Henry Tarlton STILES

STILES, HENRY TARLTON (b. Bristol, Gloucs, England, 24 June 1808; d. Windsor, NSW, 22 June 1867). Anglican clergyman.

Henry was the son of Carter, schoolmaster, and Sarah Ann Stiles. He had early ambitions for an army career but, instead, went to the CMS college, Islington, for missionary training. A firm evangelical, he had friends among the leaders of the party and, for a time, was tutor in James Stephen's household. Poor health precluded mission work and Henry was ordained in 1832-3 for service in NSW.

Initially appointed to the charge of the Orphan School, Stiles became minister of Windsor in 1833. He remained at this small country town, forty miles from Sydney, until his death in 1867. Like most of his generation of colonial clergy, Henry was an evangelical. The aged Samuel Marsden (q.v.), the senior chaplain, was his mentor and, indeed, died in Stiles' parsonage. Gradually, Stiles came under the influence of the High Church Bishop Broughton. While never a Tractarian, he became a strong upholder of the rights of the Church. The local Methodists incurred his displeasure. The renewal of the evangelical party under Bp Barker (q.v.) isolated Stiles, who henceforward played little part in diocesan affairs. By his wife Jane, née Hale, Henry had a son, George, who was an outspoken High Church clergyman. Stiles' curate and son-in-law, Charles Garnsey, was Sydney's leading Ritualist in the next generation.

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