kent left Camden College in 1872 when the boys' school closed on account of financial difficulties and low enrolment. He was called to be minister of the Victoria Parade Congregational church in Melbourne, where he served until 1879. He then took Holy Orders in the Church of England (deacon 1879, priest 1880) and became curate of St Luke's, South Melbourne. In 1880, he was installed as incumbent of St Silas' Church, Albert Park. During this part of his ministry, he continued to participate in 'evangelistic movements' including CE and the work of the CMS.

Kent's portrait, which hung in the dining room of Camden College, Glebe, showed a stalwart and agreeable preacher in middle life. Disrespectful students occasionally turned it to the wall in moments of high spirits, possibly to show disapproval of his having become an Anglican, but the change-over was consistent, in his case, with the breadth of his evangelicalism rather than being a sign of the kind of ambition which led some well-off and socially aspiring Congregationalists among his contemporaries to make the 'pilgrimage to Canterbury'.

John Garrett and L W Farr, Camden College, a centenary history (Sydney, 1964); Obituary Services on the occasion of the death of the late Mrs J C Kent; Camden College Minutes, United Theological College, North Parramatta; Argus, Melbourne, 30 Oct 1911

SELECT WRITINGS: George Whitefield; The great work of saving souls

JOHN GARRETT