Henry Williams (missionary)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Williams (around 1865)

Henry Williams (born February 11, 1792 in Nottingham , England , † July 16, 1867 in Pakaraka , Bay of Islands , New Zealand ) was a naval officer in the Royal Navy , later a missionary of the Church Mission Society in New Zealand and translator of the Treaty of Waitangi in Māori .

Early years

Henry Williams was born in Nottingham on February 11, 1792, the fifth child and third son of the Welsh family Thomas Williams , a lace maker and his wife Mary Marsh . According to family records, Henry was baptized on April 13th at the age of 2 months in Gosport , Hampshire , on the south coast of England.

After Henry's father died in 1804, following his grandfather and three of his uncles, he went to sea two years later on May 10, 1806 at the age of 14 as a midshipman . Joseph Sydney Yorke , a friend of the family, initially took him into his care. He later served on various warships of the Royal Navy , took part in the second naval battle for Copenhagen in 1807 and was u. a. used in the former Cape Colony , on Mauritius , in Madras and Calcutta . In August 1815 he left the Navy as a lieutenant on half pay , worked for a time as a draftsman, but was increasingly drawn to missionary work.

family

On January 20, 1818, Henry Williams married his wife Marianne Coldham in Nuneham Courtenay , Oxfordshire . The marriage had eleven children.

Henry Williams ' later son-in-law, Huge Carleton , wrote the book " The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate " in two volumes after Williams' death , see references.

Preparation for missionary work

Through his brother-in-law, Edward Marsh, Williams came into contact with the Church Missionary Society ( CMS ), which apparently was able to fulfill his wish for missionary work. When he heard that the Church Missionary Society was about to send a ship to New Zealand, he offered his services in 1819 to take command of the voyage. But the project was dropped. Instead, Williams was only accepted as a so-called lay settler ( settler with layman status ) for a project in New Zealand. In 1820 the Church Missionary Society accepted him as a missionary, after which he began studying for the priesthood. At the same time he learned practical and manual things that he considered useful for a life beyond civilization.

Williams was made a deacon by the Bishop of London on June 2, 1822 and ordained a priest a few days later on June 16 by the Bishop of Lincoln . This completed his preparations for the missionary trip to New Zealand and Williams left England on September 17, 1822 with his wife and three children on board the Lord Sidmouth .

In Hobart Town in Tasmania he first met Samuel Marsden , who had founded the mission station of the Church Missionary Society in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand almost 10 years earlier, and then traveled with Marsden's instructions via Sydney to his destination.

New Zealand

On August 3, 1823, Williams and his family reached the mission station at Brampton in Paihia , in the Bay of Islands . The mission project that until then the missionary Thomas Kendall , who was installed by Samuel Marsden , had been led with moderate success and had led to the conflict with Kendall , was Williams' most important task to order.

He quickly ended the mission station's trading dealings with the captains who arrived in the port, ensured that the station could supply itself independently of the Māori and ended the mission station's arms trade with the Māori . He laid down rules for trade, stopped the ways Western culture was used to civilize the Māori , and initially focused on teaching spiritual values. Williams learned the Māori language and ensured that all members of the mission station had to learn the language. In 1826 his brother William came to New Zealand and helped him with missionary work. Williams opens a school for Māori children, where he and his wife Marianne taught.

Williams received a lot of recognition from the Māori for his work and his success could then also be expressed in numbers. While only a few Māori converted to the Christian faith by 1830 , Williams was able to report over 3,000 baptized souls in 1842.

When William Hobson, as envoy of the British crown , wanted to sign the Treaty of Waitangi with the chiefs of the Māori in early 1840 , it was Henry Williams and his son Edward who translated the draft of the treaty into Māori with their language skills and it was Henry Williams who on On the day the contract was signed, the assembled chiefs of the Māori clans convinced them to sign the contract. Williams then traveled to the west coast of the North Island and the Marlborough Sounds with Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Bunbury to persuade other chiefs to sign.

In retrospect, Williams is to blame for the fact that, through mistakes he made in the translation, the interpretation of the treaty led to misunderstandings and later conflicts between the Pākehā (whites) and the Māori .

Because of his services, Bishop Selwyn appointed Williams Archdeacon of Waimate in 1844 . But on November 20, 1849, there was a break between the bishop and the Church Missionary Society on the one hand and Williams on the other. The reason was a real estate deal that Williams had illegally closed with the local Māori from the point of view of Governor George Edward Gray and the church . Williams had bought a piece of land from the Māori for his growing family on which his children could farm.

Williams was therefore expelled from the church and left the mission station in May 1850 to move to Pakaraka with his family . On July 18, 1854, Williams was rehabilitated by Bishop and Governor Gray , but did not return as a missionary.

Henry Williams died on July 16, 1867 at the age of 75 in Pakaraka in the Bay of Islands , where he was also buried. His wife Marianne died on December 16, 1879 at the same place.

On January 11, 1876, a stone cross was erected on the church property in honor of Henry Williams .

literature

  • Huge Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate . Volume I . Upton & Co. , Auckland 1874 (English, epub [PDF; 3,6 MB ; accessed on July 4, 2015]).
  • Huge Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate . Volume II . Wilsons & Horton, Printers , Auckland 1877 (English, online epub 3.8 MB [accessed July 4, 2015]).
  • Philip Mennell: Williams, Ven. Henry . In: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography . Hutchinson, London 1892, pp. 509-510 (English, Wikisource ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams . Volume I , 1874, pp.  12 .
  2. ^ A b c d Robin Fisher : Williams, Henry . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , October 30, 2012, accessed July 3, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Mennell : Williams, Ven. Henry . In: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography . 1892, p.  509 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Frederic Boase : Williams, Henry . In: Modern English Biography . Volume 6 Supplement (LZ). Netherton & Worth , 1921 (English).
  5. ^ The Williams Family . The Henry & William Williams Memorial Museum Trust , accessed July 4, 2015 .
  6. ^ Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams . Volume I , 1874, pp.  16 f .
  7. ^ Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams . Volume I , 1874, pp.  18 .
  8. ^ Carleton : The Life of Henry Williams . Volume I , 1874, pp.  19 .
  9. ^ Treaty signatories and signing locations . In: New Zealand History . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , June 16, 2015, accessed July 6, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Mennell : Williams, Ven. Henry . In: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography . 1892, p.  510 .
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Navy officer in the Royal Navy, later missionary in New Zealand and translator of the Treaty of Waitangi
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH Nottingham , England
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1867
Place of death Pakaraka , Bay of Islands , New Zealand