John Langdon Parsons

John Langdon Parsons (28 April 1837 – 21 August 1903), generally referred to as "J. Langdon Parsons", was a Cornish Australian minister of the Baptist church, politician, and the 5th Government Resident of the Northern Territory, 1884-1890.

Parsons was born on 28 April 1837 at Botathan near Launceston, Cornwall, a son of Edward Parsons and his wife Jane, née Langdon. He was educated at local schools and Bellevue Grammar School, Plymouth and was subsequently employed in a business house in London, but left to study for the Baptist ministry at Regent's Park College, Oxford.

He left for South Australia aboard Orient in company with merchant Charles H. Goode, arriving in July 1863, and preached his first sermon at George Stonehouse's Baptist church on LeFevre Terrace, North Adelaide on 19 July. He proceeded to Angaston, where he attracted large congregations, and married a granddaughter of George Fife Angas on 23 January 1866. He accepted an invitation to serve at the Baptist Church in Dunedin, New Zealand, but the climate affected his wife's health, and they returned to Angaston. In 1869 Rev. Stonehouse had been forced by a throat malady to retire from active ministry, and Parsons accepted the invitation to take over that pulpit. The congregation had outgrown their building and it was decided to build a new church on Tynte Street, North Adelaide, and meanwhile services were held in the Temperance Hall on the same street. In December 1869 the foundation stone was laid, and the first service was held in the new North Adelaide Baptist Church on 6 November 1870.

He left the ministry on account of failing health, or loss of faith, and after a holiday in England and Norway, joined with J. Preston as merchants, then with Ebenezer Finlayson's brokerage and agency business. He then determined to enter politics. He was elected to the Assembly seat for Encounter Bay in 1878 as a colleague of (later Sir) James Boucaut until 1881, then won North Adelaide in 1881.

...
Wikipedia