Thomas Playford I

Thomas Playford (11 August 1795 – 18 September 1873) was a non-conformist minister of religion, teacher and farmer in the early days of the British colony of South Australia.

The brothers were ordained ministers, followers of Robert Aitken, with heretical views on the nature of eternal punishment that attracted charges of Socinianism.

[3] According to Stewart Cockburn, Playford was dragooned into the army to avoid a scandal involving an older girl.

[4] He returned to England with his regiment in February 1816 and, finding himself with time on his hands, volunteered for teaching and clerical duties.

[6] He married again in 1837 to Mary Ann Perry and had a further three children in England, the eldest following the family tradition in being named Thomas.

She married Thomas Welbourn prior to December 1836, when she and her husband migrated to South Australia aboard John Renwick, arriving in February 1837.

50, as surveyed by Colonel Light on Hindley Street, Adelaide, was purchased in his name, at a land auction held by the South Australian Company.

[6] By September 1846, Playford had erected a two-storey premises on his property in Hindley Street, where Thomas and Hannah Welbourn established an eating-house.

[21] Hannah Welbourn took her two children to Hobart for a year circa 1855; then to Hatfield, England, near her birthplace, where they stayed with relatives.

That same year he was operating a cooperage in Flinders Street in partnership with one William Wilkins,[24] then from August 1865 on his own account.

[29] Playford also farmed at Mitcham, where he ran a small school,[13] and, on occasion, preached at Bentham Street and Grassy Flat without payment.

Playford donated land on Albert Street, Mitcham for a Christian chapel,[30] which was opened in September 1860.

Tom Capel Davis (died 15 October 1875) became its first stipendiary minister, and the church was admitted to the Baptist Association.