Journal of Australian Colonial History: Book Reviews
Vol. 11, 2009
Peter G. Bolt, Thomas Moore of Liverpool: One of our Oldest Colonists. Essays and Addresses to celebrate 150 years of Moore College, Bolt Publishing Services Pty Ltd, Camperdown, Sydney, 2007, ISBN 9780980357912 hbk, 328 pp., with indices; $A44.00 paperback; $22.00 e-version; $71.50 limited edition.
This book is intended to be the first volume in a new series entitled Studies in Australian Colonial History, which promises 'to bring to light aspects of the earliest period of the history of Colonial Australia, as revealed by careful examination of the relevant primary sources'. The book consists of a series of ten published essays, addresses, sermons and after-dinner speeches, relating to the life and times of Thomas Moore, who died in December 1840 at Liverpool (NSW). Moore left his considerable estate to the newly formed Bishopric of Australia, wanting the funds used to help educate men for the ministry of the Church of England. Each chapter in the book has been written or delivered by Peter G. Bolt, who for over twenty years has been a member of the staff of Moore College, the theological college of the diocese of Sydney.
Bolt is to be commended for his labours in searching out material relating to Moore's life. There are revealing chapters on Moore's ancestry, on his career as a boat builder and purveyor of timber for boat building, on his contribution to the introduction of merino sheep, as a magistrate at Liverpool and as an autodidact putting together a library of theological and other works in his later years. However, primary sources for a life of Moore remain scarce or at best peripheral. Many have already been revealed in (Bishop) Donald Robinson's well-judged 1970 article. Hence in this work, what primary sources survive have been repeated from one chapter to another, so that the reader is left with the impression that Bolt has created an industry out of Thomas Moore.
Two observations can be made about Moore's benefaction. Moore died childless. He outlived all his close relations and chose to ignore the claims of relatives in the north of England. His stepson Andrew White, of whom he was very fond, died in 1837 and his wife Rachel née Turner, died in 1838. When Thomas drew up his last will and testament, therefore, he was able to dispose of his entire estate as an entity. This is a relatively rare circumstance. The second observation is this. Moore's benefaction was made to the bishopric of Australia, created in 1836. That bishopric was first divided in 1847 and many more times since. When Moore College moved to Newtown in 1891 and proposals were considered for the sale of the real estate at Liverpool, other dioceses beyond Sydney laid claim to some portion of the estate. Dr Bolt appears to have ignored this disagreement, although the disposal of the Liverpool lands is considered at length in Marcus Loane's A Centenary History of Moore Theological College (1956).
The book is, in effect, self-published. An experienced copy editor and proof-reader could have eliminated many of the errors of syntax, infelicities of expression and inconsistencies in the spelling of surnames (for example, that of John Macarthur). Such an editor might also have made proper use of the apostrophe of possession. Except in primary sources, persons long since departed this life are never referred to as 'Mr' or 'Mrs' (for example, 'Mr Kerrison James', pp. 115, 235); the names of clergymen are always prefaced by the definite article and their Christian names, as well as the title 'Reverend' (for example, by the Reverend John Duffus, p. 20, not 'by Rev. John Duffus'). The terms 'Anglican' as distinct from 'Church of England', 'colony' and 'New South Wales' as distinct from 'Australia', 'international' as distinct from 'imperial', are employed with little understanding of the chronology of Australian history. An historian well versed in Australian history would assess rather differently than Dr Bolt has done, some of the outdated secondary material he has consulted. This reviewer hopes that more care will be taken with the texts of subsequent contributions to the series. Overall, this is an interesting compilation, but its scholarship and English expression deserve more attention.
Ruth Frappell
Citation: Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 9, 2009, pp. 216-17.