Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content

Former Member Details

Reverend the Hon. William Grant BROUGHTON (1788 - 1853)

Member Photo
Date of Birth: 22/05/1788
Place of Birth: Westminster, London, England
Date of Death: 20/02/1853
Place of Death: London, England
Parliamentary Service
Position Start End Period Notes
Bishop of Australia 18 Jan 1836 31 Dec 1847 11 years 11 months 14 days
Member of the Executive Council 17 Sep 1829 20 Mar 1847 17 years 6 months 4 days
Member of the NSW Legislative Council 16 Sep 1829 05 Jan 1843 13 years 3 months 21 days An Appointed Member of the first Legislative Council 1824 - 1843
Archdeacon of New South Wales 06 Feb 1829 17 Jan 1836 6 years 11 months 12 days
Political Party Activity
Community Activity
Qualifications, occupations and interests
Clergyman; Church of England (Anglican) Bishop.Educated at Barnet Grammar School (1794 - 1796) and The King's School, Canterbury (1797 - 1803), where his housemaster was his future father-in-law. He was a King's Scholar at The King's School from 1798. Gained a clerkship in the Treasury department of the East India Company and became a scholar of the Pembroke Hall. In 1818 he entered his chosen profession, the church, and was ordained Deacon. Became Chaplain of the Tower of London. In 1830 produced a plan for higher learning; The King's School at Parramatta and Sydney. Sailed for England on 16 August 1852 and was obliged to travel by way of South America.
Military Service
Honours Received
Membership of other Parliaments & Offices Held
Local Government Activity
Personal
Eldest son of Grant Broughton, formerly of Hertfordshire, England, and his wife Phoebe Ann Rumball, daughter of John and Susannah Rumball of Barnet, England. Married on 13 July 1818 to Sarah Francis, daughter of the Reverend John Francis, rector of St Mildred's, Canterbury, and had issue two surviving daughters, Emily and (Mary) Phoebe. A son died in infancy. His daughter Mary Phoebe married William Barker Boydell in 1844 at St James Church in Sydney, and two of their sons entered the Parliamentary service. Charles Broughton Boydell (1856 - 1919) was Clerk of the Senate (Australian Commonwealth Parliament) after working in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly; and his younger brother Sydney Grant Boydell (1867 - 1936) was Clerk of the Legislative Assembly from 1927 to 1930. Died in the London home of Lady Gipps, widow of the former Governor. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, the scene of his schooldays, the first post Reformation bishop to be so honoured.
Additional Information
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 G. P. Shaw, Patriarch and Patriot: William Grant Broughton 17888 - 1853: Colonial Statesman and Ecclesiastic, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1978. E. C. Rowland, A Century of the English Church in Australia, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1948. F. T. Whittington, William Grant Broughton, Bishop of Australia, with some account of the earliest Australian clergy, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1936. Biography and portrait in ‘Australian Men of Mark’, Volume 1. Sydney, [?1889] , page 165