His next charge was a church in Chipping Norton, where he served from 1838 to 1945, but the cold wet climate of Oxfordshire was affecting his health, and when he heard George Fife Angas and other representatives of the South Australian Company offered him a position as president of a projected Baptist college in the warmer climate of the new colony he accepted, and arrived in the colony with his wife and four children aboard Templar in November 1845.
James Allen returned from England, and a large section of the congregation elected to have him resume his place as their pastor, and Stonehouse and 30 or 40 adherents seceded, and began meeting at Salem Chapel, the old Wesleyan building in Kermode Street, North Adelaide.
[1] Stonehouse began suffering a weakness of the throat which so affected his voice that his preaching was almost inaudible, and in 1869 was forced to retire from the pulpit, to be replaced by the Rev.
The Adelaide Theological College, largely funded by G. F. Angas, though sponsored by the Baptists, was open to all Christian denominations for a fee.
[5] Few men were more generally esteemed for consistent conduct, for quiet unobtrusiveness of manner, and for liberalness of thought, than Mr. Stonehouse; and his removal will be regretted by his brethren in the ministry, and by all who, as Christian worshippers or as personal friends, were permitted to share his wise counsels.
Mr. Stonehouse was not a brilliant or eloquent minister, but he had a high appreciation of the importance of his office, and a scrupulous conscientiousness in discharging the duties belonging to it.