29
June 1796 A.D. English
Nonconformist-Congregationalist & Missionary John Williams Born.
Martyred in Nov 1839.
John
Williams (missionary)
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John Williams (1796–20 November 1839) was an English missionary, active in the South Pacific. Born at Tottenham,[1] near London, England, he was trained as a foundry worker and mechanic.
In September 1816, the London Missionary
Society commissioned him as a missionary in a service held at Surrey
Chapel, London.
Contents
South Pacific Missionary
In 1817, John Williams and his wife,
Mary Chawner, voyaged to the Society
Islands, a group of islands that included Tahiti, accompanied by William Ellis and his wife. John and Mary established their first missionary post on the
island of Raiatea. From there, they visited a number of the Polynesian island chains,
sometimes with Mr & Mrs Ellis and other London Missionary Society
representatives. Landing on Aitutaki in 1821, they used Tahitian converts to carry their message to the Cook
islanders. One island in this group, Rarotonga (said to have been discovered by the Williamses), rises out of the sea as
jungle-covered mountains of orange soil ringed by coral reef and turquoise
lagoon; Williams became fascinated by it. John and Mary had ten children, but
only three survived to adulthood.[2] The Williamses
became the first missionary family to visit Samoa.
John
Williams
Murder
Most of the Williamses' missionary
work, and their delivery of a cultural message, was very successful and they
became famed in Congregational circles. However, in November 1839, while
visiting a part of the New Hebrides where John
Williams was unknown, he and fellow missionary James Harris were killed and
eaten by cannibals on the island of Erromango during an attempt to
bring them the Gospel. A memorial stone was erected on the island of Rarotonga in 1839 and is still there. Mrs. Williams died in June 1852. She is buried
with their son Rev Samuel Tamatoa Williams, who was born in the New Hebrides,
at the old Cedar Circle in London's Abney Park Cemetery; the name of her husband and the record of his death were placed on the
most prominent side of the stone monument.[3]
In December 2009 descendants of John
and Mary Williams travelled to Erromango to accept the apologies of descendants
of the cannibals in a ceremony of reconciliation. To mark the occasion, Dillons
Bay was renamed Williams Bay.[4][5]
See also
- John Williams (ship) – the missionary ship named in his honor.
Notes
1.
Jump up ^
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Williams, John, English Nonconformist missionary". Encyclopædia
Britannica (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press.
2.
Jump up ^ "Wills & Admons = Pt II, KÜCK, John". q.v. Public Record Office (PRO). Retrieved 2010-02-06.
5.
Jump up ^ "BBC
News - Island holds reconciliation over cannibalism". news.bbc.co.uk. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
References
- French, James. 1888. Walks in Abney Park Cemetery.
- Hiney, Tom. 2000. On the Missionary Trail: a journey through Polynesia, Asia and Africa with the London Missionary Society.
- Prout, Ebenezer. Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Williams, Missionary to Polynesia."
- Williams, John. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands: With Remarks Upon the Natural History of the Islands, Origin, Traditions, and Usages of the Inhabitants", George Baxter Publisher
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