Charles Perry (bishop) - Clerical Career and To Australia

Clerical Career and To Australia

While at Cambridge Perry was ordained deacon on 16 June 1833 and a priest on 26 November 1836 by the bishop of Ely. Perry purchased the Advowson of the living of Barnwell, vested the patronage in trustees and secured the erection of two churches. Of one of these, St Paul's, Perry became the first vicar in 1842, and five years later was appointed the first bishop of Melbourne. He sailed on the Stag on 6 October 1847 and arrived in Port Phillip District (later Victoria) on 23 January 1848. Perry discovered that there was one over-burdened clergyman in Melbourne, and one each at Geelong and Portland. Perry had brought three clergymen with him, and there were threelay readers, thus making with the bishop a total of nine persons to minister to a district as large as Great Britain. Bishop Broughton of Sydney had given up £500 a year towards the stipend of the new bishop, but there were no diocesan funds, and the whole organization of the diocese had to be worked out and built up. The government offered the bishop two acres (0.8 hectare) of land for a site for his house a little more than a mile from the post office, or alternatively five acres farther out, and set aside £2000 for the building of a house. Perry decided it would be better to be within easy walking distance of the city. His house, however, was not completed until 1853.

In July 1851 Victoria was constituted a separate colony distinct from New South Wales, and a few weeks later the discovery of gold leading to the Victorian gold rush resulted an enormous influx of population. Perry had succeeded in obtaining about £10,000 for the organization of his diocese from societies and friends in England, however there was little prospect of receiving substantial amounts in the future. Several new churches and schools had been built, and the number of clergy had more than trebled. It was, however, difficult to obtain additional clergy, and the cost of building for a time was exceedingly high during the gold rush era. Perry visited the goldfields and in the meanwhile made what arrangements he could. Another problem was the framing of a constitution for the Church of England in Victoria. In this he had the valuable assistance of (Sir) William Foster Stawell. A bill was prepared and brought before the Victorian Legislative Council and eventually passed. But there had been some determined opposition to it, and it was known that a petition had been sent to England praying that the royal assent should not be given. Perry was therefore sent to London in 1855 to be able to answer any objections that might be made, and though difficulties were encountered, the assent was eventually given, and Perry returned to Melbourne in April 1856. Whilst in England Perry chose a headmaster for the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, Dr J. Bromby was eventually appointed. On 30 July 1856 the foundation-stone of the school building was laid, and less than a year later the new buildings for the Geelong Church of England Grammar School, established in 1855, was also begun. In 1863 Perry again visited England principally to arrange for clergy to come to his diocese, but it was strongly felt that it would be necessary to provide better for the training of their own clergy in Victoria. On 10 January 1870 Perry laid the foundationstone of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, but it was not until Alexander Leeper was appointed warden in 1876 that the college made a fair start. Since then several Australian bishops and many clergy have been among its old students.