had a disagreement with his Church Missionary Society employers and started to seek alternative missionary work. Recruitment Frederick Irwin travelled to England in 1834 to seek clergy for the Swan River Colony and, as a result, a society within the Church of England was formed called the Western Australian Missionary Society, later to merge with other similar societies to become the Colonial and Continental Church Society. This organisation provided Anglican missionaries for many of England's colonies in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In 1836, a meeting was held in Guildford of residents of the Middle and Upper Swan regions of the new colony "... for the purpose of obtaining a clergyman for those populous districts, which owing to their remoteness from the Colonial Chaplains' residence, were destitute of spiritual leadership and devoid of public worship." Shortly after, Giustiniani was appointed, arriving at the Swan Parish in July 1836. He started a church at Woodbridge in Guildford and established the Middle Swan native mission (at the site of what was to become St. Mary's Church, Middle Swan), aimed at evangelising the local Aboriginal population. His tenure was unpopular, however, and he left the colony in 1838. Mitchell was appointed to the replacement position and he and his family and a governess named Anne Breeze left Portsmouth on board on 1 April 1838, arriving at Fremantle on 4 August 1838. The eldest childAnnie, then 12 years olddescribed her first impressions in her memoirs: Parish life The mission house in Middle Swan, which had been built for Giustiniani on a narrow strip of land known as the Mission Grant, was purchased for £150. The grant was originally given to settler John Wade in September 1829. It ran for about from the river to the Darling Range but was only 10 chains () wide. The house was made of mud bricks with a thatched roof and is believed to have stood where Huddelston House now stands at Swanleigh, a short distance from St Mary's. Immediately after arrival, a school was established, with Anne Breeze assisting. A church for which construction had been initiated by Giustiani in East Guildford was completed in 1839. It was consecrated as "St Matthew's". On 5 August 1839 the foundation stone for St. Mary's Church in Middle Swan was laid, and opened fifteen months later by Governor John Hutt on 29 November 1840. It was built in memory of