- John Burdett Wittenoom
John Burdett Wittenoom (
October 24 1788 –January 23 1855 ) was a colonial clergyman who was the secondAnglican clergyman to perform religious services in theSwan River Colony , Australia, soon after its establishment in 1829.He was born in England at Newark,
Nottinghamshire . His first wife, with whom he had five sons, died while he was teaching in England. Shortly after, he decided to emigrate toWestern 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.ee also
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Wittenoom disambiguation pageReferences
*cite web|url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020562b.htm|title= Wittenoom, John Burdett (1788 - 1855)|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography - Online Edition|author=Cranfield, R.E.|publisher=Melbourne University Press|accessdate=2006-06-11|year=1957
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