EH
H IS TO R IC A L . 33
and a new road made from The Briars over Cat Hole to Francis
Plain, the labour employed thereon being chiefly that of prisoners
and liberated Africans. On his death, in August, 1850, Lieut.-
Colonel Clark, the officer commanding the Boyal Artillery, acted as
Governor for a few months, until the arrival of Colonel (now Sir)
Thomas Gore Browne, C.B., in July, 1851. Governor Gore Browne
remained only three years and a half, when he was promoted to the
Governorship of Hew Zealand. His chief object at St. Helena was
to make some changes in the civil establishments, so as to reduce
the annual grant made by the Government for their support. This
was of course a disadvantage to the place ; still Colonel Gore Browne
merely carried out his instructions. Amongst the special objects of
his attention may be mentioned a scheme for establishing a village
or settlement at Rupert’s Vallejo, to relieve the overcrowded state of
Jamestown, and, with a view to furthering this end, he caused a new
jail, a sort of model prison, designed by Colonel Jebb, and Sent out
from England,* to be erected there, and also conveyed water to the
valley by means of iron pipes leading from The Briars over Rupert’s
Hill. The departure of Governor Gore Browne with his family was a
matter of much regret to the inhabitants, for they had won respect
and esteem on all sides. The senior military officer, Colonel Vigors,
acted as Governor until the arrival of Sir Edward Hay Drummond
Hay, Kt., on the 10th October, 1856.
Hitherto the Church of England had reigned supreme in the
Island, it having been included in the See of Cape Town, and
subject to periodical visits from that Bishop; but as the Church
was represented on the spot only by a colonial chaplain and a garrison
chaplain, a very inadequate number of clergymen, Dissent, which
was introduced by a Scotch Baptist Minister about the year 1847,
soon spread, and became a popular sectarian distinction amongst
the native population.
The first Bishop of St. Helena was appointed in the year 1860,
his diocese including the neighbouring island of Ascension, the
British residents at Rio, and other similar places situated on the
coast of South America. With most characteristic energy and
ability, Bishop Piers Claughton mapped out the Island into several
* This building, being chiefly constructed of timber, was burnt to the ground in less
than an hour by a'military prisoner confined therein, in the year 1867.