Scope and contents
This is a collection of family papers, primarily hand and typewritten correspondence, photographs, official documents, hand-written notes and notebooks, a large number of loose newspaper cuttings, printed material including church circulars, magazines, journals and newspapers, published writings by Frank Paton and other family members, the original handwritten manuscript for Frank Paton's book 'Lomai of Lenakel, a hero of the New Hebrides: a fresh chapter in the triumph of the Gospel' (London, 1903), and a "mask" (in fragments) and woven hanging mat, likely from the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).
The collection covers a substantial period of time. The earliest documents can be dated from 1847, in relation to John G. Paton, and the most recent to a descendent of Frank Paton in 1988. The collection also includes a number of Paton's better known pieces of writing, such as 'The Supreme Quest: five studies on power' (Revised ed., Melbourne, Vic., 19..) and 'The Church's problems and how to face them' (Melbourne, Vic., 1922).
While most of the material in the collection is written in English, there are a number of letters between Clara Paton and her family, in particular her parents and her brother Johannes (Hans), which are in a different European language. The handwritten nature of these letters makes it difficult to be certain, it seems likely these letters are in the Germanic Alsatian dialect. It should be noted that George and Clara Elizabeth Heyer (Clara Paton's parents) migrated to Australia from the disputed region of Alsace-Lorraine in 1868. There are a few documents in German, including a wedding invitation to Frank Paton and Clara Heyer's wedding (the Heyer family settled in Germantown - later Grovedale - in Geelong, Victoria). Finally, there is small number of handwritten documents in what appear to be a local New Hebridean/Vanuatuan language, most likely Lenakel, a Tannan language from the region of the island where Frank and Clara Paton lived between 1896 and 1902.
Dates
- 1847-1988
Creator
- Paton, F.H.L. (Francis Hume Lyall), 1870-1938 (Author, Person)
Biographical / Historical
Frank Paton was born Francis Hume Lyall Paton on 26 August 1870 on the island of Aniwa in the New Hebrides, now called Vanuatu. He was the fourth child born to Rev. John Gibson Paton, a well-known Presbyterian missionary and minister from Scotland, and his second wife Margaret (nee Whitecross).
His father, John G. Paton, was born in Kirkmahoe, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on 24 May 1824. After moving to Glasgow from the family home in Torthorwald in the late 1840s, he worked as a missionary in the Glasgow City Mission while studying part-time at the University of Glasgow, the Andersonian University and the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall. He was ordained as a minister and travelled to the New Hebrides with his first wife Mary Ann (nee Robson) in 1858. Tragically, Mary Ann and their new-born son died of malaria in March 1859. John G. Paton stayed on the islands until 1863, when he travelled, first to Australia and then back to Scotland in 1864, to secure resources and more missionaries to bring back to the islands. While in Scotland he married Margaret Whitecross, returning with her to Australia and then to the New Hebrides in 1865. They settled on the island of Aniwa, and remained there until 1881. Six of their ten children, including Frank, were born on the island. They then moved to Melbourne, Victoria, settling in Kew. From there John G. Paton travelled regularly to the United Kingdom to raise money for the Church's missionary work, and back to the New Hebrides. He was very well known and regarded within the Presbyterian Church around the world, and wrote a number of publications, including his autobiography 'John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides: an autobiography' (1890), which was edited by his brother James Paton. A sequel to that book, 'John G. Paton: later years and farewell' (1910) was written after his death by A.K. Langridge and his son, Frank Paton.
Frank Paton moved to Melbourne with his family in the early 1880s and attended Scotch College in Melbourne. He studied theology at Ormond College, Melbourne, and the University of Glasgow, graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1892 (M.A.) and from St Andrews in 1896 (B.D.). In 1893 he struck up a friendship with Johannes Heyer (who later became a minister of the Presbyterian Church), and three years later, on 19 February 1896, married Heyer's sister, Clara Sophie. Clara's father, George Heyer, was a pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Germantown (Grovedale), Geelong. After a brief honeymoon in Sydney, they moved to Lenakel, on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides, to contribute to the missionary work on the islands.
After the death of their first-born child, Frank (Frankie) Heyer Paton, (born on 31 October 1898 in Victoria), in Tanna in April 1900, they had five children who survived into old age. In order of age, they were Sir George Whitecross Paton (b. 1902), Rev. James Kennedy (Ken) Paton (b. 1904), Clara Margaret (Peggy) (b. 1908) who married Rev. Hedley Bunton, Elizabeth Heyer (Betty) who married Dr Frank Ashton, and Frances Amy (v. 1918) who married Rev. Dr Robin Boyd.
The Paton’s time on Tanna was not long lived. Paton suffered repeated bouts of ill health, and on doctor’s advice, he and his family moved back to Victoria in 1902. He was initially appointed to the position of Organising Secretary for the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, but due to ill health, he was soon appointed as a minister in the Victorian town of Dunolly in 1904. Following a return to health in 1907, he was appointed the Foreign Mission Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. In this role he travelled regularly, including to Japan, Korea and China in 1910, as well as the United Kingdom and around Australia. He also travelled overseas to France and England as a Chaplain in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I between 1918 and 1919. In 1922 Paton was appointed to the year-long role of Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, a role his father had held in 1886. Following his resignation from the Foreign Mission Secretary role in 1925, Paton served as minister of the Deepdene Presbyterian Church until 1936, and died in Victoria in 1938.
Paton wrote and published regularly. In addition to the book on his father, he wrote 'Lomai, the hero of Lenakel' (1903) about his missionary work in the New Hebrides, books on the lives of other missionaries and church figures, including John Coleridge Patterson ('Patterson of Melanesia' (1900)), produced a number of small booklets on religious topics, and translated seven books of the New Testament into the Lenakel language of the New Hebridean island of Tanna.
His wife Clara continued living in Melbourne after his death, and remained an active member of the Presbyterian Church for the rest of her life until she died in 1966. Their son George was a Rhodes Scholar, becoming Law lecturer in London before returning to the University of Melbourne to teach jurisprudence. He was eventually appointed to the role of Vice-Chancellor of the University. Their daughter Peggy (Clara Margaret) married the Congressional Church minister and missionary to China Rev. Hedley Bunton. Their son James Kennedy (Ken) also became a minister, and their daughter Frances Amy married Rev. Dr Robin Boyd and they worked as missionaries in India. Elizabeth (Betty) married Dr Frank Ashton in Hong Kong and, due to her nurses training, remained interred in the Stanley Camp in Hong Kong for the duration of the war. She became involved in the YWCA after the war ended, and strengthened and continued that association after her husband retired in 1964 and they returned to live in Australia.
Extent
2 linear metres (14 boxes)
Language
English
Processing information
This collection of materials was not housed together as a collection until it was collated for donation to the State Library Victoria. It was held by a number of different descendants of John G. Paton, in up to four locations across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
Before delivery to the Library it was gathered into one large plastic storage box. Some of the materials had been organised into folders or files based on theme or creator, but it is unknown at what stage this was done. It was felt that there was not an original order or order imposed by subsequent custodians that could be adhered to or restored, and it was decided that the materials should be rearranged in a way to make them as accessible and searchable as possible.
Series, sub-series and files have been created based on content type, creator and thematically. The primary division is by format, with material being separated into correspondence, notebooks and scrapbooks, other family papers, printed and published material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. Of these divisions, the largest and most complex was the correspondence. The amount of material necessitated dividing initially into three separate groups: correspondence written by Rev. Frank Paton and his wife Clara, correspondence sent to Frank and Clara Paton, either separately or jointly, and all other Paton family correspondence. These divisions were applied to all correspondence in the collection with two exceptions. The first is in relation to correspondence written by John G. Paton, both to his son and daughter-in-law and to others, which was considered to be of potential interest to researchers in its own right. The second is a few pieces of correspondence from and to George Heyer and Johannes Heyer, which is not either to or from Frank or Clara Paton, and thus more readily belongs with other Heyer family specific materials than with the general Paton correspondence.
Within the correspondence series, sub-series divisions are based on a combination of writer and recipient, with the focus being on their relationship to Frank and Clara Paton. The largest amount of correspondence was produced by Frank Paton, and files within this sub-series of his authorship have been constructed around the recipients, including to Clara and their children, his parents, his siblings, members of the Heyer family (his in-laws) and with A.K. Langridge, with whom he helped run the John G. Paton Mission Fund after John. G. Paton's death, and with whom he wrote a book about his father. Correspondence written by Clara Paton is divided into files along similar lines. Correspondence to Frank and/or Clara is divided more simply into files based on the recipient, being either Frank Paton, Clara Paton, or Frank and Clara together. Within files all correspondence is organised chronologically where possible. Where no date is discernible or able to be estimated, items have been placed in a file along with letter fragments or incomplete letters.
All other correspondence has been organised into files based on authorship by and receipt by members of Frank Paton's family, being his brother Robert, and his daughters Elizabeth (Betty/Bettie) Ashton and Frances Boyd, and other mixed correspondence to and from other family members.
Non-correspondence materials have also been organised around authorship or primary focus of the material, being Frank Paton, Clara Paton, John G. Paton and the Heyer family. Sub-series have also included thematic organisation where such themes have suggested themselves. This includes papers around Paton's role as a missionary to the New Hebrides and a minister, his position as a Chaplain in the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War, and John G. Paton’s early life and education in Scotland. These divisions and themes have also been followed in relation to the organisation of the photographic material in the collection, with divisions in relation to family members depicted, with a separation of photographs taken in the New Hebrides.
Creator
- Paton, F.H.L. (Francis Hume Lyall), 1870-1938 (Author, Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of F.H.L. Paton
- Status
- Completed
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository details
Part of the Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library Victoria Repository
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia
03 8664 7002