Broughton was born in Westminster, England. He was educated first at Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet, then at The King's School, Canterbury, where he was a King's scholar. His fortunes turned from commerce to theology when he inherited a substantial sum, allowing him to study at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. as 6th wrangler in 1818 and was that year also ordained deacon and priest and married to Sarah Francis. He graduated M.A. in 1823. He became a curate in Hampshire and later in Surrey where he was noticed by the Duke of Wellington who materially assisted his prospects, including influence in Broughton being offered the Archdeaconry of Sydney.
Broughton arrived in Sydney on 13 September 1829, succeeding Thomas Scott as Archdeacon of New South Wales At this time, the colony was ecclesiastically an archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of Calcutta. Broughton offered to resign half of his professional income to support a second See, "an instance of self-devotion," said a contemporary writer, "with scarcely a parallel." The Government accepted only £500 a year from him. Broughton was promptly made a member of both the colony's Legislative Council and Executive Council, assisting the Governor in the administration. He ceased to be a member of the Legislative Council when it was changed to a partially elected body in 1843, but remained a member of the Executive Council until 1849. He was also in charge of the commission for the overall policy towards Tasmanian natives which continued the policy of bounties and roving parties. He was granted a leave of absence and returned to England in 1834, there championing the cause of the church. The result was not as he expected; the Diocese of Australia was to be formed. He was enthroned Bishop of Australia, on 5 June 1836, in St James' Church, Sydney, as leader of the new Diocese of Australia just days after his arrival from England. Due to Broughton’s appeals for clergy to serve in New South Wales, William Sowerby arrived in Sydney in 1837, immediately becoming the first Anglican clergyman at Goulburn. In 1838, Broughton visited the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on M.S. Pelorus, for a pastoral visit to the native church established by the Church Missionary Society among the Māori. Broughton had a controversy with Charles Beaumont Howard over Howard's jurisdiction in South Australia. Broughton was a busy bishop and travelled widely, perhaps more so after his wife died in 1848. Broughton traveled to England in late 1852 and was involved in administration and missionary fund raising. He died in London in February 1853 and is buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
Legacy
In 1842 the Diocese of Tasmania was created; in 1847 the diocese was divided further to form four dioceses, Sydney, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne. Broughton is widely accepted as the founder of the King's School in Parramatta, then a town at a distance of a day's ride from Sydney. Broughton made many journeys around the fledgling colony and is credited as instigating the building of many churches in places such as Newcastle and the Hunter Region north of Sydney and in the Monaro region inland to the south-west. Broughton championed the Newcastle case and forfeited 500 pounds sterling from his salary to partly fund the development of a new diocese. The building of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney was commenced during the late 1840s. On 12 March 1845 he consecrated St John the Baptist Church at what later became the site of the federal capital of Australia, Canberra. A portrait of Broughton, by Marshall Claxton, is held at St. Paul's College, Sydney. The Broughton River and Port Broughton in South Australia and Broughton Streets in Kirribilli, Concord, Canterbury, Camden and Campbelltown are all named after him.
Family
Broughton also consecrated Saint Mary on Allyn, Allynbrooke, in the Hunter Valley. William Barker Boydell married his daughter Mary Phoebe Broughton and Broughton ordered that a church be built for his daughter to worship in. Boydell and Mary Broughton are both buried at St Mary on Allyn, along with their son, Henry, who died when he was one year old. Another son, Charles Broughton Boydell, married Rose Madelaine, the daughter of William Munnings Arnold and grand-daughter of the first incumbent of Paterson, NSW, John Jennings Smith. William's elder brother, Charles, married into the prominent Blaxland family through John Blaxland's granddaughter, Elizabeth. Broughton is commemorated in the Australian Anglican calendar on 20 February.
