On 9 April 1865, the Reverend James Egan Moulton and his wife Emma were farewelled from Newington, as they prepared to depart for Tonga where he was to take up mission work.

In gratitude for Moulton’s pivotal role in the first two years of the College’s life, he was presented with a handsome writing desk. It now graces the Interview Room in the Founders Building, having been expertly restored by the firm of Richard Stokes (ON 1952) as a gift from the Year 12 leavers of 1994.

In May 1863, aged 22, Moulton arrived in Sydney from England, intending to perform mission work in Fiji. He was prevented from proceeding by the fact that, while engaged, he was not yet married: single missionaries were not allowed by the Wesleyan Methodist Church to serve in the islands of the Pacific. Instead, the College’s founding President, the Reverend John Allen Manton, arranged for him to serve as the initial ‘Head Master’ in the new College that was about to open its doors. He continued in this role until the arrival of Thomas Johnston in November.

After Manton died in September 1864, Moulton was called to help the acting President in the broader running of the school, including reforming the College’s bookkeeping and accounting system. This arrangement continued until Moulton’s departure and the arrival of a new President, the Reverend Joseph Horner Fletcher, on 20 April 1865.

The Wesleyan Committee of Education, which functioned as the College Council at this time, wanted to keep Moulton at Newington. In the College archives is a draft resolution of the Committee (pasted into the back cover of a later minute book) which reads: ‘…this Council being of opinion that [the] best interests of Newington College…demand that Rev. J.E. Moulton be retained at the College at the present juncture…earnestly requests the Conference to reconsider its determination to appoint him to Tonga’.

Neither the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, nor Moulton himself, were swayed. He and Emma sailed for Tonga on 29 April, inaugurating the long connection between Newington and Tonga. After twenty-five years in Tonga, he returned to Australia and came back to Newington as President in 1893. What Moulton learned in his first period at Newington must have set him in good stead for one of his great achievements in Tonga: the foundation of Tupou College in 1866.

Mr David Roberts
College Archivist