Reverend James and Hannah Watkin (née Entwisle)

Reverend James and Hannah Watkin were the first resident Christian missionaries in the South Island. James Watkin was born at Manchester, England, in 1805. He joined the Wesleyan Society there when he was 15 and became a local preacher by the time he was 20. He offered himself for missionary service in 1829 and was selected to go to Tonga. Before leaving England in 1830 he married Hannah Entwisle, a woman with a fine Wesleyan pedigree and well qualified to be a missionary wife.

The Watkins began well in Tonga, James showing real ability in learning the native language. In 1837, however, he disgraced himself by acting improperly with a Tongan woman. This caused a scandal and Watkin described himself in his journal as ‘a miserable sinner’. He was suspended from the mission and sent to Sydney to rehabilitate himself. Two years later came the opportunity to go back into missionary service – in Otago. James and Hannah arrived from Sydney on the Regia on 16 May 1840. Their coming had been arranged by the whaler John Jones at the behest of local Māori chiefs.

Within weeks local Māori had ‘begun to abstain from work on the Lord’s day’ and by year’s end Watkin was taking two writing classes a day. Hannah was meanwhile working with the Māori women, passing on domestic skills like sewing. By 1842, many Māori were praying morning and evening, knew the Creed and the Ten Commandments, and had some knowledge of Christian doctrine. Finding the local dialect substantially different to North Island Maori, Watkin prepared a primer of South Island Maori, the first appearance of the southern dialect in print. In 1843 a number of younger chiefs – including Rawiri Te Maire, Matiaha Tiramorehu and Tiare Wetere Te Kahu – were baptised, and thereafter Wesleyan Christianity was in the ascendant among local Māori.

This suggests a successful pastorate by Watkin and his wife. The missionary, however, viewed his time in Otago more negatively. He saw the post as a form of punishment for his earlier misdeeds. He also found the frontier conditions a real challenge. He was not a robust man and the long travelling distances involved in Otago missionary work sapped his energy. He mostly restricted his attentions to the major Māori settlements at Moeraki, Ōtākou and Purakaunui. His mission station was established alongside the whaling station at Waikouaiti. It was a more substantial building than the whalers’ cottages and had the first brick chimney in the Otago (a half brick is on display in the ‘Encounters’ section).

Watkin was replaced at Waikouaiti by Reverend Charles Creed in 1844. His first words to his successor were ‘Welcome to Purgatory, Brother Creed.’ Watkin moved to Wellington and then to Sydney where he died in 1886. Hannah survived until 1900 and died in her 94th year.