author
Richard Johnson
1755–1827
Best known as the first Christian cleric in Australia, he served as chaplain to the early New South Wales colony and wrote directly for its settlers and convicts. His surviving work offers a rare, personal glimpse of moral and religious life at the very start of European settlement there.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Yorkshire in the mid-1750s, Richard Johnson studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was ordained in the Church of England. He was appointed chaplain to the new colony of New South Wales and sailed with the First Fleet, arriving in 1788.
Johnson became a central religious figure in the struggling early settlement. Alongside pastoral work, he is remembered for preaching, teaching, and writing for the colony, including An Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies, Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island, a work aimed especially at settlers and convicts.
He remained in New South Wales until 1800 before returning to England, but his name stayed closely tied to the beginnings of organized Christian ministry in Australia. Today he is remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a historically important voice whose writing opens a window onto the colony's earliest years.