Henry Williams (missionary)

Henry Williams (missionary)

Henry Williams (11 February 1792 – 16 July 1867) became the leader of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the first half of the 19th century. He entered the navy at the age of fourteen and served in the Napoleonic Wars. He went to New Zealand in 1823 as a missionary. The Bay of Islands Māori gave Williams the nickname Karu-whā ('Four-eyes' as Henry wore spectacles), he was known more widely as Te Wiremu. His younger brother William Williams was also a missionary in New Zealand. William was "the scholar-surgeon". Although Henry Williams was not the first missionary in New Zealand – Thomas Kendall, John Gare Butler, John King and William Hall having come before him – he was "the first to make the mission a success, partly because the others had opened up the way, but largely because he was the only man brave enough, stubborn enough, and strong enough to keep going, no matter what the dangers, and no matter what enemies he made".

Henry Williams translated the Treaty of Waitangi into the Māori language, with some help from his son Edward (1840).

In 1844, he was installed as Archdeacon of Waimate.