In a 2016 post I wrote that the first revival in Australia occurred in Wesley Hall in Melville Street, Hobart, in 1834. I have now learned that an earlier revival began in Launceston in 1832. Little information about this revival has survived, but like many Australian revivals, it was led by the Methodists.
The first Methodist attempt to establish a presence in Launceston was unsuccessful. In 1826 a Methodist chapel was built in Cameron Street, but they could not find a minister and it closed in 1828. The building was sold to the government. The money was used to build a Presbyterian church.
In their history of evangelicals in Australia, Stuart Piggin and Robert Linder referred to a revival in early Launceston, “There were Wesleyans aplenty, including Francis French, a farmer from Cornwall, who in 1832 preached up revival under the trees at Windmill Hill, East Launceston.” (Stuart Piggin and Robert Linder, The Fountain of Public Prosperity, Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740-1914, Monash University Press, Melbourne, 2018, p. 219)
French appeared to be following in the footsteps of Methodism’s founder John Wesley by preaching in the open, not in a church building. His ministry has been described as a revival which in 1832 predates any other recorded revival in Australia (see Stuart Piggin, The History of Revival in Australia in Mark Hutchinson and Edmund (editors), Re-Visioning Australian Colonial Christianity, New Essays in the Australian Christian Experience 1788-1900, Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity, Sydney, 1994). It was apparently Australia’s first revival. French appears to have laid the foundation for the future Methodist mission in Launceston. Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about his ministry.
Books on the history of Methodism in Tasmania devote about a sentence to Francis French’s preaching (C.C. Dugan, A Century of Tasmanian Methodism 1820-1920, Tasmanian Methodist Assembly, Hobart, 1920, p. 57, C.C. Dugan, The Story of the Paterson Methodist Church, Trustees of the Church, Launceston, 1932, p. 5, K.J. Heazlewood, Early Methodism in Northern Tasmania, 1970(?), p.1, R.D. Pretyman, A Chronicle of Methodism in Van Diemen’s Land, Aldersgate Press, Melbourne, 1970, p. 88, M.E.J. Stansall, Tasmanian Methodism 1820-1975, Methodist Church of Australiasia, Launceston, 1975, p. 39)
The history of the French and Badcock families, Go…Be Fruitful and Multiply, says that Francis French was born in Cornwall in 1791. Francis and his wife Mary arrived in Hobart Town in 1831 and moved to Launceston. They lived in York Street (Go… Be Fruitful and Multiply, A History of the Francis French, John Badcock and Edward French Families and Their Descendants from the Late Eighteenth Century to 1989, French and Badcock Family Book Committee, 1989, p 25). It says he preached at the “foot of Windmill Hill” and “It is said that his listeners used wooden blocks for seats. A grandson of Francis French, Roland French, said that when he was preaching at the Baptist Church at Deloraine, an old man came to him and told him how as a young man he had helped set up those wooden blocks for Francis French.” (p. 26)
French moved to Longford and became a farmer. In 1834 John Allen Manton (1807-1864), who had previously served as a Methodist chaplain in Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur, arrived in Launceston.
In letters, which were printed in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, Manton described a revival among the Methodists in Launceston. It is not clear whether this was a continuation of the revival which began under Francis French or a second revival. In a letter, dated June 3, 1835, John Manton wrote,
“It is with heartfelt praise that I report the state of religion on this town. I am truly thankful to my gracious God for what my eyes see, from day to day. A spirit of hearing the word of God prevails among the people to a degree never known before. They flock to the house of prayer, but many seek admittance n vain. Our temporary chapel is so small that, when the people are crowded in, it will not contain more than three hundred persons: many stand outside, and many go away not able to get in, and not willing or not able to stand without. We, however, look forward with pleasure to the day when our commodious chapel, which is now erecting, shall be opened to the glory of God; and we fully anticipate its being filled with attentive hearers.” (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, Ser. 3, Vol. 15, No. 247, p. 227)
The population of Launceston was between 3000 and 4000 at this time, which means about 10% of the population attended or tried to attend these meetings.
The evidence is meager, but the “temporary chapel”, in which Manton says the revival occurred, seems to have been the original Methodist chapel which had been sold in 1828. K.J. Heazlewood writes, “Until the church[in Paterson Street] was built, the Methodists had use of the building they had sold to the government some years earlier” (Early Methodism in Northern Tasmania, p. 2) (see also A Chronicle of Methodism in Van Diemen’s Land, p 88) While the first Methodist attempts in Launceston had appeared to end in failure, it became the location for a revival (Isaiah 55:11).
In December 1835, the new Methodist chapel in Paterson Street was opened. The revival continued there. In a letter, dated February 25, 1836, Manton wrote,
“It will not fail to give you pleasure to hear the Lord is graciously prospering his work in this station. Many who a short time ago were enemies to God by wicked works are now the willing, devoted and faithful sons and daughters of the Most High, being turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Truly are their “blasphemies turned to praise”…. On the last Saturday evening, in particular, we experienced such a baptism of the Holy Spirit as we never had before. We were so overwhelmed with the divine presence, that our prayers were turned to praise; towards the conclusion of the evening we could do nothing but praise the Lord. I have reason to believe that the greater part of the society is feeling the influence of this revival: and we steadfastly resolve not to rest until sinners are brought to God, and our borders have become greatly enlarged.” (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, Ser. 3, Vol. 15, No. 905, p. 869)
Manton left Launceston around 1827. In 1855 he became headmaster of Horton College, a Methodist boys school near Ross, Tasmania, and in 1863 he became president of Newington College in New South Wales. He died in 1864.
In 1841-42 the first Holy Trinity Church (Anglican) was built next to the old Methodist chapel. The photo below from Cemeteries & Churches & Things was taken from Windmill Hill in the 1860s. It shows the old Holy Trinity Church on the corner of George and Cameron Streets, next to the former Methodist chapel on Cameron Street. In History of Holy Trinity Chruch, J. G. Branagan describes it as “a somewhat decrepit old building.” (J.G. Brangan, History of Holy Trinity Chruch, Regal Publications, Launceston, n.d., p. 2)
In the late 1890s both buildings were demolished and the new Holy Trinity Church was built on the location of the old Methodist chapel.
Francis French died in 1850 and was buried in the Longford Christ Church cemetery. In 1831 his daughter married John Badcock. Some of their descendants still live in the northern Midlands of Tasmania.
Stuart Piggin and Robert Linder have described nineteenth-century Launceston as a “Bible belt” (The Fountain of Public Prosperity, p. 218) and an “evangelical stronghold”(p. 219). The large number of churches (and buildings which used to be churches) in inner Launceston show there was once a much stronger evangelical presence than today. It was not just the Methodists, other denominations, such as the Baptists and Congregationalists, also contributed to Launceston’s evangelical heritage, but Francis French’s founding contribution has been largely forgotten.
Malcolm Nicholson 