George Fife Angas

George Fife Angas (Angus) (1789-1878), along with his brother John Lindsey Angas (1776-1861) and John’s wife, Mary (1775-1850), were all members of the Baptist church at Tuthill Stairs, Newcastle, where John served for many years as a deacon. Richard Pengilly arrived as pastor in 1807, the same year George Angas organized the church’s first Sunday school. A lifetime supporter of the BMS and other evangelical missionary societies, George moved to London in 1832 and was instrumental in the founding of the Colony of South Australia, serving as a initial director for both the South Australian Company and the South Australian Bank. He eventually emigrated to South Australia in 1851. Another George Angus (1725-1815) served as a deacon in the church at Hamsterley/Rowley, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, for many years. He farmed at Styford, on the north side of the Tyne, near Hexham; late in life he retired to Broomley, at which time his son-in-law, John Angus, took over the farm. These Anguses were relations of Joseph Angus, BMS secretary, as well as William Henry Angus (d. 1832), who served as a missionary with the BMS in the 1820s to seamen in seaports throughout Europe. See Walter D. Potts, “A Record of the Baptist Sunday School, Founded at Tuthill Stairs, Newcastle, April, 1807,” in Souvenir of the Sunday School Centenary Celebration 1807-1907 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Newcastle and Gateshead Baptist Council, 1907) 7; Angus Watson, The Angus Clan (Years 1588 to 1950) (Gateshead: Angus Watson, 1955) 93-106; John Bradburn, The History of Bewick Street Baptist Church (Newcastle-on-Tyne: n.p., 1883) 8; Richard Pengilly, with Henry Angus Wilkinson, “The Pedigree of the Angus Family” (MS., Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford); J. D. Bollen, “English-Australian Baptist Relations 1830-1860,” Baptist Quarterly 25 (1973-1974): 303-304, n. 63; David Douglass, History of the Baptist Churches in the North of England, from 1648 to 1845 (London: Houlston and Stoneman, 1846), 258-259, 272, 277-279.