Te Waimate Mission was the fourth mission station established in New Zealand and the first settlement inland from the Bay of Islands. [1] The members of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) appointed to establish Te (the) Waimate Mission at Waimate North were the Rev. William Yate and lay members Richard Davis, George Clarke and James Hamlin. [2] [3]
At the instigation of Samuel Marsden, a model farming village for Māori was constructed at Te Waimate by the CMS. Land was bought from the Ngāpuhi tribe following the Girls' War of 1830.
In 1830, Richard Davis, farmer and lay member of the CMS, established a farm at the Waimate Mission. [1] [4]
In 1835 William Williams, Jane and their family move to Waimate, where Williams continued his work on the translation of the Bible into Māori. [4] The boarding school for the sons of the CMS missionaries was also transferred from Paihia to Te Waimate Mission. Richard Taylor succeeded William Williams as principal of the Waimate Boys’ School in September 1839. [5]
On 23 & 24 December 1835 Charles Darwin visited when HMS Beagle spent 10 days in the Bay of Islands. [6] [7]
The village comprised three wooden houses for missionary families, a flour mill, printery, carpenters' shop, brickworks, blacksmith, school and of course the church. Marsden hoped Māori would be educated into European culture while making Te Waimate Mission a paying proposition by producing goods for sale to European shipping and the local Māori through the Stone Store at Kerikeri. The attempt to impose European culture on Māori in a controlled fashion where those being taught also formed the labour, failed to attract many Māori and the station was gradually run down.
The construction of St. John the Baptist Church was commenced in May 1831 and it was completed in 6 weeks. The name of the church was chosen as St. John the Baptist day fell on 24 June. [1] The original church also served as a school room. [1]
The first child baptised at the church was Edward Blomfield Clarke on 10 July 1831. [1] The first church wedding of two Europeans in New Zealand was conducted on 11 October 1831, between William Gilbert Puckey (26), son of a CMS carpenter, William Puckey, and Matilda Elizabeth Davis (17), second daughter of the Rev. Richard Davis. [2]
The existing St. John the Baptist Church was built in 1871. [1] [8]
In June 1842 Bishop George Selwyn set up residence at Te Waimate Mission. Some buildings were converted for use by St. John’s College to teach theology to candidates for ordination into the Anglican Church. [9] The candidates for ordination as deacons were: [1]
On 26 September 1844 Bishop Selwyn presided over the first Synod held in New Zealand. [1] Later in 1844 Bishop Selwyn moved his residence and St John’s College to Auckland.
During the Flagstaff War soldiers from the 58th and 99th Regiments, casualties of the Battle of Ohaeawai (July 1845), were buried in the graveyard of St. John the Baptist Church, [8] including Captain Grant of the 58th Regiment, and Lieutenant George Phillpotts of HMS Hazard. The mission station was used as the headquarters for the British army from 15 June 1845 to 6 October 1845, [1] after which the mission lost support among the Māori. [11] [8] The mission station gradually fell into disrepair and the buildings were subsequently put up for sale.
Today the only remnant on the site is the house originally occupied by George Clarke, which is preserved by Heritage New Zealand as a museum. [12] One of the other houses survives at the Butler Point Whaling Museum. A third building was sold and moved to Kerikeri- located on Springbank Lane it is occupied to this day as a home.
The members of the Church Missionary Society who were appointed to Te Waimate Mission include:
William Colenso FRS was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician. He attended the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and later wrote an account of the events at Waitangi.
Henry Williams was the leader of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in New Zealand in the first half of the 19th century.
Octavius Hadfield was Archdeacon of Kāpiti, Bishop of Wellington from 1870 to 1893 and Primate of New Zealand from 1890 to 1893. He was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for thirty years. He was recognised as an authority on Māori customs and language. His views on Māori rights, expressed in several books strongly criticised the actions of the New Zealand Government. Hadfield married Catherine (Kate) Williams a daughter of the Rev. Henry Williams and Marianne Williams.
William Gilbert Puckey, born in Penryn, England, was a missionary in New Zealand. He accompanied his parents to New Zealand at the age of 14. He became widely regarded as one of the best interpreters of Māori in the fledgling mission. He was able to form relationships of trust with many influential Māori from a young age, and in particular, with Nōpera Panakareao, of Te Rarawa iwi at Kaitaia.
Alfred Nesbit Brown was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and one of a number of missionaries who travelled to New Zealand in the early 19th century to bring Christianity to the Māori people.
Waimate North is a small settlement in Northland, New Zealand. It is situated between Kerikeri and Lake Ōmāpere, west of the Bay of Islands.
William Leonard Williams (1829–1916) was an Anglican bishop of Waiapu. He was regarded as an eminent scholar of the Māori language. His father, William Williams, was the first Bishop of Waiapu, Williams was the third bishop, and his son, Herbert Williams, was the sixth bishop of Waiapu.
William Williams was consecrated as the first Anglican Bishop of Waiapu, New Zealand, on 3 April 1859 by the General Synod at Wellington. His son, Leonard Williams became the third Bishop of Waiapu and his grandson, Herbert Williams, the sixth. His brother, the Rev. Henry Williams, led the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in New Zealand. William Williams led the CMS missionaries in translating the Bible into Māori and published an early dictionary and grammar of the Māori language.
Jane Williams was a pioneering educator in New Zealand. Together with her sister-in-law Marianne Williams, she established schools for Māori children and adults. She also educated the children of the Church Missionary Society in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
Bible translations into Oceanic languages have a relatively closely related and recent history.
Nōpera Panakareao was a New Zealand tribal leader, evangelist and assessor. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Te Rarawa iwi.
William Yate was one of the earliest New Zealand missionaries and writers who worked for the Church Mission Society. He was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England in 1802. He joined the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and entered the Church Missionary Society College, Islington, London, in 1825. He was ordained as a deacon of the Church of England on 18 December 1825, and priest on 21 May 1826. Yate learned the Māori language and had Christian texts printed in Sydney for his work.
Rota Waitoa was a New Zealand Anglican clergyman, of Māori descent. Waitoa identified with the Ngāti Raukawa iwi. He was born in Waitoa, Waikato, New Zealand. Waitoa's ordination as deacon at St Paul's, Auckland, on 22 May 1853, was the first ordination of a Māori into the Anglican church.
John Morgan was an Anglican missionary and a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in New Zealand in the 19th century. He was an important missionary to the Māori who established the Te Awamutu district.
Robert Maunsell was a New Zealand missionary, linguist and translator. He was born in Milford, near Limerick, Ireland on 24 October 1810.
George Clarke was a New Zealand missionary, teacher, public servant, politician and judge. He was born in Wymondham, Norfolk, England on 27 January 1798. He joined the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Clarke married Martha Elizabeth Blomfield. the second daughter of Ezekiel Blomfield, a Congregational minister.
Samuel Williams was a New Zealand missionary, educationalist, farmer and pastoralist.
The New Zealand Church Missionary Society (NZCMS) is a mission society working within the Anglican Communion and Protestant, Evangelical Anglicanism. The parent organisation was founded in England in 1799. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent missionaries to settle in New Zealand. The Rev. Samuel Marsden, the Society's Agent and the Senior Chaplain to the New South Wales government, officiated at its first service on Christmas Day in 1814, at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
James Shepherd (1796–1882) was an Australian-born Wesleyan Christian missionary and settler in Northland, New Zealand. He was prominent in the early European community of the Bay of Islands, involved in construction of the Stone Store in Kerikeri, and involved in drafting of the first written Maori publications.
St John the Baptist Church is an heritage-listed Anglican Church and associated churchyard built in 1831 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) at Te Waimate mission at Waimate North, inland from the Bay of Islands, in New Zealand.
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