All Saints History Collection : Individual : Marcus Blake Brownrigg [P012]

Marcus Blake Brownrigg

Individual, P012

The Revd Marcus Blake Brownrigg (1835-1890)

Biography

The Reverend Canon Marcus Blake Brownrigg (1835- 1890)
Rector of St. John’s Church 1868 – 1887
Marcus Brownrigg was born at Mauritius on 23^rd July 1835, the eldest child of Captain Marcus Freeman Brownrigg, R.N. and Maria Caroline Brownrigg, formerly Blake. Captain Brownrigg was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1796. He married Maria Caroline, the daughter of Colonel Blake, at Cape Town, South Africa in 1834.
Marcus was educated at Stroud and the University of Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. He came to Australia with his family on 1^st Marc, 1856, and became one of the three foundation students at Moore Theological College, Sydney under William Cowper. He was made deacon on 19^th December 1858, by the Bishop of Sydney, who also made him priest on 21^st September 1860.
He married Georgina Shapcote, daughter of Commander Shapcote, R.N. to whom he had been engaged before he left England. He worked first in the Lachlan district of New South Wales in 1863, then moved to Albury in 1867 and then on to St. John’s Church, Ross, Tasmania. He was then inducted rector of St. John’s Launceston on 2^nd August 1868, and remained there for almost twenty years.
Marcus was a modest man with a fine physique and boundless energy. At St. John’s Church he re-organised the interior by doing away with the old ‘horse box’ pews and installing beautiful cedar pews. The pew rental system was relaxed and pews made open to all worshippers. He printed many of his Sunday addresses, drew up a liturgy with selected hymns for the “Public Services of the Young”. There is still in existence an unpublished manuscript, beautifully written and illustrated by him, on the Genesis account of the Creation.
In 1869 the Mechanics’ Institute elected Marcus as its president. He was an ardent supporter of the Temperance Movement and from 1869 onwards, The Examiner newspaper frequently reported his outspoken addresses.
Marcus became interested in the Mission to the people, especially those living on the Bass Strait Islands. This work had been started by the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, Bishop Nixon. Marcus made many trips to the Islands. His first in 1872 was in a small cutter called the ‘Freak’. As a result of his work he wrote a book “The Cruise of the Freak”. He made twelve subsequent trips and pamphlets concerning these were printed. In 188 and 1883, he sailed to the islands in a five and a half ton yawl he built himself in the grounds of St. John’s rectory. It is known that he also built at least two canoes and was always his own navigator.
He also made a study of astronomy and built a small observatory in the rectory grounds. In order that he might help his poorer parishioners, he studied homeopathy and ministered to their bodily ills. From his parents he inherited artistic skills and became an artist of considerable merit. His paintings were mostly of the sea, the forest and the bush; there is also an excellent painting of early Launceston, 1878.
He was made a canon of St. David’s Cathedral in 1878, by the then Bishop of Tasmania, Bishop C. H. Bromby.
In 1887 ill health forced him to retire from St. John’s Church and he and some of his family went to live first in Queensland, then in 1890 to New South Wales. He died at Redfern on 31^st July 1890.
Marcus and his wife, Georgina, had seven children, one of whom was Harold Blake.
Several years after Marcus Brownrigg’s death, the family erected a pulpit canopy in St. John’s Church as a memorial to their parents. The inscription carved on it reads:
A.M.D.G. AND IN MEMORY OF
THE REV. MARCUS BLAKE BROWNRIGG, M.A.
RECTOR OF THIS CHURCH FROM 1868 to 1886 AND HIS WIFE
(Extract from Engraved in Memory by J.S.Gill. 1988)

Related collection

Brownrigg Collection (is related to)

Related people

Sybil Mary Brownrigg (is related to)
Dorothy Edna Genders (is related to)

Online Sources

All Saints History Resources
https://resources.allsaints.network/memorials-1/#_Toc489043666
Australian Dictionary of Biography
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brownrigg-marcus-blake-3090