George Henry CoxPrint Page

The plaque, erected by parishioners and friends, commemorates George Henry Cox  M.L.C (1824 - 1901), for his work as parliamentarian, church warden, trustee and benefactor of the church. 

At 32 he entered politics as member for Wellington (County) in the first Legislative Assembly, and was returned unopposed in January 1858. With the reallocation of seats in the new parliament under manhood suffrage, Cox did not seek re-election but in June 1863 Charles Cowper appointed him to the Legislative Council, where he sat continuously until his death, being then its longest standing member. He never held ministerial rank because he gave his vote where he chose and not always in the interests of conservative landowners. His consistent principles were free trade and the abolition of state aid to religion and Church schools.

Cox was an active member of the Church of England. In 1841 his father had given land for the church, glebe and cemetery of St John the Baptist, Mudgee, and his son continued as its most generous pew-holder and trustee. He held a seat on the diocesan synod of Sydney from 1866 and of Bathurst from 1873. As chairman of committees of the Bathurst synod he was its most influential layman, taking special interest in financial matters. As trustee of the diocesan endowment he securely invested its funds in mortgages to the Cudgegong municipality. As the Bathurst representative to provincial and general synods he often found himself in opposition to most of the clergy, particularly in his support of public education. On questions of doctrine he met with strong episcopal censure both in Sydney and Bathurst when in 1888-89 he tried to revive the English debates on revision of the Prayer Book by a 'clipping and cutting process' intended to bring in the Nonconformists. But in temporal affairs his influence remained valuable. His last act on behalf of the Bathurst diocese was in a dispute over the cathedral finances in 1901, when he rose from his sick bed to lead a synod delegation to the Bathurst parishioners.

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