Martyrs' Pulpit
The nave pulpit was erected to celebrate the life of John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia who was murdered on 20 September 1871 on the remote island of Nukapu, part of the Solomon Islands, north east of Australia. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and erected in 1876-7, not of wood as it might appear, but in fine-grained sandstone.
Bishop Patteson’s mother was a niece of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was born in London in 1827 but was brought up in Devon, near his mother’s relatives, and discovered a talent for linguistics. He was ordained in Exeter Cathedral and in 1855 set out for New Zealand from where he travelled to the islands of Melanesia. He devoted the rest of his life to the indigenous peoples, learned more than 20 of their languages, became their first bishop in 1861 and invested his inheritance in his mission. He walked barefoot and would introduce himself to each new island by swimming ashore wearing a top hat.
In 1871, shortly before Bishop Patteson visited the island of Nukapu, five men had been kidnapped by brutal Australian gangs called ‘blackbirders’ for work as slave labourers. Patteson was unaware of this incident and as the first white man to set foot on the island after the event he was killed, reportedly in revenge for the kidnapping. Two of his companions were also attacked and died later from their wounds. An inscription on the pulpit commemorates all three.
Photo by Peter Smith, Newbery Smith Photography
The central pulpit panel depicts men of Nukapu carrying the bishop’s body wrapped in matting made of palm leaves. The five knots in the palm leaves laid on his chest represent the five natives whose loss was avenged by his death. Bishop Patteson was buried at sea.
The circumstances of Bishop Patteson’s death were particularly shocking as he had worked hard to suppress slavery and ‘blackbirding’ in Melanesia. His death resulted in renewed activity by the British government to stamp out the illegal Pacific slave trade.
These details supplement information provided in the cathedral on the stand A Violent End.
