Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/413

 mined and sanctioned by a court of land claims instituted by Fitzroy. Grey, however, in his secret despatch, unwarrantably stated that these acquisitions had been unjustly made, and would require to be enforced by troops. In reality a relatively high price had been paid, the native method of transfer had been carefully followed, and the settlers were in peaceable possession. Williams indignantly demanded an inquiry into Grey's charges, which was refused, and Selwyn, who was opposed to the acquisition of property, directed that the title-deeds should be surrendered unconditionally. Williams refused to obey until Grey's charges had been examined, fearing that compliance would be regarded as an acknowledgment of previous misconduct. The Church Missionary Society in consequence reluctantly severed their connection with him on 20 Nov. 1849. His brother William, however, visited England in 1851, and convinced the committee that they had been misled in their action, and they passed a resolution in May entirely exonerating the missionaries from Grey's charges. They, however, considered that Williams had done wrong in refusing obedience, and declined to rescind their resolution in regard to him. They were beset from all sides with appeals on his behalf, and on 18 July 1854 he was reinstated at the personal request of Selwyn and of Sir George Grey, who by that time had largely modified his previous opinions.

The closing years of Williams's life were somewhat saddened by the declension of the Maori church from its first fervour, and by the bitter warfare between the settlers and the natives. During the war which broke out in 1860 he lived quietly at Pakaraka with some of his descendants, using his influence to preserve the neighbouring tribes in loyalty. As the infirmities of age grew upon him he performed his journeys by sea in a small vessel named the Rainbow, to avoid the fatigue of land travelling. He died at Pakaraka on 16 July 1867, leaving a high reputation for Christian zeal. His influence with the Maoris was very great, and was due to his upright character and to his perfect comprehension of native ceremonies and customs. In 1876 the Maori community erected a great stone cross to his memory in the churchyard at Paihia, the scene of his longest labours. It was unveiled by William Garden Cowie, bishop of Auckland, on 11 Jan. On 20 Jan. 1818 Williams married Marianne (d. 16 Dec. 1879), daughter of Wright Coldham of Nottingham. By her he had six sons and four daughters.

His younger brother, (1800–1879), first bishop of Waiapu, born in 1800, matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 2 June 1821, graduating B.A. in 1825, and receiving the degree of D.C.L. on 3 July 1851. He was ordained by the bishop of London in 1824, and, after spending some time walking the hospitals to gain medical knowledge for missionary purposes, he proceeded to New Zealand in 1826. He was appointed archdeacon of Waiapu by Selwyn in 1843, and was consecrated first bishop of Waiapu in 1859. Between 1833 and 1848 he assisted in the revision of the Maori translation of the Bible and prayer-book. He died at Napier in 1879. He married Jane Nelson, by whom he had three sons. The eldest, William Leonard, is now bishop of Waiapu. William Williams was the author of: 1. ‘A Dictionary of the New Zealand Language and a Concise Grammar,’ Paihia, 1844, 8vo; 4th ed. Auckland, 1892, 8vo. 2. ‘Christianity among the New Zealanders,’ London, 1867, 8vo.

[Life of Henry Williams by his son-in-law, Hugh Carleton, 1877; Stock's History of the Church Missionary Soc. 1899; Burke's Colonial Gentry, 1895, p. 283, corrigenda p. xxii; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Rusden's Hist. of New Zealand, 1895, vol. i. passim; Sherrin and Wallace's Early Hist. of New Zealand, 1893, passim; Garnett's Edward Gibbon Wakefield, 1898, pp. 212, 275; Three Letters (by William Williams) addressed to the Earl of Chichester relative to the charges brought against the New Zealand mission, 1845; Darwin's Journal during the Voyage of the Beagle, 1890, pp. 509–15; Curteis's Bishop Selwyn, 1889; Miss Tucker's Southern Cross and Southern Crown, 1855; Lady Martin's Our Maoris, 1884, pp. 36–44; Jacobs's Church Hist. of New Zealand (Colonial Church Histories), 1887; Taylor's Past and Present of New Zealand, 1868; Taylor's New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 1870, pp. 593–5.]  WILLIAMS, HUGH WILLIAM (1773–1829), landscape-painter, the only child of Captain Williams by his wife, a daughter of Colonel Lewis, deputy-governor of Gibraltar, was born in 1773 on board his father's ship during a voyage to the West Indies. Losing both parents at an early age, he was brought up by his maternal grandmother and her second husband, Louis Ruffini, a member of an old Turin family, at Craigside House, Edinburgh. His grandfather, discovering his talent, encouraged him to become a painter. For some years he painted highland landscape, and in 1811–12 he published six large engravings of scenes in the north, while many of his early topographical drawings appeared in the ‘Scots Magazine;’ but an extended tour in Italy and Greece, from which he returned in 1818, gave his work its particular character, and earned him