John Burdett Wittenoom

Who was John Burdett Wittenoom?

John Burdett Wittenoom was a colonial clergyman who was the second Anglican clergyman to perform religious services in the Swan River Colony, Australia, soon after its establishment in 1829.

He was born in England at Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. His first wife, with whom he had five sons, died while he was teaching in England. Shortly after, he decided to emigrate to Western Australia arriving on the Wanstead in January 1830 with his mother, sister and four sons, John Burdett, Henry, Frederick Dirck, and Charles.

He singlehandedly conducted services alternately every Sunday at Perth, Guildford and Fremantle until 1836.

In later years he ran a grammar school and pursued his interest in education. In 1839 he remarried and in 1847 he was appointed to the colony's first education committee and was the inaugural chairman for eight years after it became the Board of Education.

After his death in 1855, his wife and daughter took charge of the government girls' school. A tablet in his memory is in St George's Cathedral, Perth.

John Wittenoom's daughter Mary was the mother of Edith Cowan. The progeny of Wittenoom's fifth son, Charles Wittenoom became notable individuals in the history of Western Australia.