Henry Smith Williams Edward H Williams Popular Books

Henry Smith Williams Edward H Williams Biography & Facts

Henry Williams (11 February 1792 – 16 July 1867) was the leader of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in New Zealand in the first half of the 19th century. Williams entered the Royal 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 he wore spectacles). He was known more widely as Te Wiremu. ('Wiremu' being the Māori form of 'William'). His younger brother, William Williams, was also a missionary in New Zealand and known as "the scholar-surgeon". Their grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Williams (1725–1770), was a Congregational minister at the Independent Chapel of Gosport in England. Although 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". In 1840, Williams translated the Treaty of Waitangi into the Māori language, with some help from his son Edward. On 21 September 1844, Williams was installed as Archdeacon of Te Waimate in the diocese centred on Te Waimate mission. Parents, brothers and sisters Williams was the son of Thomas Williams (Gosport, England, 27 May 1753 – Nottingham 6 January 1804) and Mary Marsh (10 April 1756 – 7 November 1831) who had married in Gosport on 17 April 1783. Thomas Williams was a supplier of uniforms to the Royal Navy in Gosport. In 1794, Thomas and Mary Williams and their six children moved to Nottingham, then the thriving centre of the East Midlands industrial revolution. Thomas Williams was listed in the Nottingham trade directories as a hosier. The industry was based on William Lee's stocking frame knitting machine. The business was successful. Thomas Williams received recognition as a Burgess of Nottingham in 1796 and as a Sheriff of Nottingham in 1803. However the prosperity which had been such a feature of the hosiery industry in the second half of the 18th century ended. In 1804, when Thomas Williams died of typhus at the age of 50, his wife was left with a heavily mortgaged business with five sons and three daughters to look after. Williams's parents had nine children, of whom six (including himself) were born in Gosport and three (including William Williams) in Nottingham: Mary (Gosport, England, 2 March 1784 – Gosport, England, 19 April 1786) Thomas Sydney (Gosport, England, 11 February 1786 – Altona, Germany, 12 February 1869) Lydia (Gosport, England, 17 January 1788 – 13 December 1859), married (7 July 1813) Edward Garrard Marsh (8 February 1783 – 20 September 1862) John (Gosport, England, 22 March 1789 – New Zealand, 9 March 1855) Henry (Gosport, England, 11 February 1792 – Pakaraka, Bay of Islands, New Zealand 16 July 1867) Joseph William (Gosport, England, 27 October 1793 – Gosport, England, August 1799) Mary Rebecca (Nottingham, England, 3 June 1795 – Bethlehem, Palestine 17 December 1858) Catherine (Nottingham, England, 28 July 1797 – Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England, 11 July 1881) William (Nottingham, England, 18 July 1800 – Napier, New Zealand, 9 February 1878) Williams was aged 11 when his father died (his brother William Williams was three). 1806–1815: Navy years In 1806, aged 14, Williams entered the Royal Navy, serving on HMS Barfleur. He became a midshipman in 1807. He then served on HMS Maida under Captain Samuel Hood Linzee during the Battle of Copenhagen when the Danish fleet was seized in 1807. He landed with the party of seamen who manned the breaching battery before the city. He participated in the engagement on 13 February 1810, when 8 boats under the command of Lieutenant Gardiner Henry Guion, attacked nine French gun boats in the Basque Roads. On HMS Galatea, under Captain Woodley Losack, he took part in the Battle of Tamatave (1811) between three English frigates, under the command of Captain Schomberg, and three French vessels of superior force. Williams was wounded and never entirely recovered. For this service he qualified for the Naval General Service Medal, which was awarded in 1847 with clasp "Off Tamatave 20 May 1811". After the outbreak of the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States, he served on HMS Saturn as part of the blockading squadron off New York City. He was transferred to HMS Endymion and served under Captain Henry Hope in the action on 14 January 1815 against the American warship USS President. When the latter was forced to surrender, Williams was a member of the small prize crew that sailed the badly damaged vessel to port, after riding out a storm and quelling a rebellion of the American prisoners. In 1848 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal, with clasp "Endymion wh. President", to any still surviving crew from Endymion. Before serving on HMS Saturn, Williams sat and passed his examinations for the rank of lieutenant, although he was not promoted to lieutenant until 28 February 1815, after the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the United States. When peace came in 1815, he retired on half pay. At the age of 23 he had been "in the North Sea and the Baltic, around the French and Spanish coasts, southwards to the Cape, up to the eastern shores of Madagascar, across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, and northward to the coast of India. After service at Madras and Calcutta, it was on into the cold American winter and that epic last naval engagement in which he took part, on the Endymion". Williams' experiences during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 influenced his decision to become a Christian missionary and peacemaker in carrying out the work of the Church Missionary Society in what was then considered an isolated and dangerous mission in New Zealand. Marriage and children After leaving the Royal Navy, Williams gained employment at Cheltenham, as a teacher of drawing. His artistic skills are apparent in the drawings he made in New Zealand. Williams married Marianne Coldham on 20 January 1818. They had eleven children: Edward Marsh (2 November 1818 – 11 October 1909). Married Jane Davis, daughter of the Rev. Richard Davis, a CMS missionary. Marianne (28 April 1820 – 25 November 1919). Married the Rev. Christopher Pearson Davies, a CMS missionary. Samuel (17 January 1822 – 14 March 1907). Married Mary Williams, daughter of William and Jane Williams. Henry (Harry) (10 November 1823 – 6 December 1907). Married Jane Elizabeth Williams (also a daughter of William and Jane). Thomas Coldham (18 July 1825 – 19 May 1912). Married Annie Palmer Beetham, daughter of William Beetham. John William (6 April 1827 – 27 April 1904). Married Sarah Busby, daughter of James Busby. Sarah (26 February 1829 – 5 April 1866). Married Thomas Biddulph Hutton.... Discover the Henry Smith Williams Edward H Williams popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Henry Smith Williams Edward H Williams books.