Tranmere and
Clarence Plains
Land and Coast Care

More information 

 

Housing for the clergyman

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In 1855 a decision was made to provide a house for the clergyman of the district, his present house having been sold, and no others were available in the neighbourhood. A stone parsonage was built on the northern side of St Matthew's church for the incumbent minister, Robert Wilson, in about 1857 on land bought from the adjoining landowner, George Stokell of Rokeby House. It is no longer standing.

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A later parsonage was built on St Matthew's Glebe, about where the Grace Centre is today. The two-storey weatherboard building contained eight rooms. The upstairs servant’s room could only be accessed by a steep external ladder! It was sold in 1904 when Bellerive was made the centre of the Parish. It was a private residence known as the 'Pines’ when it was destroyed by bushfires in 1967.

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Which glebe was that?

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The glebes in colonial Tasmania supplemented the income of clergy in the local parish through rents and/or the sale of agricultural produce.

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One of the first grants made by the colonial authorities in the surrounding valley was 400 acres set aside in 1808 for a glebe for the Colonial Chaplain.  The grant was located roughly in the area where Glebe Hill is today.  It provided a stipend for the incumbent of the church that became Hobart’s Anglican Cathedral, and was known as the Chaplain’s Glebe or St David’s Glebe.   

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The glebe intended to provide the income for clergymen at St Matthew's Church in Rokeby was ten acres. It was located directly behind the cemetery.  It was formally approved by the Lieutenant Governor in 1840, a year or two before the church was built.

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The Bishop's Glebe was established in New Town when the first bishop arrived in Hobart a few years later in 1843, and it is this area that is known today as the Glebe. 

Links to more information on other websites

 

The Story of Mary Mack and her Daughter Elizabeth Mary Mack by W. H. Hudspeth 1949

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St Matthews Organ

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The Reverend Robert Knopwood

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Directions to next sign

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Turn left from St Matthew's Church and proceed along North Parade, turning right into Church Street and Life on the Green will be on your left hand side, just before the intersection.