Manuscript letter addressed to Ann Hurst, wife of Rev. Benjamin Hurst, Wesleyan minister at Bathurst, New South Wales. Sydney, January 1846.

Manuscript in ink, [3] pp quarto; headed ‘Sydney, January 16th 1846’, addressed ‘My dear Mrs. Hurst’, and signed at the foot ‘Yours in the bonds of the Cross, Jno. V. M. Weiss’; outer panel addressed to ‘Rev. Mr. Hurst, Wesleyan Minister, Bathurst / For Mrs. Hurst (too late)’, with fine ‘ ‘POST PAID/AT SYDNEY’ in red, rated “9” in ms. in red; original folds; small loss at one edge where the wax seal was broken (no significant loss of text); very clean and legible.

An unpublished item of correspondence between a Wesleyan missionary in Sydney, John Von Mangerhausen Weiss, and Ann Hurst, the wife of the newly appointed Wesleyan missionary at Bathurst, Benjamin Hurst. Weiss writes on behalf of his wife, Mary Ann (Ryan) Weiss, who is “indisposed”.

Benjamin Hurst (1811-1857), Wesleyan missionary, married Ann Ward at Hinckley, Leicestershire in 1837. In March 1838, in company with Ann, he arrived in Van Diemen’s Land before moving across to Port Phillip where he had been chosen to work among the Aborigines with fellow missionary Francis Tuckfield. In 1839-40 he was at the Buntingdale Mission Station in the Geelong-Colac area. He next worked at the Wesleyan Chapel in Collins Street, Melbourne before being posted to Sydney in August 1842, where he was based in Surrey Hills. His appointment as minister in Bathurst in early 1845 was met with some opposition from fellow Wesleyans, and the several years he served there with his wife Ann were not without controversy (see below) – although the comments in this letter would seem to contradict this fact. He spent the last period of his life as minister in Goulburn, where he died at the beginning of 1857. In 1866 his widow Ann would remarry: her second husband was Goulburn merchant John Caldwell. She lived out the remainder of her life in the township, dying there in 1886.

Wesleyan missionary John Von Mangerhausen Weiss was born in Liverpool, Lancashire. He served for many years a missionary in the Friendly Islands (Tonga) after his marriage to Mary Ann Ryan in Sydney in 1823. Their son referred to in this letter is William (“Willy”) Henry Weiss (1831-1895), who was educated at Sydney College (see https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/weiss-william-henry-28966). Around the time this letter was written, JVMW was residing with his family in Glebe, and was a Trustee of the Wesleyan Burial Ground that faced Devonshire Street in the centre of Sydney.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE LETTER:

‘My dear Mrs. Hurst,

The few lines you were kind enough to send in “William’s” letter proved very acceptable to Mrs. W. and but for indisposition she would have promptly replied to them. For your kind attentions to our Boy, we both of us tender you our warmest thanks, and nothing would have afforded us greater pleasure and satisfaction than our being able to have availed ourselves of your kind invitation feeling both of us assured Master Willy would have been greatly benefited thereby. We beg to congratulate both yourself and Mr Hurst on the very favourable reception you have met with in your present Circuit, and trust you will have the gratification of seeing the Work of the Lord prospering abundantly – we rejoice to know that you are both great favourites, which I need not tell you, so far as human agency extends, is a most material consideration. With respect to our last Bazaar, it went off on the whole far better than we had anticipated, but nevertheless there were several little disagreeables connected therewith, which has given we fear great, if not unpardonable offence to the Ladies – but the particulars I must leave for Mrs W. to relate, which I am sure she will most gladly do, when she finds herself able.

I must now tell you that having made arrangements with Mr Laughton at the Sydney College for William to go another Quarter as Boarder, we are thus prevented accepting your kind invitation for him, and have to request that you will be kind enough immediately after the receipt of this to urge upon him to come by the first conveyance as the College reopens on the 18th Inst. I have many things to say – but want of time precludes me – it being now near post time – & I was not aware of Mrs W.’s inability to write herself until after moments ago when I came in after having been out all day on Business.

With regard to the best things – I am sure both you and Mr. H. will rejoice to hear that we are still alive, I mean in the best sense, and many of us striving for all the “Mind that is in Christ”. This is our Class on Witnesses of Entire Sanctification – this puts me to shame – methinks I hear you say – & most deservedly too – to which I again subscribe Amen, Amen.

With our very affectionate regards to Mr Hurst & yourself. Believe me, yours in the bonds of the Cross,

PS. Please tell Mr Hughes I received his kind letter but have not time to reply thereto this post.’

BENJAMIN HURST IN BATHURST:

The following is an extract from a detailed summary of Benjamin Hurst’s years in Bathurst in Raymond H. Doust’s After one hundred years: the centenary of Methodism in Bathurst and the West of N.S.W. 1832-1932, [Bathurst, N.S.W. : R.H. Doust], 1932, pp. 33 ff.:

‘The Rev. Benjamin Hurst was appointed to Bathurst in 1845. On October 13th of that year he presided over the Quarterly Meeting, when a membership of 188 was reported. Mr. Hurst, however, was able to inform the District Meeting next year that despite a decrease in members the Society was in a flourishing state and that the Bathurst congregations had improved, every pew being let. The decreased membership is attributed to the “religious excitement which had previously prevailed,” but no account is available of this. From the Australian District Minutes for 1846 we find that Mr. Hurst further stated that a service had been commenced at Green Swamp, 12 miles from Bathurst on the Sydney road, and a society class formed. The circuit finances were in a very healthy condition. All expenses had been paid and a balance of £32/16/9 was in hand. The whole debt of the Bathurst Chapel and Mission House, amounting to £210, had been paid off, “principally through the princely liberality of old and long-tried friends, who subscribed the sum of £100 towards this object.” Mr. Hurst strongly expressed the opinion that there was ample work in the circuit for two ministers, and he believed that if a suitable man were appointed, the matter of his support would present little difficulty. Despite opposition to Mr. Hurst in some quarters, which had influenced several members and caused them to resign from the church, the work continued to prosper. Later opposition was to Mr. Hurst’s continuance in the Circuit for a fourth year. An anonymous pamphlet was distributed, reproducing a letter from the Bathurst “Advocate” attacking Mr. Hurst without naming him. Evidence of progress is seen in the fact that increased accommodation was required at Bathurst and the chapel was enlarged in 1847 from 40 x 30 to 63 x 30, thus providing for an additional 140 sittings. The cost of this was £300, but the response was so good that the whole debt after its completion was less than was on the church twelve months before. Additional revenue was received from pew rents, no less than 80 extra sittings having been let since the enlargement of the church. Sunday School work was being carried on successfully at Bathurst and Macquarie Plains. A class was formed and services begun at The Lagoon on the Campbell’s River in 1847….’