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The Rev. Samuel Marsden (born in Farsley in Yorkshire 25 June 1764, died Windsor, New South Wales 12 May 1838) was associated with the reformist William Wilberforce in England, was ordained in 1793, married Elisabeth Fristan, and then sailed to New South Wales, Australia. He arrived in Sydney on 10 March 1794, shortly after the birth of their first child, Anne. By 1795 he was settled in Parramatta, where he became Chaplain, wealthy landowner, farmer and magistrate.

History has remembered Marsden as the"Flogging Parson", because even by the standards of his day, he inflicted severe punishments.

This view is disputed in some circles as part of an anti-clerical writing of history.

This has been attributed to a dislike of Roman Catholics, and Irish.

Joseph Holt, an Irish priest and activist, left an account of a flogging ordered by Marsden:

"The place they flogged them their arms pulled around a large tree and their breasts squeezed against the trunk so the men had no power to cringe ... There was two floggers, Richard Rice and John Johnson the Hangman from Sydney. Rice was left-handed man and Johnson was right-handed, so they stood at each side, and I never saw two threshers in a barn move their strokes more handier than those two man-killers did. [...] I [Holt] was to the leeward of the floggers ... I was two perches from them. The flesh and skin blew in my face as it shook off the cats. Fitzgerald received his 300 lashes. Doctor Mason - I will never forget him - he used to go feel his pulse, and he smiled, and said: "This man will tire you before he will fail - Go on." ... During this time Fitzgerald was getting his punishment he never gave so much as a word - only one, and that was saying, "Don't strike me on the neck, flog me fair." When he was let loose, two of the constables went and took hold of him by the arms to keep him in the cart. I was standing by. [H]e said to them, "Let me go." He struck both of them with his elbows in the pit of the stomach and knocked them both down, and then stepped in the cart. I heard Dr. Mason say that man had enough strength to bear 200 more. Next was tied up Paddy Galvin, a young boy about 16 years of age. He was ordered to get 300 lashes. He got one hundred on the back, and you could see his backbone between his shoulder blades. Then the Doctor ordered him to get another hundred on on his bottom. He got it, and then his haunches were in such a jelly that the Doctor ordered him to be flogged on the calves of his legs. He got one hundred there and as much as a whimper he never gave. They asked him if he would tell where the pikes were hid. He said he did not know, and would not tell. "You may as well hang me now," he said, "for you never will get any music from me so." They put him in the cart and sent him to the Hospital."

According to Holt, two days later Marsden sent orders to the hospital that Gavin is to be sent immediately to work at the cyane pepper mill.

In 1809, he was the first to ship wool to England from Australia, and is believed to have introduced sheep to New Zealand where he has a gentler reputation.

The Anglican Mission to New Zealand

Marsden was a member of the Church Missionary Society and its New South Wales agent. New Zealand had been discovered in the 1640s but by the early 19th century, there had still been little contact between Māori and European, except through whalers and sealers. A small "outlaw" community of Europeans had formed in the Bay of Islands and Marsden was concerned they were corrupting the Māori, and became determined to found a mission station in New Zealand.

Marsen lobbied the Church Missionary Society successfully to send a mission to New Zealand. Lay missionaries John King, William Hall and Thomas Kendall were chosen in 1809, but it was not until 14 March 1814 that Marsden took his schooner, the “Active”, on an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands with Kendall and Hall, during which time he claimed to have conducted the first Christian service on New Zealand soil. He met Māori Rangatira, or chiefs from the iwi or tribe Ngapuhi, who controlled the region around the Bay of Islands, including a junior war leader of the Ngapuhi, Hongi Hika, who had helped pioneer the introduction of the musket to Māori warfare in the previous decade. Hongi Hika returned with them to Australia on 22 August.

At the end of the year Kendall Hall and King returned under Hongi Hika's protection to start a mission to the Ngapuhi. Hongi Hika also brought back a large number of firearms for his warriors. A mission station was founded with a base at Rangihoua Bay, later moved to Kerikeri, (where the mission house and stone store can still be seen), and ultimately a model farming village at Te Waimate. The mission would struggle on for a decade before attracting converts, in competition with Weslyan and Catholic missions. Thomas Kendall abandoned his wife for the daughter of a Māori tohunga or priest, also flirted with Māori religion as well as funding the mission in part through helping to arm Hongi Hika's Ngapuhi. For refusing to stop trading arms, Kendall was dismissed by the Church Missionary Society in 1822. Marsden, who knew of Kendall's affair, returned to New Zealand in August 1823 to sack him in person. Marsden later went to some trouble talking to all Australian printers to prevent Kendall from publishing a Māori grammar book, apparently largely out of spite.

Hongi Hika visited England, met King George IV and armed with the assistance of Kendall, rampaged across a large area of the North Island during the Musket Wars.

Despite this Marsden is generally remembered favourably in New Zealand, which he visited 7 times. The Anglican school, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in Kaori, Wellington and also (more recently) in Whitby, Porirua was named after Samuel Marsden.

In 1819 Samuel Marsden introduced winegrowing to New Zealand with the planting of the first vines, 100 different varieties in all in Kerikeri, Northland. "New Zealand promises to be very favourable to the vine as far as i can judge at present of the nature of the soil and climate," he wrote. Nearly two hundred years later, the New Zealand wine industry is at an all time high, and is especially praised for its Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

In Fiction

A portrait of Marsden based on Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore appears in Patrick O'Brian's book The Nutmeg of Consolation.

References

An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966. Entry on MARSDEN, Samuel

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