The Reverend John Smithies (1802–1872) was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary who served in Newfoundland, the Swan River Colony of Western Australia, and Tasmania.
In 1832 he was married to Hannah, his fiancée from England who assisted him in his work of "visiting the sick, leading classes and prayer meetings, as well as conducting the school".
He was assigned to Western Australia in 1839 and, aboard the Prima Donna, landed near Fremantle on 22 June 1840 with his wife and four children, one of whom had been born at sea two weeks earlier.
In 1851, an application was made to Governor Fitzgerald for 40 hectares (100 acres) of good wheat land at York (some kilometres to the north on east side of the Avon River) “to be held for the improvement of the Natives for ever”.
[6] The Protector of Natives in York, Walkinshaw Cowan blamed the loss of students from the mission school to "yearning" or "strong particularity" to their own districts but also due to high death rates from influenza at the institution.