The Folk from the Wind Wound Isle > Chapter 13 : The Robertsons and Christianity
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The influence of religion and a fundamental Christian belief on the Robertson family will be obvious from what I have already written about their lives. The origins of this influence preceded their arrival in Australia. In the ‘Centenary History of the Port Campbell Baptist Church’ we are told that Margaret and Arthur and their daughters “had been converted under the preaching of the Haldane Brothers, Independent (Congregational) evangelists who had conducted missions throughout the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Isles”. 1 And several sources relate that Margaret Henderson’s brothers were preachers in Shetland.
A great deal has been written by various family members about the religious side of the family’s life, and there can be no doubting the faith and passion of these writers about the important role Christianity has played in the lives of the family. At the same time, for me as a recorder of events, it is sometimes difficult to sort out the rhetoric and flowery language used, from the reality of what actually took place.
On visiting the Port Campbell area for the first time and deciding this was the place the family might settle, Arthur is said to have “knelt ... and covenanted with his Calvanist God for an inheritance of land for all of his family”. 2 It would seem however, that although Arthur and Margaret continued their religious observance after arriving in Australia and Port Campbell, the boys of the family were not much interested. Frances Saunders writes, “Grandmother’s sons were approaching manhood and were still without God and without hope. Theirs was the life of the soil and of the saddle and the spur - when a thirty mile ride on horse back was only an added joy, if it brought them to young people’s gatherings where they could sing and dance and play the fiddle. Only the dawn brought them home from these nights of wild delusion.” 3 Seems young people have not changed much in a hundred and thirty years!
In a previous section I mention that Arthur Snr and James may have had an association with the Wesleyan Church in Derrinallum and Agnes was married there by a Wesleyan minister. James was married according to the rites of the Church of Scotland. With a scarcity of ordained ministers and places of worship in new settlements, it was probably a case of using whatever facilities and whichever authorized marriage celebrants were available. Different Protestant sects often shared the same building. This occurred in Port Campbell when the Union Church was built in 1879, and shared by Presbyterians, Anglicans and Baptists. The Union Church stood on the McKay property some 5 km inland from the coast. It has long since disappeared.
Before the Union Church was built, religious services were held in the parlour of the ‘old stone house’, “usually conducted by Mr Robertson [Arthur Snr], sometimes by the Missionary, whose circuit extended from Cudgee throughout the forest”. 4 There are slightly differing versions, which tell us about ‘the Christian Revival’ at Port Campbell in 1874, and the building of the Baptist church there. Robert gives his account of the Revival in the booklet he wrote in 1937. Probably the order of events and who did what is not as important as is the effect the revival had on the lives of those involved. Early converts included the Robertson’s neighbours, Mr and Mrs John Henderson, and Mr and Mrs Hector McIntyre, along with James, Robert and William Robertson and James and Robert’s wives, Frances and Molly. Frances Saunders gives an account of her father James’ conversion and also of how Robert overheard his mother praying for him. 5 Robert speaks devotedly of his mother’s faith and her pleasure at her sons’ conversions.
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Music was an important part of the family’s religious observance. Robert writes, “All the family were musical and made family worship very pleasant. The four parts of music were very common at family prayer which was of a very simple form. A portion of Scripture was read, a hymn, psalm or paraphrase was sung, and then we all kneeled down and father led prayer. If he was absent, mother prayed. The prayer was brief and pointed, and extempore, I do not remember a prayer read or merely repeated in my father’s house.” 7
Seems not everyone was convinced of Arthur Snr’s Christian devotion. The Rev W McIntyre is reported as claiming, ‘Arthur Robertson is no Christian, he goes down the hall playing ‘Kathleen’.’ This same Rev McIntyre when preaching one day, stopped to admonish some of the boys in the group stating, ‘One of these days you boys gunna wake up and find yourselves dead.’ 8
The Port Campbell Baptist Church was constituted at a meeting held in the senior Robertson’s house on the 17 December 1884. Present at this meeting were the Rev S Chapman from Melbourne and the Rev A Steele from Warnambool. Members of the new church are recorded as James, Robert and William Robertson, James' wife Frances, two of his sons, John and Frederick, and Henry Buzzard. 9 I find it interesting that the names of Arthur Robertson Snr and Margaret Henderson are not recorded as members of the new church either then or later. We must assume they remained faithful to their Calvanist associations.
In his 1937 booklet, Robert takes credit for initiating and raising funds to build the Baptist Church on land near the cemetery donated by his brother William. Robert states however, “if it had not been for the cool, wise counsel of Mrs Robertson [his wife] I doubt even now if the Church could have been built”. The church building was completed in 1886 and the Jubilee programme tells
Port Campbell Baptist Church, on its original site near the cemetery
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us it cost £90 and had seating for 80 people. In following years other members of the Robertson family joined the church. The names of Agnes and Michael McCue and their daughter Barbara are listed, as is Robert’s wife Molly, Arthur Jnr and his wife Margaret and daughter, Mime. We also find the names Magilton, Le Couteur, Mathieson and Ward - families that would be linked to the Robertsons by marriage. Margaret and George Chiselett’s names are noticeably absent, but Margaret’s son Arthur Chislett is listed.
The church building was eventually moved from its original site near the cemetery and is now part of the Baptist complex in the Port Campbell township.
Although the early membership of the church was never more than forty-five, the Baptist community at Port Campbell produced fourteen ministers, eleven of whom were descendants of Margaret Henderson and Arthur Robertson.9 James, Arthur, Robert and William Adie all became evangelists and/or home missionaries. In the next generation, three of Robert’s sons, Robert, Joshua and George, became ministers of religion, as did Agnes’ son, John Robertson (Jack) McCue, and her grandson, Arthur Crouch. James eldest daughter, Frances, married a Baptist Minister (Henry Ebenezar Saunders) and their eldest son, Henry McNeil Saunders, was also a minister. William Adie’s daughter, Agnes Adie, married the Rev Henry Roy Samuel Tunks. Ministers and lay preachers continue to appear down the family line as family members or their spouses.
Robert Robertson and Jack McCue were both well known during their lifetimes. Robert with his travelling evangelism, his tent missions and eloquent preaching, touched the lives of many people. Jack McCue was known for his temperance campaigning. His willingness to ‘take on’ the establishment often attracted the attention of the media.
Biographical material, religious tracts, hymns and poems written by family members attest to their Christian faith. Some of these are presented in the Appendix 5. Christianity continues to be a guiding influence in the lives of many Robertson descendants, although the churches they belong to are not necessarily Baptist.
There are other descendants who do not profess a Christian belief or have moved away from organized religion. What I find interesting about many of these people is the way they demonstrate the same energy and the same passion for whatever cause it is they espouse, as our forebears had for Christianity. There is plenty of evidence among family members of a strong social conscience and a desire to make the world a better place, although the path chosen to achieve this may be different in the diverse descendants of Margaret Henderson and Arthur Robertson.
1 J. McCue, ‘Port Campbell Baptist Church - History'
2 Ibid
3 F. Saunders, ‘My Grandmother’s Prayer’
4 Port Campbell Baptist Church Jubilee - Souvenir Programme’, author unnamed
5 F. Saunders, My Grandmother’s Prayer - The story of my fathers’ conversion’
6 R. Robertson, ‘The Port Campbell Revival’
7 Marjorie Mathieson, 8.2.99
8 ‘Port Campbell Baptist Church Jubilee Programme’
9 Newspaper cutting, dated 6.5.1961. The article is under the heading ‘In the Churches’ and marks Jack McCue’s 80th birthday. The name of the newspaper is unknown.
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