John Williams missionary and martyr

John Williams (1796-1839) was an English missionary active in the South Pacific.
He trained as a foundryworker and mechanic.

John was born in Tottenham, London.

September 1816 the London Missionary Society (LMS) commissioned him as a missionary in a service held at Surrey Chapel London.

In 1817 John voyaged with his wife, Mary Chawner Williams, and with William Ellis and his wife, to the Society Islands, a group of islands which included Tahiti.
They established their first missionary post on the island of Raiatea. From there they visited other island sometimes with the Ellis’s and other LMS representatives.

The Williams family had 10 children but only 3 survived to adulthood. They were the first missionary family to visit Samoa.

In 1827 he built, over 15 weeks, a boatMessenger of Peace from local materials to take them to other heathen islands in the vicinity. He left in November and returned in February. He then moved the family to Raiatea.

When they went to Samoa in 1830 he had a Samoan couple, Fauea and hs wife Puaseisei, among his crew and they proved pivotal in the mission in Samoa. They set foot on the island of Savaii at Puaseisei’s village. They met Malietoa Vaiinuupo who had sole power over Samos following the death of his rival Tamafaiga. Malietoa accepted Christianity immediately.

They returned in 1834 to Britain where John supervised the printing of his translation of the New Testament into the Rarotongan language. He also published
Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands

In 1839 John Williams and James Harris visited part of the New Hebrides where they were unknown. They were killed and eaten by cannibals on the island of Erromango.

John’s bones were shipped and buried In Apia, Samoa. A monument was erected and the 6 storey building hosing the headquarters of the Congregational church of Samoa was named after John Williams. 7 LMS ships in the Pacific named after him

In December 2009 descendants of the Williams returned to Erromango to accept apologies from the descendants of the cannibals in a ceremony of reconciliation. Dillions Bay was renamed Wiliams Bay.

I have included maps of the Society Islands in the Pacific Ocean.