The Reverend Seymour Mills Spencer (27 March 1812 – 30 April 1898) was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. son of Moses Roswell Spencer and Alma Flagg. He and his wife Ellen Stanley Spencer followed an ambition to carry out the role of missionary work 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 ...

. He trained for missionary work in England at 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 ...

. 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) was an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

organisation that was part of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. The couple sailed on 17 January 1842 to New Zealand on the sailing vessel, ''Louise Campbell'' and arrived in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Spencer was ordained by

Bishop Selwyn George Augustus Selwyn (5 April 1809 – 11 April 1878) was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand (which included Melanesia) from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was Metropolitan (late ...

to be the

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 Churc ...

for the district of

Taupō Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, in the central North Island. It is the largest urban area of the Taupō District, and the second-largest urban area in the Wai ...

on 24 September 1843. The ordination ceremony was conducted in the St. John the Baptist Church at Te Waimate mission. Due to scandal over Spencer's purported advances toward a

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 ...

girl, the couple moved from Taupō to

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

. From 23 November 1843 he work under the CMS missionary Thomas Chapman at the recently established CMS mission station at Te Ngae in Rotorua. In 1844 Spencer was at the

Maketu Maketu is a small town on the Bay of Plenty Coast in New Zealand. Maketu is located in the Western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Maketu has an estuary from which the Kaituna River used to flow. It is also adjacent to Newdicks Beach located on t ...

mission station near

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

. In 1844 the couple established the first missionary post at

Lake Tarawera Lake Tarawera is the largest of a series of lakes which surround the volcano Mount Tarawera in the North Island of New Zealand. Like the mountain, it lies within the Okataina caldera. It is located to the east of Rotorua, and beneath the pea ...

; working with the local Māori, in 1848 they built a European-styled community called Te Wairoa. In 1844 Spencer was suspended from the CMS for impropriety with a Māori woman. He rejoined the CMS in 1849 and was stationed at Opotiki until about 1855. Sometime after 1855 the couple returned to the Te Wairoa mission and remained there until 1870. Spencer visited

Rotomahana Lake Rotomahana is an lake in northern New Zealand, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Rotorua. It is immediately south-west of the dormant volcano Mount Tarawera, and its geography was substantially altered by a major 1886 eruption of M ...

and Te Ariki many times during his 35-year term with the CMS. His work with the local Māori helped develop the area, and he was also instrumental in assisting explorers and traders in the vicinity of Rotorua and

.Andrews, Philip.(1995). ''Rotorua Tarawera and The Terraces'' (Bibliophil and the buried village) Ellen Stanley Spencer died at Maketu in 1882 at the age of 65; her body was taken for burial at Kariri on the shore of Lake Tarawera. On 10 June 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted burying the surrounding communities including Kariri. Spencer died on 30 April 1898 at Rongotea and was buried at Maketu. Their son, Frederick H. Spencer, build a Spencer Family Mausoleum at Kariri; Spencer's remains were disinterred and the dedication ceremonies for the mausoleum took place on 20 February 1924.

References

American Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in New Zealand 1812 births 1898 deaths American expatriates in New Zealand American expatriates in the United Kingdom {{christianity-bio-stub