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Nathaniel Jones was born into a farming family at Whooton, Shropshire near Oswestry in 1861, one of 2 brothers and 2 sisters. He was educated at a Church of England School where religious education was featured. Jones' family were described by his wife as "an intelligent and book-loving family". In about 1880 his father set him up in a farm with one of his sisters but he did not make a success of farming so in 1882 his father decided to send him to Oxford, providing a sum of money from his estate to finance the studies. It is believed that his conversion took place whilst at Oxford. He was considerably influenced, by Canon Christopher, vicar of St. Aldgates' during his Oxford years. The church members at St. Aldgate's included William Cacey Ward, Bertie Gouldsmith, C. Sumner. His college years were impoverished and characterized by considerable deprivation. It is possible that this may have begun the impairment of his health. Jones received 1st Class honours in Theology at Oxford and was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Ripon in 1886. He went as curate to Rev. Dr. Mitchell at New Worthy, Leeds, Lancashire with whom he became lifelong friends. 2 months into his curacy, Jones developed chest problems culminating in pneumonia and was sent to the south coast to recuperate. His condition did improve but it was decided that a long sea voyage was in the best interests of his health. It was at this time that Jones made the decision to immigrate to Australia. On 28th of May 1887 Jones sailed from England aboard the ship 'The Harbinger'. Grace Henderson, a Deaconess Nurse, also sailed for Melbourne on this ship, hoping that a sea voyage might cure her nerve deafness. The two were later married (13.2.1888). The ship berthed in Melbourne 1.9.1887 and Jones became Curate in the Pt. Arlington area where he and Grace (known as Gracie) commenced married life. He was ordained as a priest in Melbourne on 27th May 1888 and appointed as priest at Tarnagulla, Newbridge, and surrounding area. They left Pt. Arlington, much to the consternation of the local parishioners who campaigned to have Jones remain as their priest. Jones and Gracie arrived in Tarnagulla 26.7.1888. The family remained in Tarnagulla until 1894, when Jones became Principal of Perry Hall, Bendigo. Perry Hall was a training institution for readers which began at White Hills in 1893 and then removed to Bendigo, under the superintendence of the Archdeacon of Sandhurst and supported by funds from the districts which were worked by the students residing in the Hall. Its financial position was not strong and on a number of occasions Jones noted that the future of Perry Hall was unclear. Whilst still at Perry Hall it was suggested that Jones apply for the position of Principal at Moore Theological College, Newtown. He commenced in that post in July 1897, following the death of the Reverend Bernard Schleicher 28.Feb.1897. Jones at once resolved to shape the academic programme to prepare students for the Oxford and Cambridge Pre­liminary Examination for Holy Orders, which was widely accepted by English Bishops as the standard for Ordination. The 1st 2 M.C. Students to sit for the 'preliminary' (2) did so in 1898, both received 1st Class honours. Reverend Jones was the first principal to introduce evening classes at Moore College. In 1898 16 students were enrolled at a cost of 2 pound 25s. a term but classes were discontinued in July 1899. He successfully appealed for the removal of the Broughton Chapel from Liverpool to Newtown, where it was re-erected on a smaller scale as the Broughton Memorial Chapel. Jones was a well respected member of the Sydney Diocese, as well as of the Wider Church Community. He was a close friend of a number of important members of Clergy including John Langley, Bishop of Bendigo, and William Griffith-Thomas. He educated and became lifelong friends with such men as Herbert Smirnoff Begbie, David James Knox, and Sydney Langford Smith. Ill health troubled Jones all his life, particularly diseases of the chest. In 1893 he received treatment for a growth in the throat which, he notes in his journal, had left him without speech for 2 years prior to that time. Robert Knox was appointed as resident tutor from the Easter term in 1901. This enabled Jones to live out of Sydney for his health. A journey to England from May 1908 to February 1909 brought no improvement, although he did resume full charge of the college by Easter 1909. In August 1910 Jones was admitted to hospital for major surgery. He passed away in May 1911, survived by his wife Gracie, and children Maisie and Stephen.

Grace Jones was born Grace Henderson in 1857. She became a Deaconess Nurse but was forced to give up her work due to the deterioration in her hearing. Hoping that a sea voyage might improve her condition she sailed for Australia on the ship 'The Harbinger' in 1887. She had intended to return to England 6 months later but met Nathanial Jones on board ship, subsequently married the young clergyman on 13 Feb.1888 and settled with him in Australia. She bore two children, Maisie and Stephen and survived her husband, who died in 1911.

Robert Brodribb Stewart Hammond (b. 1870 d. 1946) was ordained Deacon in 1894 and Priest in 1896, and worked until 1918 as Curate in several Sydney parishes. From 1918-1943 Hammond was Rector of St. Barnabas', Broadway, and was Canon of St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, from 1931-1944. In 1907 Hammond founded GRIT, a weekly Temperance journal, and from 1918-1943 he was President of the Australian Prohibition Alliance. Amongst other activities, Hammond founded homes for the unemployed and in 1932, began the Hammondville Settlement for the destitute. This work was recognized by the bestowal of an O.B.E. in 1937.

Thomas Chatterton Hammond (1877-1961) was an active figure in theological and church life. He greatly contributed to the Protestant cause, firstly in Ireland, then in Australia. His greatest work was as principal of Moore Theological College,1936-1953. T.C. Hammond was born in Cork, Ireland on February 20, 1877. He was early groomed to endure hardship, but was deeply conscious of a call to christian ministry.(1) He left secular employment to attend Trinity College, Dublin, where he was awarded the Downes Prize in 1902; the Wray Prize in 1903; and won the gold medal in Philosophy. Hammond saw Philosophy as the handmaid of Theology, and Theology as the Queen of the Sciences. This determined his lifelong approach to Theology. He was ordained Deacon in 1903 and Priest in 1905 by the Archbishop of Dublin. He married Margaret McNay in January 1906. Their children were John Coleman; Thomas Chatterton; Charles Kemble; and Doris Masterson.(3) The first phase of Hammond's ministry was in Dublin, where he served the Church of St. Kevin as curate 1903-10, then as Rector 1910-1919. The second phase of ministry was as superintendent with the Irish Church Mission 1919-1929, and General superintendent 1929-1936, as well as being Chaplain to the Townsend St. Mission Church. These were years of strenuous activity, in which he preached and wrote incessantly in the cause of Irish Protestants. He received nearly 500 Roman Catholic converts, including 25 priests, into the Church of Ireland.(4) He won a new prestige for the I.C.M. In 1926 Hammond paid a visit to Australia and lectured on the prayer book in Gippsland and Bendigo. He impressed Mr.H.L. Tress of St. Paul's, Chatswood, a trustee of Thomas Moore's estate, who was instrumental in his appointment as Principal of Moore Theological College, and Rector of St.Philip's, Church Hill, in 1935. He arrived to take up the appointment in April 1936. After the death of Archdeacon Davies, there were only thirteen students at Moore College. The College buildings were in disrepair and there was a post-depression debt of 6000. Hammond's goal was to build a strong, virile college for the future. Academic standards were raised; the course was lengthened; three new wings were built; a Memorial Chapel consecrated; the staff doubled in strength; and student enrolment increased. More than two hundred men were ordained during his principalship, almost a third of the total number in the first hundred years of College history. His unrivalled scholarship as a theologian and his powers as an original thinker were invaluable assets. He resigned from Moore College at the end of 1953, but was still in office as Rector of St. Philip's at the close of his life.Bishop S.J. Kirkby died a few weeks after Archdeacon Davies in 1935, leaving St. Philip's Church vacant. The Moore Theological Ordinance of 1919 was amended so as to allow the new principal to hold office at the same time as the Rector of St. Philip's. Hammond was greatly respected for the faithful way he fulfilled his duties at the church, preaching right to the last Sunday before he died, 16th November, 1961. From the outset Hammond was in the forefront of Diocesan work, and was one of Archbishop Mowll's closest confidential advisers. In 1936 he became Rural Dean of Balmain; in 1939 he was elected a member of the Cathedral Chapter; in 1949 he was appointed an Archdeacon without Territorial Jurisdiction. He was outstanding on Synod, standing committees and played a major role in the debate and drafting of the Constitution of the Church in Australia. He was President of the Council of Churches in N.S.W.; Grandmaster of Orange Lodge; and President of Inter Varsity Fellowship. By his interstate travel, inter-denominational ministry, books, lectures, pamphlets, sermons and broadcasts he touched a constantly widening circle of men. Hammond's major books were: on theology, In Understanding Be Men (1936); on ethics, Perfect Freedom (1938); and on apologetics, Reasoning Faith (1943). In the words of Marcus Loane: "He was a man of massive intellect and noble capacity,generous, large-hearted, full of Irish wit and foible, with an irrepressible fund of humour and a strong masculine love of humanity; a great man whose like we may not see again."(7)
References:

1. His father died when he was 5, and he left school to start work at 14. Marcus Loane, Mark These Men, p. 71.
2. Marcus Loane, The Late Archdeacon T.C.Hammond, Societas, p. 20.
3. Pers. Com. with Charles Kemble Hammond.
4. Loane, op. cit.p. 20.
5. Loane, ibid. p.21.
6. Marcus Loane, A Centenary History of Moore Theological College, p. 139.
7. Loane, op.cit, p. 21.
   (This biography was written by Lee Holland for his 1985 finding aid of the T.C. Hammond collection)

F.G. Taplin married T.C. Hammond's daughter Doris on 9th October, 1954. Frederick George Taplin studied at Moore Theological College, Sydney and was ordained in 1945 by the Archbishop. He was the Curate In Charge of the Provincial District of Wilberforce 1945-48; Locum Tenens of Pitt Town, 1946; Rector of Carlingford 1948-49; Rector of Sutton Forest, 1949-50; Rector of Blacktown 1950-54;and Rector of Jamberoo 1954-60. He had a General Licence from 1960; was Curate of St. Philip's, Sydney in 1961 and Acting Rector there 1961-64. He became Rector of Holy Trinity, Wentworth Falls and Chaplain of Boddington Red Cross Hospital 1965-70. He died 14th November 1972.

David James Knox, a student at Moore Theological College 1897-1899, was ordained in 1899. Among his many activities, Canon Knox served with the Y.M.C.A. during World War I and was Canon of St. Andrews Cathedral, Sydney, in the 1940s (a position his son, D.B. Knox, held in the 1960s). Canon Knox also had an active interest in the Church Missionary Society, the Moore Theological College Building Fund, and the Church of England Bible College.

David Broughton Knox, son of Canon D.J. Knox, had a long and distinguished connection with Moore Theological College. He was resident tutor from 1947-1953, Vice-Principal from 1954-1958 and Principal from 1959-85. Canon Knox, amongst other interests and duties, was a past President of the Council of Churches (NSW) and was Canon of St. Andrews Cathedral (as was his father in the 1940s) in the 1960s. In 1989 he established George Whitefield College in South Africa, and served as Principal until 1992. He married Ailsa Lane in 1950 and they had six children.

Percy Walter Gledhill, church and local historian, was a foundation member of the Church of England Historical Society and the Society of Australian Genealogists. His publications document the histories of several Sydney churches.

Howard West Kilvinton Mowll was born in 1890 in Dover, United Kingdom. He was educated at Kings College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Ordained Deacon in 1913 and Priest in 1914, he spent the years 1913-1922 engaged by Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada. From 1922-1926 he was the Assistant Bishop of West China, becoming Lord Bishop of West China in 1926 until 1933. In 1933 he was elected Archbishop of Sydney and in 1947 he was elected Primate of Australia and Tasmania. Archbishop Mowll died in 1958.