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History of Senate: 1849 - 1852

Photographs on this page are from the University of Sydney Archives, unless otherwise attributed.

1849

William Charles Wentworth advocated a university for Sydney in a speech to Parliament, 6 September 1849:
From the address given by the Chancellor, Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn, at the Ceremony held on 6 October 1950 to commemorate the passage of the Act Incorporating the University which received the Assent of the Governor on 1 October 1850:

... on 4th September, 1849, William Charles Wentworth presented a petition to the Legislative Council from a majority of the proprietors of the Sydney College praying for the adoption of a measure to convert the College into a University.

It may be interpolated here that the Sydney College, which functioned on the site where the Sydney Grammar School now stands, had been opened in 1835, but by 1849 had not proved as successful as had been anticipated.

Apparently the idea of taking over the College had not been well received, for two days later, on the 6th September, Mr. Wentworth moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the matters contained in the Petition and to report upon the best means of instituting a University for the promotion of Literature and Science, and to be endowed at the public expense. After this no further reference to the College appears in the discussion.

The Committee, whose names appear upon the programme in your hands, seem to have acted very expeditiously, for their report was presented a fortnight later - on the 21st of September. On the 4th October, 1849, Mr. Wentworth moved the Second Reading of the University Bill. It was seconded by James Macarthur; Alexander Berry, James Martin and Henry Dangar spoke in favour of it. This second reading was carried without a dissentient voice.

Outside the Legislature, however, the measure aroused a great deal of public opposition. This was based mainly on the secular character of the institution as planned, and on the composition of the proposed Senate.

It is of especial interest to us today to note that a number of petitions were presented protesting that the Colony - with a population of 187,000 - was not yet ready for a University.

Apparently the members of the Legislative Council refused to face the storm, for towards the end of the session the Bill lapsed through want of a quorum.

Wentworth and his committee were, however, not to be denied, and in August 1850 the Bill was reintroduced and on the 11th September the Second Reading was passed and when the Assent of the Governor was received on the 1st October, the University was finally established.

1850

An Act to Incorporate and Endow the University of Sydney:
The University was incorporated by an Act of the Legislature of New South Wales, the Act of Incorporation (pdf), on 1 October 1850 and was the first university to be established in Australasia. The University of Sydney was established in 1850 to promote useful knowledge and to encourage the residents of New South Wales to pursue a regular course of liberal education.

The Introduction to the first Calendar (1852-53) states:

'The government of the University is provided for by the appointment of a Senate of Sixteen Fellows (four of whom may be clergymen). A Provost and Vice-Provost are to be chosen by the fellows out of their own body. Vacancies in the Senate are to be filled up by the remaining fellows, until there are one hundred graduates entitled as Masters of Arts, &c, to vote, when the vacancies as they occur will be filled up by the graduates themselves, duly convened in convocation.'

'In addition to the entire management of the educational and financial affairs of the University, the Senate has power to make by-laws as to discipline, degrees, honours, &c, which when duly approved of by the Governor and Executive Council, have the force of law. It has also authority to confer the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, and Bachelor and Doctor of Laws and Medicine.'

Proclamation appointing the original Senate

A Proclamation by His Excellency Sir Charles Augustus Fitz Roy, Knight Companion of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Territory of New South Wales, dated 24 December 1850, announced the appointment of the original Senate. The Proclamation was published in the New South Wales Government Gazette dated 24 December 1850.

The original Gazette supplement 24 December 1850 appears below, University of Sydney Archives:

Gazette 1850

Original sixteen Fellows of Senate

The original sixteen Fellows of Senate were:

The Rev William Binnington Boyce
Edward Hamilton
The Hon. Francis Lewis Shaw Merewether
Sir Charles Nicholson
The Hon Sir Edward Deas Thomson
The Hon. William Charles Wentworth

1851

1st Meeting of Senate, 3 February 1851

The first meeting of Fellows of Senate took place in the Chambers of the Speaker of the Legislative Council on 3 February 1851 at 12 o’clock noon and was attended by; Boyce, Donaldson, Davis, Merewether, Nicholson, O’Brien, Plunkett, Purves, Therry, Deas-Thomson and Wentworth.

The main business of the meeting was to determine the agenda for the next meeting. The meeting was then adjourned until 3 March 1851.

Part of the original minutes of this first meeting appear below, University of Sydney Archives:

Page 1

From the speech by Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn at the Special Meeting of Senate held on 5 February 1951 to celebrate the centenary of the first Senate meeting, which provides detail about the sixteen original Fellows of Senate

Before adverting to the actual meeting of the Senate, some reference should, I think, be made to its constitution, which had been expressly provided for in the Act of Incorporation that was commemorated in the Great Hall in October of last year. As the Act made it obligatory that a Senate, to consist of 16 members, should be nominated within three months, the date of the Proclamation of the appointments was only just within the prescribed time. A copy of the Proclamation, with the list of appointments, appears on page five of your programmes.

To anyone at all familiar with the history of New South Wales in the middle of the last century the list is a most impressive one, and is an indication of the great importance His Excellency obviously attached to insuring that the new University would be established on sound foundations. On the list are the names of many of those who were playing the leading parts in the political and industrial life of the country at that vital period, when it was on the eve of passing from Dominion status to the stature of a virtually self-governing unit of the empire, and we can well believe that it was with considerable reluctance that some of them, so immersed in urgent national problems, shouldered new responsibilities.

It will surely be of interest to you, and it will at the same time be an appropriate mark of respect to those whose services we are commemorating, to briefly indicate the qualifications for selection of each person whose name appears on the list:

  • The Reverend William Binnington Boyce, a leader in the Wesleyan Church, was a noted linguist.
  • Edward Broadhurst, Q.C., the father of the New South Wales Bar, was a noted classical scholar.
  • John Bayley Darvall, M.A. (Cambridge), Q.C., afterwards K.C.M.G., was a member of the Legislative Council, and later Solicitor-General and Attorney General.
  • Stuart Alexander Donaldson, a leading merchant and a member of the Legislative Council, was destined to be the Premier of the first New South Wales ministry under responsible government in 1857.
  • The Right Reverend Charles Henry Davis was the Roman Catholic Bishop Coadjutor to Archbishop Polding.
  • Alfred Denison, B.A., was a distinguished private citizen.
  • Edward Hamilton, M.A., who had been fifth Wrangler at Cambridge, had pastoral interests and was soon elected as its first Provost.
  • James Macarthur was a member of the family so famous for their development of the pastoral industry. His descendants later added" Onslow" to their name.
  • Francis Lewis Shaw Merewether, B.A., was Auditor-General.
    Charles Nicholson, M.D., was Speaker of the Legislative Council and later created a Baronet.
  • Bartholomew O'Brien, M. D., was a practising doctor.
  • The Bon. John Hubert Plunkett, Q.C., was Attorney General.
  • The Reverend William Purves was a Presbyterian minister.
    His Honour Roger Therry, a member of the Irish Bar, was a judge in Port Phillip.
  • The Honourable Deas Thomson was Colonial Secretary, afterwards K.C.M.G., and Chancellor of the Universlty from 1865 to 1878.
  • William Charles Wentworth, M.A., needs no introduction.

As the list has been traversed it will not have passed unnoticed that on it are names of families conspicuous for the continuity of their national service since the clays of their founders.

Wentworths, Darvalls, Macarthur-Onslows, and Merewethers are well known to have many claims for public recognition other than their proud ancestry. It is not so well known that a grandson and great-grandson of the Reverend Boyce became professors of philosophy in Melbourne; that the eldest son of Sir Stuart Donaldson was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge Universitv; that another son was the first Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, while a third son became Sir Hay Donaldson, a famous engineer, who went down with Kitchener in the First Great War; also that the eldest son of Sir Charles Nicholson became a famous ecclesiastical architect, and that the present holder of the title is a noted musician.

From the same speech by Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn, which provides detail about the first meeting of Senate

It will be noted that the Speaker of the Legislative Council - Charles Nicholson - made his chambers available for the meeting, and it may be mentioned that the Senate meeting continued to be held there until the University went into temporary occupancy of the Sydney College - now the Sydney Grammar School - in the following year. It will probably have also been already noticed that there were only eleven Fellows present. Though this is rather surprising, it was quite possibly due to the realization that the business transacted at the first meeting would be more or less that of a planning committee, preparing a programme of business to be dealt with at the next meeting.

The business, however, was not all planning, for after William Charles Wentworth had been called to the Chair there were two items of correspondence to be dealt with.

The chief interest attaching to Dr. D. A. Mackaen's letter is that, while it is the first item dealt with by the Senate in its hundred years of activity, there is probably no other matter recorded in the minutes about which we have so little information. We have no idea as to the capacity in which the services were being offered and we do not know what reply, if any, was sent. The only other piece of information we could uncover about the writer is a note about the library, which records that the first step taken to build up a University library was to purchase a number of dictionaries and other works from the library of the Reverend Dr. Mackaen at a cost of £97 8s. 6d., a goodly sum in those days. After that, so far as the University is concerned, the worthy doctor passed into oblivion.

As regards the other item of correspondence, no more is known of the contents of the "Memorial from certain qualified members of the Medical Profession complaining that the Medical Profession was not adequately represented in the Senate", nor of its disposal, than appears in the minutes. As, however, no reference was made to it at any subsequent meeting of the Senate, it is reasonable to suppose that the memorial met with a chilly reception. A casual reader would probably conclude that, as the selection of the Senate could hardly be expected to be based on Faculty representation, and as there were two M.D.'s among the sixteen Fellows, the medical profession had little cause for complaint. On the other hand anyone familiar with the social life of Sydney at that period would suspect that there was a good deal more under the surface than was evident in the memorial, and would have little doubt that the Fellows of the Senate knew perfectly well what it was.

To explain what it was all about will involve traversing a rather wide historical field, covering facts in the history of universities in general, in the very early history of our own University in particular, and in the class distinction that dominated social life in the Colony at that time. Ostensibly no doubt the letter purported to be a protest that the Medical Faculty had only two representatives on the Senate, while the Faculties of Arts and Law were each represented by four Fellows. Had this been the true reason, it could well have been based upon an age-long inter-Faculty rivalry, in which the two liberal professions were historically ranged against Medicine, representing the then rather frowned-on Science. It will be remernbered that in the early Universities there were four Schools - Theology, Philosophy, Law and Medicine. As in those days the Church, representing the Holy See, held the reins, no definite Theological Faculty developed, for every student had to take Holy Orders and include Theology in his studies, but the other three Schools became the Faculties of Arts, Law and Medicine. The first two, closely related in the nature of their studies, rather naturally tended to combine forces against Medicine and as Universities passed from religious to secular control, this control became largely vested in representatives of the Faculties of Arts and Law.

When William Charles Wentworth, M.A., brought his first University Bill before the Legislative Council in October, 1849, he suggested a Senate to consist of twelve members, and laid stress upon the necessity for excluding clergymen from all share in the management of the institution. This raised a storm of protest from all religious bodies and as a result Wentworth, when he brought in his second Bill a year later, consented to add four to the original number of twelve Senators to permit of the nomination of clergymen of four denominations. Actually when the list was gazetted there were only three clergymen on it.

A hundred years ago Science, as represented by Medicine, was still the University Cinderella, and doctors, having witnessed the successes of the churches in resisting the attempt to oust them, could quite plausibly complain that their profession was being slighted, when only two of its members were among the remaining thirteen nominees. Actually there is good reason to think that the true basis of the memorial was not so much the slighting of the whole profession, but of a particular member, whose colleagues, and a very large section of the public, regarded as outstandingly suitable to assist in guiding the destinies of the University.

This doctor was not only a leading member of his profession, but one of the most popular, energetic and valuable citizens of the Colony. He had been for many years deeply interested in educational problems and had been one of the founders, and the first secretary of the Sydney College and had later succeeded the Chief Justice, Sir Francis Forbes, as president. His choice had seemed so obvious that Wentworth had included his name in the Senate of twelve that he nominated when he moved the second reading of his first University Bill in 1849. From the University point of view, it is of great historical interest that it was the inclusion of this name that wrecked the Bill and delayed the establishment of the University for a year. As soon as the name was announced certain members, led bv William Lowe, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, strongly protested and the resulting debate was so heated that it was carried on with closed doors. So much unpleasantness resulted that a few days later the Bill lapsed for want of a quorum.

The trouble arose over the fact that the doctor had been exiled from England for taking part in a duel in which the other contestant had been killed. Unfortunately he had been a naval officer, and at that time, though duelling had been made a penal offence, it was still clandestinely regarded in the Navy as the only honourable way of settling a quarrel. Thus an officer, when challenged, was in a most invidious position. If he refused to fight his reputation was tarnished and he was branded as a coward, while if he fought and killed his man he became a criminal. This officer, having killed his man, had had to go into exile, but he had led so exemplary a life that his misdemeanour had been quite forgiven till Robert Lowe, who, we have it on the authority of Wentworth himself, had a venomous tongue, branded him as an ex-convict and social outcast. The affair had caused a great public outcry at the tirne, the great majority of the people, still regarding duelling as a very venial offence and the contestants as heroes rather than as criminals, siding with the doctor. No doubt many hoped that the Governor-in-Council, when he had the opportunity a year later, would make amends by including the name in the new list, and it would appear from the gossip of the time that the doctors' memorial was regarded as a thinly veiled protest against his failing to do so.

Item three of these minutes of the first Senate meeting, which was concerned with planning the business for the next meeting, affords little occasion for comment, other than perhaps to note that the titular head of the University and his deputy were at this stage called Provost and Vice-Provost respectively. This was so until a University Amendment Act was passed in 1860, when the titles were changed to Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.

As regards the last paragraph of item three, I have already mentioned that subsequent meetings of the Senate until some time in the following year continued to be held in the chambers of the Speaker of the Legislative Council, Charles Nicholson. However, the present-day Chancellor may well feel grateful that he is not called upon to "write a circular to the Fellows severally informing them of the business to be brought forward at the next meeting" as Mr. Wentworth, the Chairman, undertook to do. The present Fellows, on the other hand, inured to sitting at a late hour, might well feel envious of their predecessors, who could look to disposing of their business between noon and lunch time.

2nd Meeting of Senate, 3 March 1851

It was determined:
1. That of the period of appointment for the Provost would be three years from the date of election.
2. That the election of Provost be postponed until the next meeting.
3. That Sir Charles Nicholson be elected Vice-Provost.
4. That the Office of Secretary to Senate be established to transact the general business of the Senate and that a Secretary be appointed at the next meeting of Senate at a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum.
5. That a committee comprising the Vice-Provost, Davis and Merewether be formed to investigate a “device for a Corporate Seal”.
6. That a committee comprising the Vice-Provost, Wentworth, Davis and Boyce be formed to prepare By-laws for consideration by Senate.
7. That a committee comprising Deas-Thomson and Donaldson be formed to consider a system of financial management.
8. That a committee comprising the Vice-Provost, Wentworth, Therry and O’Brien be formed to enter into negotiations over the possible leasing of the Sydney College buildings for the use of the University.

Part of the original minutes of the second meeting appear below, University of Sydney Archives:

Page 1

3rd Meeting of Senate, 17 March 1851

Edward Hamilton was appointed to the Office of Provost of the University.

Six applications for the position of Secretary were considered and Richard Greenup appointed.

The trustees of the Sydney College agreed to lease the buildings to the University on condition that Senate expend one hundred pounds per annum on necessary repairs. The decision to take up this offer was deferred until the condition of the buildings was assessed.

4th Meeting of Senate, 24 March 1851


The Government Architect, Mr Edmund Blackett, reported on the condition of the Sydney College buildings and considered that the buildings were poorly constructed, that the walls were bulging and that “substantial repair would occasion a total re-building of the premises”.

It was proposed, and passed, that the Sydney College buildings be taken for a term of two years under the conditions discussed.

The other decisions made at this meeting included the following:
1. That a room be provided in the Sydney College for meetings of Senate.
2. That Senate meet on the first Monday in every month at noon with meetings to be adjourned or Special Meetings called as required.
3. That the Secretary provide an agenda by post at least seven days prior to Senate meetings.
4. That Fellows of Senate be required to give at least nine days notice of any motions and that all motions be recorded in a Notice of Motion book.

5th Meeting of Senate, 10 April 1851

This and many subsequent meetings were held at Sydney College.

Decisions were made regarding the appointment of Professors and lecturers and the faculties. Initially there were to be three disciplines:
1. Greek and Latin languages with Greek and Roman history. There was to be one Professor and one Lecturer in this Faculty with the Professor of Classics to be the Principal of the College at an annual salary of £600.
2. Mathematics, pure and mixed, with one Professor and one Lecturer, the Professor to receive a salary of £500.
3. Chemistry and experimental philosophy, with one Professor at a salary of £300.

All professors and lecturers to receive £100 accommodation allowance until residential accommodation could be provided.

Decisions were also made about the dates and lengths of terms and about the admission of students.

The post of Registrar was to be held initially by the University Secretary.

Further meetings of Senate in 1851

A total of seventeen meetings were called in 1851 and Senate met 12 times. Five meetings were inquorate and were cancelled.

Attendance

Seventeen meetings were called and Senate met 12 times. Five meetings were inquorate and were cancelled.

No Fellows attended all meetings although the Rt. Rev. Bishop Davis and Sir Charles Nicholson attended 16 of the 17.

Alfred Denison attended only one meeting and the Rev. Purvis two.

1852

Inauguration ceremony for the University of Sydney, followed by the first students and lectures

An inauguration ceremony for the University of Sydney was held on 11 October 1852 in the Hall of the former Sydney College. Vice-Provost Sir Charles Nicholson delivered the inaugural address.

A wood engraving of the inauguration ceremony in the "Illustrated London News", 29 January 1853, appears below, University of Sydney Archives:

Inauguration of the University
Inauguration of the University
  • Above: Colourised version of the wood engraving of the inauguration ceremony in the "Illustrated London News", 29 January 1853. The colouring is not contemporary (nla.pic-an8416192, National Library of Australia).

From the Centenary Oration, delivered by The Honourable K W Street, on 28 August 1952, which provides detail about the Inauguration Ceremony and the first students and lectures

One hundred years ago, on the 11th October, 1852, the Inauguration Ceremony held that day in the big schoolroom of what is now the Sydney Grammar School, marked the birth of the Sydney University, the first university in the southern hemisphere ...

Early in October, 1852, the first matriculation examination was held, and 234 candidates succeeded in satisfying the examiners. The standard may not seem to have been a very high one, as all that was called for was a moderate knowledge of the classics, both Greek and Latin, such as was expected of every educated man in those days, some arithmetic, algebra as far as simple equations and the first book of Euclid. With these 24 students, a professorial staff of three (the Rev. Dr. Woolley, Principal and Professor of Classics; Professor Pell, Professor of Mathematics; and Dr. John Smith, Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy), a Registrar, and, I suppose, some small additional working staff, this University commenced to function after the Inauguration Ceremony on the 11th October, 1852. That was the Ceremony of which I spoke earlier, held in the big schoolroom of the Sydney Grammar School, which marked the foundation of this, the first, and now the largest, University in the southern hemisphere. The speeches on that occasion were delivered by Sir Charles Nicholson, who had been appointed as Vice-Provost, and by Dr. Woolley, with a dignity and an eloquence which I cannot attempt to emulate. The whole spirit of those speeches was one of sanguine expectation and enthusiasm. They voiced the confident hope that this University would be for the people of this land an "everlasting inheritance" and that when this colony achieved the status of a nation, this University would take its place amongst the great schools of learning of the world. We may be well assured that they would feel that their hopes had not been falsified were they to see the University today.

1860

View Senate 1860 to the present

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