Rev. Richard Johnson

In her book The Glebe: Portraits and Places, Freda MacDonnell has written of Captain Arthur Phillip's grant of 400 acres to the Rev. Richard Johnson, the only chaplain of the First Fleet, to the Church of England for its glebe (Latin glaeba, meaning a clod of earth) ... "because the time-worn English custom of providing for the clergy had been brought to Sydney with our first settlers. This glebe was to be used for the support of the clergyman of the Established Church who had accompanied the First Fleet as chaplain." This land grant places the Rev. Richard Johnson as the first white man in Glebe.

The chaplain's first church was built on the present site of 'Richard Johnson Square', now the intersection of Hunter and Bligh Streets, Sydney. It was constructed from the abundant timber Callicoma serratifolia, commonly known at that time as 'black wattle' and then smeared with daub to form Sydney's first rough buildings.

It seems that Johnson "owed his appointment to the Eclectic Society, a group of zealous evangelicals that included William Wilberforce and the ex-slaver, John Newton". As both the governor and his chaplain had a sound knowledge of farming, it is possible that Phillip, always grudging in his dealings with the clergy, made the original land grant which was "never gratefully regarded by Johnson who wrote scornfully 'four hundred acres' for which I would not give four hundred pence".

When only allotted three convicts to clear the heavily forested land at Glebe, it seemed an affront to Rev. Johnson and he then applied for a grant in the same manner as the officers of the regiment. "By his prudence and economy he made a large fortune and when he returned to England his lands consisted of six hundred acres, with 150 sheep, a mare and three fillies and some horned cattle. His reputation both as a farmer and gardener was well known, and he no doubt made a contribution to the colony's food position, and set a much needed example to a settlement sometimes much too close to starvation."