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St Patrick's History: A Great Pioneer Priest
In 1857, Archdeacon John McEncroe was appointed in charge of St Patrick's as the first parish priest. McEncroe was one of the great pioneer priests in Australia, to which he came in 1831 after some years in Carolina in the United States. He was the major force in helping establish an Australian Catholic newspaper - initially under various names in the early 1840s, and then as the famous Freeman's Journal which appeared for nearly a century from 1849.
The Davis home was still standing when McEncroe was appointed. The biographer
of William Davis says that John Davis remained in the house at least until
1860. McEncroe purchased the house and land the following year. He used
the site to build two stone terrace houses extending right up to the Grosvenor
Street corner. Completing them in 1863, he leased the one on the corner
as a shop, and lived in the second, nearer the church. Stonework of his
building is still visible in the courtyard beside the church, framed in
the red brick of the convent wall.
