Charles Beaumont Howard was born in Dublin in 1807 and was ordained to the ministry of the Anglican Church, serving initially in parishes in Cheshire, England. With his wife and two young daughters he arrived in South Australia aboard the Buffalo in 1836, having been appointed Colonial Chaplain by the British Parliament.

Although the founding principles of the colony included religious freedom and no formally established church, concern that the colony not be without some religious guidance led to the creation of this official position shortly before the first colonists left England. For four years Howard was the only Anglican minister in the colony, and the only person licensed to conduct marriages. He helped establish churches, visited remote country districts and compiled the colony's first book, the South Australian Church Hymnbook. He had a heavy workload which certainly contributed to his early death.