Rev William Slatyer

  General Notes:

Trained for clergy at Turvey, Bedfordshire

Ordained at Union Church, Brixton Hill, 15 October 1834

Missionary in Jamaica, 1834-1850

Migrated to NSW 1853. Initially went to Bathurst.

Pastor, Surrey Hills Congregational Church, 1853-1855

First Pastor of Bourke Street Congregational Church, 1855-1860

Pastor, Cleveland Street, Redfern, Congregational Church

1860-1881

Chairman, Congregational Union, 1867-68 and 1876-77

"Valiant for the truth, fearless in his denunciation of wrong, but ever a loving and faithful friend"


From the "History of the United Church in Jamaica" (at

http://www.prosforchrist.netfirms.com/History_of_the_united_Church.htm):


"Congregationalism in Jamaica began in 1834 with the arrival of six missionaries from the London Missionary Society (LMS), which was formed in 1795 as a non-denominational missionary agency. They were: Messrs. Woolridge, Hodge, Barrett,
Slatyer, Vine and Alloway. The first four settled on the southern side of the Island and covered ground between Kingston and Manchester, the other two went to the north covering St. Ann and Trelawny.


The Four Paths United Church is regarded as the oldest of the former Congregational Churches on the Island, with work being started by Rev. Barrett in December 1834, Brixton Hill in 1836 and at Chapleton in 1838 where a school was also started.
Rev. Woolridge started work in Kingston in the Papine area. This work eventually led to the formation of a school and to what became North Street United in 1837. The work at Shortwood also grew out of Rev. Woolridge's efforts. Rev. Slatyer
commenced work at Whitfield and Davyton in 1835 and Ridgemount in 1837.

At the same time Reverends Alloway and Vine began work at Dry Harbour (now Discovery Bay) in 1837 and in Trelawny, on the Arcadia Estate where the First Hill congregation was formed in 1835.

The missionaries followed the ex-slaves into the hills away from the centers of population and under difficult circumstances quite frequently suffering opposition, they spread the Gospel. Congregations such as Sunberry, Long Look, Manhoe Hill,
and Main Ridge in the hills of Manchester and Clarendon are testimony of these efforts. The work progressed and established itself, as the missionaries engaged themselves in the life of communities. Where they saw the needs, schools were
started, and in the case of Rev. William Gardner minister of the North Street United Church, the Kingston Benefit Building Society, The Freeman Chapel Provident Society, and a book centre called Society for the Promotion of Pure Literature
were formed".

Preached at the funeral of David Jones, founder of the stroe of the same name, on 6 April 1873.

Described as ""not of the type to create a great popular appeal to the incoming multitude" and "having the stern characteristics of a Cromwell without the poetic fascination of a Milton or John Bunyan", and "his preaching was more forcible than
attractive" (Sydney Cox. Seventy Years: History of the Bourke Street Congregational Church, 1925) and "valiant for the truth, fearless in his denunciation of wrong but ever a loving and faithful friend" in a Memorial Tablet in the Redfern
Church. Revd RJ Hill, in the eulogy delivered at his funeral, described him as having 'a keen intellect, accurate memory, powerful reason [and] ... a sublime command of the English language' but also that 'he would tolerate no cooked reports,
no insincere compliments, no pious frauds, no doubtful rumours, no painted anecdotes or other exaggerations for effect, nor any suppressed truth. His loathing of all cant often made him guilty of a brusqueness which did not represent his heart'

Estate valued at £4,012 upon granting of probate on 9 April 1884
My name is Saul Eslake wrote to James Boyce - 'Corinna' is the name of our house in Melbourne, and which we also use as our email address.

In your research you may have discovered that you couldn't find a birth certificate for your great grandfather, William James Bloomfield. That's because at birth, on 9th March 1875, he was given the name George Eslake, his parents being William Roy Eslake and Eliza Vittoria Bloomfield.

William Roy Eslake's real name was William Roy Slatyer. He was born in 1844, in Jamaica, where his father the Rev William Slatyer was serving as a missionary among recently-freed slaves, between 1834 and 1850. The Slatyer family returned to England in 1850, where Revd Slatyer's wife Agnes (nee Roy) died after an illness in 1851. (Revd Slatyer had had two previous wives, both of whom had died in Jamaica, one of an illness, the other after falling from a horse). Revd Slatyer married for a fourth time in 1852, and shortly thereafter emigrated to Sydney, arriving in April 1853 with five of the six children from his third marriage, and also with a baby (Hampton Slatyer) who was born to his fourth wife on voyage. Revd Slatyer's younger brother James Slatyer had previously emigrated to NSW in 1849, had been reasonably successful in land dealings around Redfern, and had accumulated sufficient funds to sponsor his brother William out to Australia as a minister to the Congregationalist flock in Sydney (among this flock was the original David Jones, founder of the department store chain that still bears his name).
Contemporary accounts indicate that the Revd William Slatyer was something of a 'fire and brimstone' preacher. He was described as "not of the type to create a great popular appeal to the incoming multitude", and "having the stern characteristics of a Cromwell without the poetic fascination of a Milton or John Bunyan". The eulogist at his funeral (in 1884) said he had "a keen intellect, accurate memory, powerful reason [and] ... a sublime command of the English language' but also that 'he would tolerate no cooked reports, no insincere compliments, no pious frauds, no doubtful rumours, no painted anecdotes or other exaggerations for effect, nor any suppressed truth. His loathing of all cant often made him guilty of a brusqueness which did not represent his heart". Apparently he severed all dealings with his brother James after James went bankrupt in the late 1850s (as a result of some failed property investments), because he regarded failing to honour debts as a mortal sin, notwithstanding that James had previously paid for his passage to Australia.

Perhaps for these reasons he appears to have fallen out with his eldest son, the aforementioned William Roy Slatyer, who didn't accompany his father, siblings and step-mother on the voyage to Australia in 1853-4, but turned up in NSW some years later, in the early 1860s. At some stage between then and 1875, he changed his surname to 'Eslake'. I have no idea where this name came from. It would appear to be of Cornish origin, but there is no evidence that he had any connection with Cornwall - the Slatyers came from Olney, in Buckinghamshire. One plausible hypothesis is that he may have had a childhood friend in Jamaica by the name of Eslake, since there were apparently Cornish tin miners in Jamaica at that time. But I have no 'hard' evidence for that, either.

In any event, at some stage presumably in the second half of 1874, William Roy Slatyer-Eslake had a brief relationship with Miss Eliza Vittoria Bloomfield, the sixth of ten children of Stephen Evangelist Bloomfield and Mary Anne Croft. Stephen Bloomfield was an architect, he had been born in Suffolk in May 1818, emigrated to NSW in 1833, and married Mary Anne (who had been born in Sunderland in 1822) in Wollongong in January 1843. They lived in South Head Road and were presumably therefore reasonably well off.

It would appear that baby George was in effect 'adopted' by Stephen and Mary Anne, and brought up as their youngest son. George, or William as they called him, would have been 13 years younger than his next oldest sibling, Stephen and Mary Anne's son Frederick, who was born in 1862 (when the Bloomfield family was still living in Wollongong). At the time of George/William's birth, Stephen would have been 67 and Mary Anne would have been 53, so it's most unlikely they could have been his biological parents. Indeed, one of Frederick's grand-daughters, Eleanor Platt, wrote to me in 2008 saying " We had wondered how William fitted into the family given the age of Mary Ann. We had decided he was adopted from another branch of the Bloomfield family, a child named William we couldn't trace after his mother died".

What happened with George/William was not at all uncommon - indeed, perhaps ironically, in 1913, William Roy Slatyer/Eslake's daughter (by a subsequent relationship) had a daughter who was brought up as if she had been William and his then partner Ada's youngest daughter.

As you no doubt know, William John Bloomfield had a successful business career, culminating in his position as Joint Managing Director of the MLC Society. He married a New Zealander, Alice Cupples, in 1903, and had two children, your grandfather William Alwyn and your great aund Coralie Ngarete (Ngare).

Your great-great-grandmother Eliza Vittoria Bloomfield subsequently married (in 1884) William Adolphus Ellis, a grazier from Singleton in the Hunter Valley. They had two children, Stephen (born in 1885) and Marion (born in 1888). Theirs appears not to have been a happy marriage. In divorce proceedings instituted by William Ellis in 1905, some years after Eliza left him, he alleged 'desertion without just cause or excuse' and she (as respondent) counter-alleged that he was 'a habitual drunkard' who was 'guilty of cruelty towards [her]', and that he had "between 23 April 1884 and 1 September 1888 at Jerry's Plains committed adultery with various women". She alleged that he had promised to marry a Miss Kate Barnes after obtaining a divorce and had 'attempted to introduce her as his intended wife', which William Ellis denied.

Both parties pleaded penury, Eliza seeking court orders for payments from her husband to pay costs associated with presenting her case, and William arguing that his income amounted to £30 per annum. Both parties sued and counter-sued for costs, alimony, enforcement of court awards etc.

Eliza died in Roseville in 1922, she is buried in the Waverley Cemetery.

As for your biological great-great-grandfather William Roy Slatyer/Eslake, he subsequently moved to the Tweed River district in northern New South Wales, where some time in the mid-1890s he began a relationship with a Mrs Ada Louise Share, who had been born in Bendigo in 1873, moved with her family to Sydney a few years later, and in 1891 had married an Alfred Creighton Share, who had emigrated from England with his mother seven years earlier. At the time when William met Ada, she and Alfred had two sons, John and Alfred. A third son, was born in 1896, and given the name Benjamin Share: but judging from his appearance, he was almost certainly William's son, not Alfred's. In any event, some time between 1896 and 1899, Ada left her husband and eldest son, taking her second and third sons Alfred and Ben to live with William, with whom she had five more children, not counting the aforementioned grand-daughter whom they brought up as their youngest child.

Alfred Share grew up in the belief that William Roy Slatyer-Eslake was his father, as did his younger brother Ben. At least one of their younger half-brothers, John Eslake, knew the truth but never disclosed it.

Alfred (or 'Freddie', as he was known during his lifetime) Eslake was my grandfather. Hence the connection.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Congregationalist Missionary and Minister.

• Religion: April 1853 aboard the "Harbinger".

• connection. The connection between Don Fearon & myself is as follows:

Don Fearon . . .
Is connected in some way to
Frances Carr (1887)
Her father was Daniel Carr (1849) who married Louisa Slatyer (1853)
Her father was James Slatyer (1820)
His father was Joseph Slatyer (1779) & he also had William Slatyer (1809)
He had William Slatyer (c1844) A.K.A. Eslake who with Ada Stevenson (1873) who at the time was married to Alfred Share (1869) had Alfred Eslake (1893)
He had Alan Eslake (1928) who married Carol Parsons (1925)
Her father was Leland Parsons (1892) & he also had Lois Parsons (1937) who married Kevin Nelson (1939)
His father was Laurence Nelson (1918) who married Doris Brannigan (1919)
Her father was William Brannigan (1897) who married Thomasina Emery (1899)
Her father was John Emery (1867) who married Phoebe Davies (1876)
Her father was Joseph Davies (1852) & he also had George Arthur Davies (1894)
He had Colin Davies (1925)
He had me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

& Don Fearon's link to Robert through Dawes line is as follows:

Don Fearon . . .
Is connected in some way to
Frances Carr (1887)
Her father was Daniel Carr (1849) who married Louisa Slatyer (1853)
Her father was James Slatyer (1820)
His father was Joseph Slatyer (1779) & he also had William Slatyer (1809)
He had William Slatyer (c1844) A.K.A. Eslake who with Ada Stevenson (1873) who at the time was married to Alfred Share (1869) had Alfred Eslake (1893)
He had Alan Eslake (1928) who married Carol Parsons (1925)
Her father was Leland Parsons (1892) - who is the common link between Robert and myself
His father was Henry Parsons (1849)
His father was Matthew Parsons (1809)
His father was John Parsons (1777) & he also had Reuben Parsons (1805)
He had Enos Parsons (1847) who married Emma Dawes (1847)
Her father was George Dawes (1802)
His father was Aaron Daw (1779) & he also had Edward Bannister Dawes (1813)
He had James H. Dawes (1843)
He had Annie Florence Dawes (1873) who married Arthur Augustus Bray (1869)
He had Albert Alan Bray (1896)
He had Robert Alfred Bray (1920)
He had Robert Arthur Bray (1947) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

William married Eusebia Cuttress, daughter of Rev William Cuttress and Unknown, on 27 Oct 1834 in Woburn, Bedfordshire England. (Eusebia Cuttress was born about 1816 in Woburn, Bedfordshire England and died on 16 Feb 1840 in Aylsebury, Buckinghamshire England.)

William next married Emily Daniell, daughter of Samuel Daniell and Unknown, on 6 Oct 1840 in Angel St Chapel, Worcester, Worcestershire England. (Emily Daniell was born circa 1815 in Tilbury, Worcestershire England, died on 30 Mar 1841 in Jamaica, West Indies (After Falling From A Horse) and was buried in Ridgemount, Jamaica.). The cause of her death was (After Falling From A Horse).

William next married Agnes Roy, daughter of Robert Roy and Unknown, on 2 Mar 1842 in Williamsfield, Parish Of Manchester, Jamaica. (Agnes Roy was born in 1823, died on 10 Jul 1851 in 6 Albion Rd East, Stoke Newington, Middlesex England and was buried on 14 Jul 1851 in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London England.)

William next married Eliza Rogers, daughter of Christopher Rogers and Jane Bacon, on 30 Dec 1852 in Trinity Chapel, West Derby, Lancashire England. (Eliza Rogers was born in 1822 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire England, died on 21 Dec 1909 in Broughton Rd, Strathfield, Sydney, NSW Australia and was buried on 23 Dec 1909 in Rookwood Cemetery, Lidcombe, Sydney, NSW Australia.)