STILES, HENRY TARLTON (1808-1867), Church of England clergyman, was born on 24
June 1808 at Bristol, England, a son of Carter and Sophia Stiles. According to
family tradition he was intended for the Indian army. His strong Evangelical
upbringing led him to the Church Missionary Society's college at Islington though
'his constitution [was] not considered calculated to withstand the effects of a
Tropical Climate'. Stiles had scholarly interests—he hoped at one time that the
Bristol Clerical Education Society might sponsor him at Oxford—and served as tutor
in several important families, including that of (Sir) James Stephen of the
Colonial Office. It may have been Stephen who prompted him to look to Australia,
where the authorities had decided to recruit clergy and were having difficulty in
securing an Englishman as master of the Female Orphan School. Stiles was appointed
to this position in 1832 because of very high testimony to his peculiar fitness
'for the education and superintendance of Youth'. He was ordained deacon on 23
December 1832 and priest on 20 January 1833 by Bishop Blomfield of London. On 11
February he married Jane, the eldest daughter of Charles and Grace Hole, of
Kingsbridge.
View the full record at
Australian Dictionary of Biography
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