James Watkin (1805–86), Pioneer Missionary. James Watkin was born in Manchester in 1805. While still young he felt the call to preach and in 1830 was accepted as a candidate for the Wesleyan Ministry. In the same year he married Hannah Entwistle and they sailed with a missionary party to Tonga. The work of the mission was jeopardised by prolonged and involved struggles between Christian and non-Christian Tongan chiefs; Watkin faced alone the danger of tribal warfare, but the experience left him depressed and exhausted. On his removal with his family to Sydney in September 1837 he prayed for a return home to England. Instead, when John Jones offered a free passage for a missionary appointed to Waikouaiti, where Jones had a whaling station, Watkin was selected for the post and arrived there in May 1840. Here he established the first mission station in the South Island. Watkin found the whaling settlement of Waikouaiti a centre of violence, licentiousness, and drunken depravity. Thoroughly disliking the corrupted Maoris and convinced that they were doomed to extinction, and disgusted by the brutality and vices of his fellow Europeans, Watkin laboured without hope, in the bitterness of exile and with deepening depression and distress. In spite of an abhorrence for his situation he established schools at Waikouaiti and Matanaka, and stationed partly trained Maori teachers at Stewart Island and at Moeraki. He had a natural flair for languages, preached in Maori four months after his arrival, and compiled an elementary reading book to be printed in Ngai Tahu. In November 1840 Watkin was greatly disturbed by Bishop Pompallier's visit to Otago. When, however, this was followed by Anglican intrusion – for Bishop Selwyn visited Otago in January 1844 – Watkin thought of withdrawing his own Maori teachers and abandoning the field. Never reconciled to his position at Waikouaiti, Watkin was relieved by Charles Creed and in June 1844 he sailed for Wellington, leaving 227 church members in Otago. In 1855 Watkin settled in New South Wales, and was president of the National Methodist Conference at Adelaide in 1862. He retired in 1869 and died on 14 May 1886, at Ashfield, New South Wales. 'WATKIN, James', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/watkin-james (accessed 30 Apr 2018) B & W engraving from a photograph of the Rev. James Watkin.Revd. James Watkin, Australia Engraved by J. Cochran from a Photograph.

Ill, p.274.The personal story of the man, of his teen-age beginnings as a preacher; of how today he draws and moves such vast audiences; of those, foremost among them Ruth Bell Graham, his wife, who play leading parts in his work. It is also the story ... firsthand, of Billy Graham's Crusades and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.christianity, billy graham

BHS CollectionSandhurst - Local Preachers Meetings: Bendigo Circuit Minute Book 1853-1871 Light brwon cover with dark brown spine. Handwritten minutes. 5 loose pages secured in book pages.church, history, uniting church forest street

William Wilson was a staunch member of the Linton Methodist congregation and a local preacher. He died in 1890 age 83 and is buried in Linton cemetery.Sepia CDV photograph of an old, bearded gentleman wearing suit with long jacket and fob chain, seated with left arm resting on lap, right arm resting on side table holding a book in his hand."Mr (Daddy) Wilson".mr w. wilson, william wilson ("daddy" wilson), old lintonian collection

Hardcover book of sermons preached in the early days of Victoria by the Rev. Thomas Hastie with a short account of the growth of the Presbyterian Church in that colony. Published by Andrew Elliot, Edinburgh, 1877, 386 pages.Book of sermons with an historical introduction to life in 1840s Port Phillip.thomas hastie, presbyterian church, buninyong