William Gilbert Puckey (5 May 1805 – 27 March 1878), born in
Penryn, England, was a
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
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 accompanied his parents to New Zealand at the age of 14. He became widely regarded as one of the best interpreters of Māori in the fledgling mission. He was able to form relationships of trust with many influential Māori from a young age, and in particular, with
Nōpera Panakareao
Nōpera Panakareao (? – 13 April 1856) was a New Zealand tribal leader, evangelist and assessor. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Te Rarawa iwi.
Nōpera lived at Kaitaia. He became a friend of William Gilbert Puckey, the son of William ...
, of
Te Rarawa
Te Rarawa is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of five Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island.
Rūnanga and marae
Te Rarawa has 23 foundation marae:
*Korou Kore Marae, '' Ahipara'', represents the hapū of Ng ...
iwi
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...
at
Kaitaia
Kaitaia ( mi, Kaitāia) is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1. Ahipara ...
.
The night before the signing of the
Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...
at Kaitaia, Panakareao called for Puckey and spent a long time discussing and questioning the meaning, translation, and significance of the term "
kawanatanga" which
Henry Williams Henry Williams may refer to:
Politicians
* Henry Williams (activist) (born 2000), chief of staff of the Mike Gravel 2020 presidential campaign
* Henry Williams (MP for Northamptonshire) (died 1558), Member of Parliament (MP) for Northamptonshire ...
had used in the Treaty. In Panakareo's speech to assembled chiefs, (translated by Puckey and recorded by Richard Taylor at the time), he endorsed the Treaty. He said he understood the words of the Treaty to mean that "the shadow of the land was passing to the Queen, while the substance remained with Māori", a view he perceptively and presciently reversed a year later in light of increasingly bitter practical experience in subsequent dealings with
Pākehā
Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...
authorities, when he stated that he saw that the substance of the land had passed to the Queen and that the shadow had remained with Māori.
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.
Puckey's fluency and empathy in
te reo Māori helped him establish effective relationships and understandings with
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 ...
in
Northland. Few other Pākehā in the early years of contact could communicate as effectively between races. Puckey often referred to himself and his wife in his Journals as mere 'labourers in the vineyard', and though he was both modest and humble, the actual effect of his labours may have been under-rated, in his lifetime 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 ...
, who refused to consider him as a candidate for ordination, ostensibly because of his lack of Greek and Latin, (ignoring his well recognised ability to provide accurate translations of Māori), and by subsequent historians.
Beginnings
Puckey was born in Penryn, Cornwall, and christened there on 5 June 1805.
[The Family Research of Monique Jones]
His parents were William Puckey senior and his wife, Margery (née Gilbert). William senior, and his brother James Puckey, had been in the original
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...
(LMS) party that travelled out on the ship
Duff, and attempted to establish a LMS mission in
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...
in 1796, but when that mission failed, went on to Paramatta, Australia. William Puckey (senior) returned to England in 1800, married Margery Gilbert and had 4 children. The family including 3 surviving children left England in 1815 bound for Australia. The eldest girl, Caroline, died of convulsions in Rio de Janeiro, no doubt a traumatic event for the family. William established himself as a boat builder in Sydney and in November, 1819 William Gilbert and his sister Elizabeth, (later to marry
Gilbert Mair) came with their parents to Kerikeri, New Zealand aboard the 'General Gates', on the second of
Samuel Marsden
Samuel Marsden (25 June 1765 – 12 May 1838) was an English-born priest of the Church of England in Australia and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society, believed to have introduced Christianity to New Zealand. Marsden was a prom ...
's missions.
William Puckey senior had been a boat builder, mariner and carpenter in Cornwall, and probably made a significant contribution to the establishment of these skills in New Zealand, as a sawyer, carpenter, and boat builder, being involved in the selection of timbers, sawing of planks, and making of joinery for the
Kemp House, and the building of the 55 foot schooner for the CMS mission. William Puckey junior helped build, then served as the
mate
Mate may refer to:
Science
* Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in:
** Mate choice, intersexual selection
** Mating
* Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins
Person or title
* Friendship ...
of the ''Herald'';
until the ship was wrecked in 1828 while trying to enter
Hokianga Harbour
The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand.
The original name, still used by local Māori, is ...
.
Both his father William, and especially his mother Margery, succumbed to alcoholism under the conditions of life in early New Zealand, and both died in 1827 after an extended bout of drinking following the marriage of their daughter, after they had returned to Sydney. William Gilbert Puckey joined the CMS mission in his own right in 1821, and after accompanying his father back to Sydney in 1826, returned to New Zealand in 1827, and stayed here for the rest of his life.
This background, of growing up in his formative years in close contact with Māori communities, and witnessing the vicissitudes of the early mission settlements, was highly significant to his later development of strong and effective bonds with Māori around the mission stations he worked in, at
Kerikeri
Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of th ...
,
Paihia
Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is 60 kilometres north of Whangārei, located close to the historic towns of Russell and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry William ...
,
Waimate
Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand and the seat of Waimate District. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island. The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main No ...
, and the station he helped found and then stayed at
Kaitaia
Kaitaia ( mi, Kaitāia) is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1. Ahipara ...
.
On 11 October 1831, in the St. John the Baptist Church at
Te Waimate mission, Puckey married Matilda Davis (who was then aged 17), second daughter of Rev. Richard Davis, thus becoming the first European couple recorded to be married in New Zealand.
Their first child was born in early January 1833, but only survived for seven weeks.
Expedition to the Reinga
Puckey was the first Pākehā to travel up the
Ninety Mile Beach to 'Te Reinga' which is known today as
Cape Reinga
, type =Cape
, photo = Cape Reinga, Northland, New Zealand, October 2007.jpg
, photo_width = 270px
, photo_alt =
, photo_caption =
, map = New Zealand
, map_width = 270px
...
. It is the departing point of spirits in the Māori world-view, and that he was allowed to go there says something about the relationship he had been able to form with local Māori.
In December 1834, not long after his arrival and settlement in Kaitaia, he travelled in the company of an older Chief, Paerata, (-translates as 'the pilot'), an early convert to Christianity. They were questioned at
Houhora
Houhora is a locality and harbour on the east side of the Aupouri Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. It is north of Kaitaia. Waihopo, Te Raupo, Pukenui, Raio and Houhora Heads are associated localities on the southern shores of the harbour. ...
as to their motives for wanting to travel to this most sacred place, and on their return were confronted by a large gathering of rangatira who were anxious that Puckey might be damaging the 'aka', the ladder down to the sea, whereby spirits were understood to depart for Hawaiiki.
A large
hui
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
sat to allow all opinions to be voiced, and at the end, Paerata stood and spoke for 2–3 hours, explaining what he and Puckey had done and discussed on their travels, and how the new Christian beliefs and philosophy that Puckey was espousing were not necessarily a threat to the customary beliefs of Māori.
Adventures
When he was 14, Puckey set fire to the fern surrounding the mission station, causing great alarm. Missionary J.G Butler recorded in his diary on 6 January 1821 that the fire, “which had like to have burned our standing wheat, the day being windy and the fern high. The fire raged with great fury, so that, with the assistance of a great many natives, we had great difficulty in saving the corn, and putting it out. Mr. F. Hall had some barley burned, but not much".
[Earliest New Zealand: The Journals and Correspondence of the Rev. John Butler](_blank)
accessed 11 September 2007
Later that year, Māori plundered the Puckey family's house in a 'Muru' raid, as
utu
Utu (dUD "Sun"), also known under the Akkadian name Shamash, ''šmš'', syc, ܫܡܫܐ ''šemša'', he, שֶׁמֶשׁ ''šemeš'', ar, شمس ''šams'', Ashurian Aramaic: 𐣴𐣬𐣴 ''š'meš(ā)'' was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. ...
in response for William Gilbert's 11-year-old sister Elizabeth, in response to childish insults being traded, telling the daughter of the great chief
Hongi that she would “cut your father's head off, and cook it in the iron pot,” according to Butler's diary. “When the natives broke in, one of them caught hold of him ( WG Puckey) by the hair of his head, and said he would cut off his head if he spoke a word. As soon as he was loosed, in he ran to his father, trembling in every limb.”
Puckey is reported to have later saved the life of a young Māori boy slave who was to be thrown into a river. The missionary suggested he buy the boy from them, and rushed back to the mission station to get the flour and sugar payment negotiated. When he returned, he saw the boy was already in the river. He dived in fully clothed, rescued and revived the boy, who thereafter joined the Puckey household.
A man of ingenuity, Puckey built what may have been New Zealand's first land yacht. He rigged a sail on his dray, which he then 'sailed' back down Ninety Mile Beach after visits and explorations up that beach, letting the horse have an easy run home.
Impact on Northland
During Puckey's lifetime, he influenced and enriched the region of Northland greatly. Because he was a skilled builder, carpenter, inventor and architect, many of Kaitaia's original buildings, bridges and roads were built under his supervision. Tools that he used and created can be seen in the Te Ahu Heritage (Far North Museum).
His fluency in the Māori language meant that he could correctly translate and communicate parts of the Bible into the Māori idiom and language, great assistance for other missionaries and their relations with other Māori communities. Māori converted to Christianity due to Puckey's and his wife's evangelical efforts and example, often spent their life on the mission station, helping to convert other Māori.
A Man of Honour
Puckey lived his life as an honest, humane, and sincere man with considerable integrity; he maintained strong connections with the church and with the purpose of converting Māori to Christianity and translating the Gospel so that Māori could understand it. Even into his later years when he was bedridden and hard of hearing, he still maintained time to give a ‘nugget’ of wisdom to a young Māori that might happen to come by. Acts like these earned him the respect of Nga Puhi chiefs, such as Paerata and Pana-kareao.
However, some thought he could have improved his contributions. The Waitangi Commission's 'Muriwhenua Land Report' rather condescendingly said - "William Puckey was an honest man, and a fluent Māori speaker, but he was more of a faithful artisan than a wordsmith. He was a layman throughout his missionary service, being neither admitted to the diaconate nor ordained as a priest. His use of the Māori language left good scope for improvement, in our view, and as for legal draftsmanship his deeds were in urgent need of repair".
But Puckey's own writings are often very insightful, and well seasoned with illuminating metaphor. Puckey recorded a letter he had received from a Māori correspondent in the 'Missionary Register' in 1836, that said "the Holy Spirit has begun to dig at the top of my heart, but works downward very slowly. He seems to stand in need of a spade".
Death and legacy
William Gilbert Puckey died at Kaitaia on 27 March 1878, age 73, and was buried at St Saviours Church, Kaitaia. His wife Matilda died on 15 July 1884 in
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
.
[The Descendants of Richard Davis]
/ref> Some prominent relatives of William Gilbert Puckey include his son Edward Walter Puckey, who was appointed a Judge of the Native Land Court
Native may refer to:
People
* Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth
* Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory
** Native Americans (disambiguation)
In arts and enterta ...
on 18 May 1881.
William and Matilda's 11 children were:[
*Frederick James Puckey (1834-1834) died aged seven weeks, at Waimate.
*William George Puckey (1835-1918) m. Margaret Hunt in 1872. Six children.
*Edward Walter Puckey (1837-1924) m. Annie Russell in 1863. Two children.
*Mary Serena Puckey (1839-1927) m. Dr Thomas Trimnell in 1864. Two children.
*Margarita Jane Puckey (1844-1930) m. William Henry Blyth in 1866.
*Caroline Elizabeth Puckey (1842-1849) died from ear infection.
*Frederick Coleman Puckey (1847-1848)
*Charles Iselton Puckey (1848-1934) m. Doris Sophia Subritzky on 14 May 1873. Nine children.
*Richard Henry Martyn Puckey (1852-1934 ) m. Alice Marion masters in 1883. Seven children.
*Annie Matilda Sophia Marella Puckey (1855?-1932?) m. William Temple Williams in 1891. Four children.
*Albert Francis Puckey (1858-1936) m. Gertrude Robinson. No children.
]
See also
*New Zealand Church Missionary Society
The New Zealand Church Missionary Society is a mission society working within the Anglican Communion and Protestant, Evangelical Anglicanism. The parent organisation was founded in England in 1799. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent missiona ...
References
Other sources
* '' By Bible, Hammer & Compass, Pacific Adventures James and William Puckey, 1796-1827'' (2018), Adrienne Puckey, Sean Millar Publishing, Auckland,
* ''A brief record of the life of William Gilbert Puckey, of New Zealand, missionary and pioneer'', A.M.S.M. Williams[http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_library-catalogq40-60591]
*''The Story of Paihia'' (2000), Nancy Pickmere, Calder's Design and Print, Whangarei,
*''Kaitaia and its People'' (1989), Florence Keene, Allied Graphics, Whangarei,
* ''A Lamp Shines in Kerikeri'' (1969), Nancy Preece Pickmere, News Limited, Kaikohe, NoISBN
*''Life of W.G. Puckey'' (1932), A.M.S.M.Williams.
*''Journals and Letters of the Rev. W.G. Puckey, 1831 – 1868'', (2004), Special Collections, Auckland Public Library
*''Letters From the Bay of Islands: The Story of Marianne Williams'', (2004), C Fitzgerald (editor), Penguin Books, Auckland
''Descendants of William Puckey'' (2007) Family website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puckey, William
1805 births
1878 deaths
English Anglican missionaries
Anglican missionaries in New Zealand
People from Penryn, Cornwall
English emigrants to New Zealand