Jane Macartney (born Jane Hardman; 19 January 1803 – 10 January 1885) was an Australian philanthropist, religious worker and teacher in Melbourne and surrounding regions in the 1800s. An Irish member of the Church of England, in 1833 she married Hussey Macartney, later to become the dean of St James' Cathedral in Melbourne. Her position as wife of the dean enabled her to help establish the Orphan Asylum, the Carlton Refuge, the Melbourne Home and the Lying-In Hospital, along with Frances Perry, the wife of Bishop Charles Perry. Her work in Melbourne was a continuation of her earlier charitable works in Ireland and regional Victoria, where she set up and taught in girls' Sunday Schools and visited poor families, especially assisting young mothers.
Personal life and religion
Jane Macartney was born Jane Hardman at Castle Bellingham in Ireland, daughter of Edward Hardman an Irish parliamentarian and Rebecca M'Clintock. As a young women, she became a Christian and a member of the Church of Ireland and began her lifelong ministry of establishing schools, charitable institutions and visiting underprivileged families. Her later diaries written in Victoria, Australia, show she was a woman of faith and daily prayer believing her calling was to minister to mothers and poor families. She often attended the regular prayer meetings held on a Saturday in the country parishes and woke up early on weekdays in Melbourne for personal prayer.
She married a cleric, Hussey Burgh Macartney, the son of Sir John Macartney, member of the Irish House of Commons and Lady Macartney, in March 1833 at St Peter's Church, Dublin, and moved with him to a remote and poor area of Ireland where she lived with her mother-in-law, widowed sister-in-law and two nephews. In 1843, after the death of her mother-in-law, and her sister-in-law with two sons had left the household, Jane and Hussey Macartney moved to a parish near Dublin. While in Dublin, they decided to emigrate with their eight children to Melbourne, Australia, then known as Port Phillip. On 23 January 1848, the family arrived on the ship "The Stag" in Port Phillip Bay with Bishop Charles Perry and his wife Frances Perry, the Reverend Mr Newham and his wife and child and the Reverend Mr Hales and his wife. The care and support given to each other on the voyage led to a long friendship between Frances and Jane and their partnership in charitable work. The Macartney's religious affiliation was described in 2008 as "Irish evangelicals who were about as low church as one could get, in liturgy, doctrine and manners."
After their arrival in Melbourne, Hussey Macartney was subsequently appointed by Bishop Perry to churches at Moonee Ponds, Heidelberg and Geelong, becoming Archdeacon of Geelong in October 1848 then Dean of Melbourne and St James Cathedral in 1852 and Archdeacon in 1857. In November, 1864, Jane and the family sailed to Europe and were given 300 sovereigns on their departure. They returned to Melbourne in August, 1866. Dean Hussey Macartney administered the diocese several times when the Bishop was on leave.
Faith, works and funds
The Macartneys were regarded as being from the Irish upper middle class but their evangelical Church of England faith led to them redistributing some of their funds to less privileged families and individuals combined with efforts for their moral and religious improvement. The minutes of Melbourne's charitable institutions show that Jane Macartney donated funds as an individual (usually Mrs Macartney) and the Dean donated separately in his name, so it seems Jane Macartney had control of her own funds. On 5th August 1848, the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society recorded that Mrs Hussey Burgh Macartney of Melbourne also donated a preserved albatross. Jane and her family moved into the newly built Deanery in 1869 at 188 Hotham Street East Melbourne, next to Bishopscourt where Bishop Perry and his wife, Frances lived. The Deanery was a large nine-room single storey stone house with french windows leading to a return verandah and a sweeping garden. The Dean was also a landowner, buying large blocks in Hallam and Kew, although some of the land seems to have been bought for future church use rather than for the family.