James Clow

James Clow (26 May 1790 – 15 March 1861) was a Presbyterian minister, in the area which now consists of the outer-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

Early life and education
James Clow was born at Ardoch on 26 May 1790. He educated at the University of St Andrews. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy on 21 July 1813, He was subsequently appointed chaplain at Bombay by the Court of Directors H.E.I.C. on 8 December 1814, and ordained (by Presb of Kirkcaldy) on 5 April 1815.

Work in Bombay
Chow arrived in Bombay on 8 November 1815, and on 15 December attended a meeting called by the government to select a site and consider plans for a church. He held his first meeting of kirk-session on 11 February 1816. Clow returned to Scotland on account of ill-health in October 1817. He was back in India on 10 March 1819 and opened St Andrew's church on 25 April following, Clow was frequently away for long periods on sick leave and retired from the  service on 10 October 1833.

Work in Melbourne
He returned to Scotland in 1833 and then headed to Hobart, Australia, in 1837. On Christmas Day 1837, he and his large family arrived in Melbourne. On 25 December  1837  he  settled  in  Melbourne  (then Port  Phillip)  and  was  the  pioneer  of Presbyterianism  in  New  South  Wales.

He conducted the first Church of Scotland service in the Port Phillip District on 31 December. In Melbourne he purchased 2 acre of land on Swanston Street. The family initially lived in tents till he could have erected on the land a pre-fabricated house he brought with him from Hobart.

In August 1838 he leased the Corhanwarrabul run, an area which covered approximately 36 sqmi, on which he built a settlement called 'Tirhartruan', and an out-station called 'Glen Fern'. The Aboriginals often visited he and his family at their homestead.

He sold the lease to John Wood Beilby in 1850. Tirhartruan was located on the north side of Wellington Road, just east of Dandenong Creek, and was the subject of an archaeological dig in the 1970s. The electoral ward of Tirhartruan in the City of Knox is named after Clow's homestead.

He preached and  laboured  among  the  colonists, taking  no  salary,  and  occupying  no  stated pastorate,  and  was  the  inspirer  and  founder of  the  Scots  Church  erected  in  Collins Street. Clow was elected  first  Moderator  of  the General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian Church  of  Victoria  on 7  April  1859. He died on 15 March 1861,  Father  of  the  Church  in  Victoria. His portrait  was  in  St  Andrew's  vestry, Bombay.

Family
He married  13  April  1819, Margaret  Morison,  and  had  issue —
 * James Maxwell, born  13  January  1820
 * Mary Elizabeth, born  27  June  1821,  died  a child
 * Helen Johanna,  born  24  October 1822
 * Margaret Jessie,  born  28  January 1824
 * Mary Elizabeth,  born  1  March 1825
 * Jane, born  3  and  died  8 July 1828
 * Jane, born  4  March  1830
 * Henry Monereiff, born  30  March  1832,  and another  daughter  His  five  daughters  (identifications unknown)  married Archibald Campbell  of  the  Murray,  Dr  Robertson, Queenscliff  and  Kew,  James  Forbes,  minister of  the Scots  Church, Melbourne, William Hamilton,  minister  at  Mortlake,  and  Dr  Wilkie, Melbourne.