Robert Haining

Role: Church of Scotland minister at Adelaide; performed the marriage of Francis Telfer to Margaret Wright on 27 March 1845 at North Adelaide.

Born: 14 August 1802 — Maxton, Roxburghshire, Scotland
Died: 26 April 1874 (aged 71) — Glenelg, South Australia
Ordained: 31 March 1841, Edinburgh
Arrived Adelaide: 20 November 1841, aboard the Orissa

Context (Telfer connection)

Robert Haining performed the second marriage central to the Telfer line: the wedding of Francis Telfer to Margaret Wright on 27 March 1845 at North Adelaide. He was one of the three founding Presbyterian ministers of South Australia (with Rev. Ralph Drummond and Rev. John Gardner).

Life Summary

Born at Maxton, Roxburghshire on 14 August 1802, son of Rev. John Haining and Wilhelmina (née Wilson). Educated at Sir John Watson's Hospital and Edinburgh University (1818–25). Appointed by the Church of Scotland's Committee on Colonial Churches on 5 February 1841 as minister at Adelaide, ordained 31 March 1841, and married Jessie, daughter of bookseller Robert Grant of Edinburgh, on 1 June 1841 before voyaging to South Australia on the Orissa, arriving at Port Adelaide on 20 November 1841.

He held his first service in Adelaide on 28 November 1841. After worship in rented quarters, a small church, St Andrew's, Grenfell Street, was erected for him and opened 14 July 1844 — succeeded by a larger St Andrew's in Wakefield Street, opened 13 February 1859. It was from this ministry that he performed the Francis Telfer–Margaret Wright marriage in March 1845.

Haining accepted state aid for the Church of Scotland in 1846–51, was a principal participant at the union of the Presbyterian denominations on 10 May 1865 creating the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, and was described as "a clergyman of broad sympathies, allied with strict orthodoxy, of genial temperament and unassuming disposition." His Adelaide ministry ended in 1871; he died at Glenelg on 26 April 1874.

Sources

• Australian Dictionary of Biography (J. McLellan), Haining, Robert (1802–1874), Vol 1, 1966, online 2006 — full life summary verified — accessed 7 Aug 2026
• SA History Hub (John Love), Presbyterian Church — names Haining (with Drummond and Gardner) as one of three founding Presbyterian ministers — accessed 7 Aug 2026

Related

• Francis Telfer (1809–1895) — performed Francis's 27 Mar 1845 marriage to Margaret Wright
• Margaret Wright Telfer (1810–1892)
• Rev. Ralph Drummond (1792–1872) — fellow founding SA Presbyterian minister