St Wilfrid's Theological College, Cressy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
41°36′57″S 146°58′36″E / 41.615799°S 146.976618°E
St Wilfrid's Theological College was an Australian educational institution in Bishopsbourne, Tasmania, established in 1904 and which closed in 1929. It trained candidates for ordination in the Church of England in Australia (as the Anglican Church of Australia was then called). Its history is closely tied up with that of Christ College, but it was a separate institution from either the first (1846) or second (1929) foundations of the latter.
The first Bishop of Tasmania (then still called Van Diemen's Land) was Francis Nixon, who was appointed in 1842 and arrived in the colony the following year. In 1845 Nixon purchased 1,218 acres at Bishopsbourne in the Tasmanian Midlands for use a college. Nixon's intention was that the college would develop along the lines of an Oxbridge college, and thereby provide the basis for university education in Tasmania, and also to be a theological college. The Hutchins School in Hobart and Launceston Grammar School were established at the same time, in order to act as feeder schools.[1] The result was Christ's College (with a possessive 's'). This college, however, was poorly managed, and closed in 1856.
St Wilfrid's (1904 foundation)
James Denton Toosey (1801-1883) was a pastoralist and businessman who first arrived in the colony in 1826. When the first Christ's College closed in 1856, Toosey was appointed a trustee, and under his care the institution's debts were discharged after 14 years.[2] On his death in 1883 he left bequests to enlarge Holy Trinity Church in Cressy, and to endow a theological college at his estate at Richmond Hill, Cressy, near to the site of the former college in Bishopsbourne.[3] It took 21 years for the theological college to open; when eventually it did, it was called St Wilfrid's.