John Lang

Botany Bay: True Tales of Early Australia (Dodo Press) John Lang

Reverend John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878), Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism. He was born near Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland, grew up in nearby Largs, and was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he excelled, winning many prizes, and graduating as a Master of Arts in 1820. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Irvine in 1822. His brother, George, had found employment in Australia and Lang decided to join him. Arriving in Sydney Cove on 23 May 1823 he became the first Presbyterian minister in the colony of New South Wales. In 1840 Lang published a substantial volume entitled Religion and Education in America in which he advocated support of churches by voluntary givings rather than the State, and went so far as to advocate no connection between Church and State. In 1841 he published The Question of Questions! and in 1847 he followed up with, Popery in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Lang's writings are voluminous, his activities multifarious. Excluding his newspaper articles his published work runs to some 10,000 pages.