Samuel Marsden


Book Description

Reverend Samuel Marsden - 'the flogging parson' - is reviled in Australia's colonial story yet is revered in New Zealand and indeed accorded saintly status. Marsden left England for New South Wales in 1793. The young Anglican parson was appointed to the parish of Parramatta and quickly acquired land and wealth in the convict colony. He was appointed a magistrate in 1796; however, his reputation plummeted as his cruelty and harsh sentences became the stuff of legend. He was removed from the magistracy twice, by Governor Macquarie in 1818 and by Governor Brisbane in 1822. Marsden was the first missionary to New Zealand, visiting seven times between 1814 - when he established its first mission, in the Bay of Islands - and 1837. He is often referred to in New Zealand as 'the Apostle of New Zealand' and 'the Apostle to the Maoris'. Quinn examines the extraordinary divergence of views between the two countries, drawing on a wealth of material on the man, the times and places to explain them. Finding wide gaps in the research on Marsden's role and influence, he argues that his status in New Zealand rests on untested assumptions of goodness, piety and disinterest.




The World, the Flesh and the Devil


Book Description

New Zealanders know Samuel Marsden as the founder of the missions that brought Christianity (and perhaps sheep) to New Zealand. Australians know him as 'the flogging parson' who established large landholdings and was dismissed from his position as magistrate for exceeding his jurisdiction. English readers know of Marsden for his key role in the history of missions and empire. In this major biography spanning research, and the subject's life, across England, New South Wales and New Zealand, Andrew Sharp tells the story of Marsden's life from the inside. Sharp focuses on revealing the powerful evangelical lens through which Marsden understood the world. By diving deeply into key moments - the voyage out, the disputes with Macquarie, the founding of missions - Sharp gets us to reimagine the world as Marsden saw it: always under threat from the Prince of Darkness, in need of 'a bold reprover of vice', a world written in the words of the King James Bible. Sharp takes us back into the nineteenth-century world, and an evangelical mind, to reveal the past as truly a foreign country




Horsemen of the First Frontier (1788-1900) and the Serpent's Legacy


Book Description

An economic and social history of early New South Wales, told through the life stories of pioneer 19th century horsemen. Traces the origin and development of the horse in Australia and a special tribute to Australia's internationally acclaimed thoroughbred expert C. Bruce Lowe.










Famous Wisconsin Artists and Architects


Book Description

- This book profiles well-known artists and architects as well as lesser known off-beat characters.







Samuel Marsden


Book Description

Biography of one of the outstanding characters of Australia's earliest days, showing us Marsden in all his strengths and weaknesses and in his many roles, including valiant missionary in New Zealand and the Pacific, improving farmer, assiduous parson, stern magistrate and meddler in politics.




Evangelists of Empire?


Book Description

Utilising a range of source material and a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, this ground-breaking collection offers the reader new ways of assessing the uneven paths of mission endeavours, and examines the ways in which Indigenous peoples responded to -- and took ownership of -- aspects of Christian and Western culture and spirituality.




The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden


Book Description

At age twelve, grave robber Thomas Marsden discovers a boy who looks just like him in an unmarked grave and begins a journey of discovery as he learns of faeries trapped in London and their hope that he can return them to their realm.