Hussey Burgh MACARTNEY

MACARTNEY, HUSSEY BURGH (b. Dublin, Ireland, 10 April 1799; d. East Melbourne, Vic, 8 Oct 1894). Anglican clergyman.

The youngest son of Sir John Macartney, baronet and his wife Catherine, second daughter of Walter Hussey Burgh, H B Macartney was educated privately and at TCD (BA 1821, DD 1847). He was ordained deacon 21 Sept 1822, priest 14 Sept 1823. He married Jane, daughter of Edward and Rebecca Hardman on 7 March 1833. After serving curacies in Ireland he accompanied Bp Perry (q.v.) on his first journey to Melbourne, arriving there on 24 Jan 1848. Appointed archdeacon of Melbourne and Geelong the same year he supervised the opening of a number of churches and schools in his area. In 1851 he became dean of Melbourne and incumbent of St James' Cathedral church.

Macartney administered the diocese of Melbourne in 1855-6, 1863-4 and 1874-7 in the absence of Bp Perry. He refused nomination as bp of Melbourne when Perry resigned in 1876, and also administered the diocese during the interregnum between Bps Moorhouse and Goe. He represented the diocese of Melbourne at every General Synod until 1886 and was active in the founding of St Paul's Cathedral. He supervised the work of the deacons and lay readers for thirty years.

Macartney died at East Melbourne on 8 Oct 1894. He was predeceased by his wife and two daughters but survived by three daughters and three sons, one (q.v.) named after his father. Macartney was a staunch evangelical and a protestant in full sympathy with the Orangemen of Ulster. He supported Bp Perry in every way in the founding of the diocese of Melbourne. He also was very conscious of the missionary obligations of the church, and though in his 94th year, was the chairman of the inaugural meeting of the Victorian CMA committee in 1892. At this meeting he declared that he was two days older than the CMS itself which had been founded in London on 12 April 1799.

Macartney wrote a number of books and pamphlets in Ireland, and those published in Melbourne included The Antichrist (1854), Education in Victoria for the Future (1860), Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister (1872), Spiritism (1872), Notes on the Book of Revelation (1894).

Bp Goe paid tribute to him at the Church Assembly of Sept 1895, saying, 'He possessed all the attributes of his countrymen—the quickness, the wit, the telling anecdote, the readiness of reply, the facility of speech, rising on occasion to eloquence; and all these found a happy exercise in the debates of this House, while at the same time to glorify God was manifest throughout'.

Melbourne Church Records

KEITH COLE