JOHN

See also:

• WILLIAMS
• WILLIAMS, JOHN (1582-1650)
• JOHN WILLIAMS (1796-1839)
• WILLIAMS, ROGER (c. 1604–1684)
• WILLIAMS, ROWLAND (1817-1870)
• WILLIAMS, SIR WILLIAM FENWICK

WILLIAMS (1796-1839)  , English Nonconformist missionary, was born at Tottenham near London on the 29th of June 1796 . He was trained as an ironmonger, and acquired considerable experience in mechanical work . Having offered himself to the London Missionary Society, he was sent, after some training, in 1816 to Eimeo, in the Society Islands, where he rapidly acquired a knowledge of the native language . After staying there for a short time, he finally settled at Raiatea, which became his permanent headquarters . His success as a missionary here and elsewhere was remarkable . The people rapidly became Christianized and adopted many of the habits of civilization . Williams was fairly liberal for his age, and the results of his labours among the Pacific Islands were essentially beneficial . He travelled unceasingly among the various island groups, planting stations and settling native missionaries whom he himself had trained . From the Society Islands he visited the Hervey group, where he discovered, and stayed for a considerable time on, the island of Rarotonga . Most of the in-habitants of the group were converted in a remarkably short time, and Williams's influence over them, as over the people of other groups, was very great . Besides establishing Christianity and civilization among them, he also, at their own request, helped them to draw up a code of laws for civil administration upon the basis of the new religion .