John Morgan (6 May 1812 – 8 June 1865) was an Anglican missionary and a member of the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

(CMS) mission in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the 19th century. He was an important missionary to the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

who established the

Te Awamutu Te Awamutu is a town in the Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipa District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it. Te Awamutu is located some south of Hamilt ...

district. Morgan was born on 6 May 1812 in Low Hill,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, the son of John and Patty Morgan. Morgan joined the

and attended the

Church Missionary Society College, Islington The Church Missionary Society Training College in Islington, north London was founded in 1820 to prepare Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society for work overseas. Prior to the establishment of the College the CMS missionaries re ...

, London in 1832. On the 21st May 1833, Morgan arrived in the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for it ...

, New Zealand, in the ''Prince of Denmark'', to join the CMS mission. In December of that year he worked with William Thomas Fairburn, John Alexander Wilson and James Preece to establish the

Puriri ''Vitex lucens'', or pūriri, is an evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand. History Pūriri was first collected (by Europeans) at Tolaga Bay by Banks and Solander during Cook's first visit in 1769. The plant was excellently described by Soland ...

mission station in the Thames area on the

Waihou River The Waihou River is located in the northern North Island of New Zealand. Its former name, Thames River, was bestowed by Captain James Cook in November 1769, when he explored of the river from the mouth. An older Māori name was "Wai Kahou Roun ...

. He moved to the Mangapouri mission station in May 1835, which was located near

on the northern bank of the

Puniu River The Puniu River is a river of the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. As a tributary of the Waipā River (itself a tributary of the Waikato River), and at a length of , it is one of the longest secondary tributaries in New Zealand. T ...

, close to where it joins the

Waipā River The Waipā River is in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. The headwaters are in the Rangitoto Range east of Te Kuiti. It flows north for , passing through Ōtorohanga and Pirongia, before flowing into the Waikato River ...

. On 26 August 1835 he married Maria Mathew Coldham, the sister of

Marianne Williams Marianne Williams, together with her sister-in-law Jane Williams, was a pioneering educator in New Zealand. They established schools for Māori children and adults as well as educating the children of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the ...

. In about 1842 he established the Otawhao mission station. In 1846 Morgan helped to construct 3 water mills that were built by the local Māori to mill wheat for sale. In 1849 he attended the St John's College, Auckland and was appointed a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

on 24 June 1849. On 18 December 1853 he was ordained as a priest. He returned to the Waikato and continued teaching in the schools for Māori people. In the early 1860s he acted as a government agent and reported on the Maori King Movement in the

Waikato Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsul ...

. His activities resulted in his expulsion from Otawhao in April 1863 following the

Invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federatio ...

by colonial government forces. He acted as a chaplain to the military forces from 1863–64. He resigned from the CMS in October 1864 and died on 8 June 1865.

References

Sources

''The Letters and Journals of Reverend John Morgan, Missionary at Otawhao, 1833-1865'', Published in 2 Volumes. Edited, with an Introduction, by Jan Pilditch, Associate Professor of English and director of the Text and Translation Research Unit at the University Waikato. The Grimsay Press, 2010

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, John 1806 births 1865 deaths Anglican missionaries in New Zealand Irish Anglican missionaries Clergy from Liverpool British Anglican missionaries Settlers of New Zealand People of the New Zealand Wars Church Mission Society missionaries