Samuel Edward MARSDEN

MARSDEN, SAMUEL EDWARD (b. O'Connell Plains, near Bathurst, NSW, 1 Feb 1832; d. Bristol, England, 15 Oct 1912). Anglican bishop.

The only son of Thomas Marsden, merchant, cousin of the Rev Samuel Marsden (q.v.) and Jane Catherine, the latter's fourth daughter, Samuel briefly attended The King's School, Parramatta, but c.1840 his widowed mother moved to Clifton, near Bristol. Samuel was tutored privately by the Rev W Knight, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1855; MA, 1858; DD, 1869). Ordained deacon in Dec 1855 and priest in 1856 by the latitudinarian R D Hampden, bp of Hereford, he served curacies at St Peter's, Hereford (1855) under the Rev J Venn and Lilleshall, Shropshire (1858); in 1861 his mother presented him to the perpetual curacy of Bengeworth, near Evesham, in the diocese of Worcester. In 1857-8 he wrote an unpublished biography of his grandfather and sought appointment as CMS secretary for Herefordshire.

In 1868, Bp Barker (q.v.) of Sydney recommended Marsden on the strength of his name, rather than on personal acquaintance, for the new inland see of Bathurst. Marsden was consecrated on 29 June 1869 in Westminster Abbey and on 26 Jan 1870 at Cheltenham, m. Beatrice, daughter of J C McLaren, merchant, banker and his father's former colonial partner. Installed in Bathurst in May 1870, Marsden relied initially upon Barker's counsel, modelling his diocesan Church Society (1871) and synod (1873) upon those of Sydney. Without pretence to scholarship, his evangelical views, plain sermons and personal generosity to an inadequately endowed diocese, pleased many local laymen. Like all pioneering bishops, he toured extensively, often in hazardous country and in spite of dermatitis.

His want of leadership and administrative skills, however, eventually made his diocese a 'by-word for division and trouble'; he himself was reputed a 'gossip and too much given to flattery', a judgement recorded many years later by F B Boyce (q.v.), who served in his dio. He was also thought to be overly influenced by his female relatives, especially his mother, who purchased 'Avonbank', Bathurst and who had been given grazing runs near Molong as a marriage portion. Marsden was overwhelmed by the size of his see, which in 1870 stretched to the Qld and SA borders. Within three years he lost the five clergymen who accompanied him in 1870, a tour in England in 1875-6 failed to recruit others and he was obliged to ordain local men, of inferior education. He quarrelled with successive incumbents of his cathedral, the Rev Thomas Smith (q.v.) and J T Marriott, made dean in 1882, who coveted the bishopric. Following the installation of Sydney Linton (q.v.) as bp of Riverina, Marsden agreed to resign; in Nov 1884, he sailed for England with his wife and family, leaving his diocese in charge of a vicar-general, whose authority Marriott publicly disputed. On 10 May 1885 his mother d. in Bathurst; Marsden returned alone, to escort his maiden sister to England and relinquish his see, still unequivocally evangelical. He undersold his private residence to the diocese as its bishopscourt.

Marsden settled at Clifton, where he purchased Dyrham Lodge and assisted C J Ellicott, bp of Gloucester and Bristol. He was made an honorary canon of Gloucester in 1900 and of Bristol in 1906 and contributed to the endowment of the bishopric of Sheffield. Predeceased by his wife in 1909, he was survived by two sons and two daughters. His elder son Edward McLaren, became vicar of Holy Trinity, Cheltenham in 1912.

F B Boyce, Fourscore years and seven (Sydney, 1934); Bathurst Times, 12 Feb 1890, 22 Oct 1912; S E Marsden papers (ML); R M Teale, 'By hook and by crook: the Anglican diocese of Bathurst, 1870-1911' (MA thesis, Sydney University, 1968)

RUTH TEALE