Biography
John Williams was born on June 29, 1796, in Tottenham, near London, England. His father was a craftsman, and the family was of modest means. As a boy, he showed no interest in religion. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to an ironmonger, and he learned the trade of metalwork. He was a lively and mischievous boy, and he took to the company of rowdy young men. On a Sunday evening in 1814, as he was on his way to meet his friends, he was stopped by his mistress, who asked him to go to the church with her. He went, and he heard a sermon by Matthew Wilks, a well-known preacher. The message went to his heart. He was converted and soon became a teacher in the Sunday school.
He offered himself to the London Missionary Society, and he was accepted. He was ordained in 1816, and a few months later he sailed with his wife, Mary Chawner, to the South Seas. They arrived in the Society Islands in 1817. They settled on the island of Moorea and later at Raiatea. He was a gifted man who learned the language quickly, and he took a part in the work of the mission. He was also an expert craftsman. He built a number of houses, a church and a boat. He taught the islanders how to make furniture, sugar and cloth.
He was a restless man who longed to reach the islands beyond. In 1823, he discovered the island of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. On a voyage in a small boat, he found it by accident. He sent native teachers from Raiatea, and in a short time the people turned to Christianity. He spent a year on Rarotonga and led the people in building a church. He also built a ship, which he called the Messenger of Peace. It was a sixty-foot vessel that he constructed himself, using native materials and the skills he had learned in the ironmonger's shop. He used it to travel among the islands.
He was among the first to employ native evangelists. He believed that the gospel would be carried most effectively by Polynesian Christians, who could speak to their own people. He trained a number of them. In the 1830s, he sailed to Samoa and set out a plan for the mission there. He left a group of native teachers, and in a short time the entire group of islands was converted to Christianity. He also translated parts of the Bible into the Rarotongan language and supervised the printing of the New Testament.
In 1834, he returned to England on furlough, and he stayed for four years. He published A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands in 1837. It was widely read and went through many editions. It was a large influence on a generation of missionaries, including David Livingstone, who was moved by it. He raised funds to buy a new ship, the Camden, for the mission. He was a popular speaker.
He was a man of exceptional energy and vision. He also had faults. He was sometimes impulsive and was criticized for his willingness to take risks. He had a family of several children, and his long absences from them caused them sorrow. He was a hard man to work with in some respects, as he was determined to get his own way. He often put his plans ahead of the advice of his colleagues.
In 1838, he sailed with the Camden for the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, with the intent of starting a mission there. On November 20, 1839, he landed at Dillon's Bay, on the island of Erromango. He and his colleague James Harris were attacked by a band of warriors and were clubbed to death. It is believed that the islanders had suffered at the hands of white traders and took revenge. He was forty-three years old. His body was eaten, but the remains were later recovered and buried in Samoa.
His death caused a stir in Britain. It stirred many to take up the work. His life shows the vision of a man who carried the gospel from island to island, and the readiness to pay the price. He is remembered as the apostle of Polynesia.