Francis Nixon

Who was Francis Nixon?

Francis Russell Nixon was the first Bishop of Tasmania.

Nixon was the son of Rev. Robert Nixon, an amateur painter of North Cray, Kent. Nixon was educated at the Merchant Taylors school and St John's College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1827 and subsequently M.A. and D.D. He was chaplain at Naples and afterwards held the perpetual curacies of Sandgate and Sandwich. While addressing a public meeting at Canterbury, Kent, England his eloquence brought him to the notice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who appointed him one of the Six Preachers at the cathedral. In September 1840 he preached a sermon in the presence of the Archbishop which was published with notes in the same year.

In 1842 Nixon was consecrated first Bishop of Tasmania, and arrived in the colony in June 1843. His first task was the organisation of the church in Tasmania, and being a moderate high churchman he came into conflict with some of the clergy of evangelical views. His Lectures, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical on the Catechism of the Church of England, a volume of over 600 pages, was published in London in 1843, and a second edition was called for in the following year. His letters patent declared his jurisdiction "spiritual and ecclesiastical throughout the diocese according to the ecclesiastical laws of England". Endeavouring to act on his letters of appointment, he came into conflict with the governor, John Eardley-Wilmot, and the Presbyterian and other denominations petitioned the Queen on the subject.