HISTORICAL. 
33 
and a new road made from The Briars over Cat Hole to Francis 
Plain, the labour employed thereon being chiefly that of prisoners 
and liberated Africans. On his death, in August,. 1S50, Lieut.- 
Colonel Clark, the officer commanding the Royal Artillery, acted as 
Governor for a few months, until the arrival of Colonel (now Sir) 
Thomas Gore Browne, C.B., in July, 1851. Governor Gore Browne 
remained only three years and a half, when he was promoted to the 
Governorship of New Zealand. His chief object at St. Helena was 
to make some changes in the civil establishments, so as to reduce 
the annual grant made by the Government for their support. This 
was of course a disadvantage t© the place ; still Colonel Gore Browne 
merely carried out his instructions. Amongst the special objects of 
his attention may be mentioned a scheme tor establishing a -village 
or settlement at Rupert’s Yalley, to relieve the overcrowded state ot 
Jamestown, and, with a view to furthering this end, he caused a new 
jail, a sort of model prison, designed by Colonel Jebb, and sent ou 
from England,* to be erected there, and also conveyed water to the 
valley by means of iron pipes leading from The Briars over Luper s 
Hill. The departure of Governor Gore Browne with Ins family was a 
matter of much regret to the inhabitants, for they had won respec 
and esteem on all sides. The senior military officer, Colonel \ igors 
acted as Governor until the arrival of Sir Edward Hay Drummon 
Hay, Kt., on the 10th October, 1856. . 
Hitherto the Church of England had reigned supreme m the 
Island, it having been included in the See of Cape own, ai 
subject to periodical visits from that Bishop , but as ie 
was represented on the spot only by a colonial chaplain and a garrison 
chaplain, a very inadequate number of clergymen Dissent, which 
was introduced by a Scotch Baptist Minister about the year 1847, 
soon spread, and became a popular sectarian distinction amongst 
the native population. tqco 
The first Bishop of St. Helena was appointed in the year 18bU, 
his diocese including the neighbouring island of Ascension, the 
British residents at Rio, and other similar places situated on ie 
coast of South America. With most characteristic energy and 
ability, Bishop Piers Claugliton mapped out the Island into seveia 
* This building, being chiefly constructed of timber was burnt to the ground m less 
than an hour by a military prisoner confined therein, in t e j ear • ^ 
