The story of John Williams, missionary
Yesterday a photo of the ship halfpenny, used in Britain from
1937 until 1969, was posted on Twitter. As soon as I saw it I was back in my Sunday
school class in the late 1950s putting my ha’pennies into the collection box
for the John Williams VI missionary ship.
As you might expect John Williams VI was the sixth ship of
that name, but who was John Williams?
John Williams was born in Tottenham in 1796 and he became an apprentice
to an ironmonger where he worked in the foundry and as a mechanic. Originally
brought up as a Baptist, he joined the Congregational Church and in 1816 knew
that he wanted to be a missionary. He
was commissioned by the London Missionary Society at the circular Surrey Chapel
in Blackfriars Road, Southwark. The LMS
had been set up to, “Spread the knowledge of Christ among the heathen and other
unenlightened nations.”
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| John Williams |
In 1817 John and his wife Mary set out for the Society
Islands, an archipelago which includes Tahiti. They were accompanied by William
Ellis, another missionary, and his wife. After a long voyage via Australia and
New Zealand they arrived at the island of Raiatea where John and Mary Williams
established a missionary post, from where John could visit several other
Polynesian island chains. This included
the undiscovered island of Rarotonga, covered in dense jungle on a mountain of
orange soil surrounded by a coral reef and a turquoise lagoon.
In 1821 John revisited Sydney where he preached and
addressed public meetings. He was
influential in the later establishment of the Aboriginal Protection
Society. He bought a ship to trade
between Raiatea and Sydney and employed Thomas Scott to instruct the Raiatean
people in growing tobacco and sugar cane.
John and Mary had 10 children and they were the first
mission family to visit Samoa. By 1834 Mary
was quite unwell so she and John returned to England. They were accompanied by Leota from Samoa,
who wished to live as a Christian in London.
When he died he was buried in Abney Park Cemetery. John published his, “Narrative of Missionary
Enterprise.” Appealing to the public, he raised £4000 to purchase a ship, the
Camden, and he also supervised the printing of a New Testament in the Rarotongan
language.
In 1837 John and Mary returned to the Polynesian Islands to
continue their mission. In Tahiti, John
built a boat, “Messenger of Peace,” and later another, “Olive Branch.”
Sadly in 1839 when John Williams visited the island of
Erromango in the New Hebrides, accompanied by fellow missionary James Harris,
they were clubbed to death and eaten by cannibals. In December 2009 descendants of John Williams
travelled to Erromango to accept the apologies of descendants of the cannibals
at a ceremony of reconciliation.
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| John Williams VI |
The London Missionary Society were able to purchase a new
ship to continue John’s work using money raised by “Juvenile Friends,” a fund
collected by children in the Congregational Church. The ship “John William” was launched in 1844
and set sail from Gravesend with new missionaries. Over the years there were seven John Williams
ships, the last “John Williams VII” being decommissioned in the 1970s.
To read more about John Williams please go to:-
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