William Grant Broughton (1788-1853) was the first Anglican Bishop of Australia, consecrated to this position on 14 February 1836 at Canterbury, England, and installed on 5 June that year in St James’ Church, Sydney. While the Anglican Church in Australia was not, as it was in the United Kingdom, the established Church by law, it had considerable influence on the religious and social life of the Australian colonies, and its key representative had access to the highest levels of government. Added to this is the fact that Bishop Broughton occupied a unique position from 1836 to 1847 as the spiritual head of the Anglican Church across the entire Australian continent before the establishment of separate dioceses across the country.

The collection documents the growth and influence of the Anglican Church in Australia in the 1830s and 1840s; Bishop Broughton’s achievements in developing educational institutions such as The King’s School and attempts to secure government funding for Anglican schools; relationships with successive governors in his capacity both as Bishop and as a member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council; travels around the greater Sydney region and the establishment of the Port Phillip region; relationships with and views on other Christian denominations and clergy operating in the colony; and the trans-Tasman interaction with Bishop Selwyn of New Zealand.

The papers also contain Broughton’s diary of his voyage to Australia on the convict ship John in 1829. The inclusion of this diary in the Papers of Bishop W.G. Broughton relates it to other collections of 19th century shipboard diaries of voyages to Australia held in libraries around the country. There is also a diary in the collection from 1834 of a visit to Bahia, Brazil.
The collection at Moore College is the largest body of material relating to Bishop Broughton.

The collection held at Moore College, and the related Broughton collections, have enabled significant scholarly works on the role of this key figure in the development of religious and educational practices in the Australian colonies at a crucial time in their transition from penal colonies to civil societies.