General News
18 January, 2024
Piecing together the region's rich history
A NEW local history book has been published on the Reverend David Key and his wife Caroline Hoste.
The couple resided in a bluestone manse at Wickliffe from 1863.
The book titled ‘Aristocracy, Squatters and Presbyterians’ was written by Geelong’s Robert McLaren, who he grew up at Mortlake.
“The book offers a comprehensive account from 1863 when a newly arrived minister to Australia was appointed to the Wickliffe Charge which included the Presbyterian churches of Wickliffe, Hexham and Chatsworth,” Mr McLaren said.
“This book details both families of the couple; Reverend David Kay was the son of a shoemaker who lived in rural Scotland and his wife Caroline Hoste was the daughter of a renowned Royal Navy captain, Sir William Hoste.
“The story details Rev. Kay’s journey to Wickliffe, which began as a Presbyterian missionary at Genoa, Italy in 1852, where he built a congregation, a church and a hospital; all of which was done in the face of ongoing protests and harassment from the Catholic Church.”
Having grown up in the region, Mr McLaren placed an emphasis on the time Rev. Kay and Mrs Kay spent in the south west.
The couple took a leading role in their community after moving to Wickliffe in 1863.
“This included the Royal Visit in 1867 of Prince Alfred and his entourage to John Moffat’s Chatsworth House when the Rev. Kay conducted the church service for the Prince,” Mr McLaren said.
“Together with a libel case brought by the Rev. and Mrs Kay against John Moffat in the following year.
“The death of Caroline Kay at Livorno, Italy in 1872 was the catalyst for Rev. Kay to finish his work with the Presbyterian Church.
“In April 1874, Rev. Kay tended his resignation of the Wickliffe Charge and the church.”
The final part of his life is detailed in the book, when he travelled extensively beyond Australia and he moved to Melbourne and then to the Otago region around Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand where two of his siblings had emigrated in the 1850s.
Finally, the book details the bequest in the will of Rev. Kay to set up two scholarships at Melbourne University, both of which were named after his late wife and continue to be awarded to this day.
“The Rev. David Kay’s name was well known across the Wickliffe to Hexham district 150 years ago, however it is his wife’s name that has been kept alive into the 21st century,” Mr McLaren said.
“The women of the 1860s lived in the background; it is a fitting tribute that Caroline Kay’s name has defied that reality.”
The book is available from the author who can be contacted on mclaren55@bigpond.com.