Robert Maunsell (24 October 1810 – 19 April 1894) was a New Zealand missionary, linguist and translator. He was born in Milford, near

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 24 October 1810. Robert Maunsell joined 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 ...

and 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 its ...

in 1835 and was appointed to Te Waimate mission, and he was sent to established the

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...

mission station that same year; where he operated a school. From 1849 to 1865 he worked at Te Kohanga Mission near

Port Waikato Port Waikato is on the south bank of the Waikato River at its outflow into the Tasman Sea, in northern New Zealand. Port Waikato is a well-known surfing and whitebaiting destination and a popular holiday spot. Fish can be caught off the rocks ...

, including during 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 federation ...

, which was the response of the colonial government to the Kingitanga Movement. After 1844 the Rev. Robert Maunsell worked with William Williams on the revision of the translation of the Bible into the

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

. William Williams concentrated on the revision of the New Testament; Maunsell worked on the revision of the Old Testament, portions of which were published in 1840 with the full translation completed in 1857. In 1845 the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

was translated by a committee comprising William Williams, Robert Maunsell, James Hamlin and William Puckey. He was

Archdeacon of Waitemata The Diocese of Auckland is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The Diocese covers the area stretching from North Cape down to the Waikato River, across the Hauraki Plains ...

from 1868 to 1870;TEARA
/ref> and then Archdeacon of Auckland until 1883. He died on 19 April 1894 at

Parnell, New Zealand Parnell is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is one of New Zealand's most affluent suburbs, consistently ranked within the top three wealthiest, and is often billed as Auckland's "oldest suburb" since it dates from the earliest days of the ...

References

External links

* * 1810 births 1894 deaths Anglican missionaries in New Zealand Irish Anglican missionaries New Zealand translators Linguists from New Zealand Archdeacons of Waitemata 19th-century translators British Anglican missionaries Missionary linguists {{NewZealand-translator-stub