ASHWELL, BENJAMIN YATES (1810-83). A frail youth, joined the Church Missionary Society at the age of 21, spent two years in the training institution at Islington and then proceeded as a lay missionary to Sierra Leone (1833). The climate reacted unfavourably on his frail physique and highly strung temperament, and he was shortly ordered back to England, on the advice of Kissling (q.v.).

In 1835, with his wife, he sailed for New Zealand, arriving on 23 Dec. His fellow missionaries did not appreciate Ashwell's mercurial temperament, and he was not considered a likely missionary to have a separate charge. On his own initiative he took up his residence amongst the lawless community at Russell, where he ministered not without success. When he joined the Rev R. Maunsell (q.v.) at Waikato Heads his temperament provoked hostility, and it was a year before the natives would build him a separate house. When he was at length given a station at Taupiri, five miles north of Ngaruawahia, his courage, zeal, enterprise and self-sacrifice, and unremitting sympathy for the Maori yielded results beyond all expectations. Impetuous and eccentric, he held a privileged position amongst the Maoris. He could say and do as he wished, and even persuaded Maori parents to entrust their children as boarders to the care of himself and Mrs Ashwell. In 1839 he chose a site at Te Awamutu for a mission station, and later in the year opened the mission at Otawhao (Jul 1839). He had immediate success with the Ngati-Ruru tribe, converting to Christianity the chief Mokorou (as Riwai) and inducing a section of the tribe to establish a Christian pa. In 1841 Ashwell was succeeded by Morgan (who had been for six years on the Waihou at Matamata and at Rotorua). Ordained deacon (1848), he was admitted to priest's orders at St Paul's, Auckland, on 22 May 1853. Ashwell later maintained a mission at Kaitotehe, opposite Taupiri, until the outbreak of the war compelled him to retire to Auckland (1863). He was one of the few who could return to their stations afterwards, but he devoted most of his later years to service at the Auckland hospital, the gaol and the old men's refuge, and to the welfare of Maori lads attending St Stephen's school. Ashwell died at Auckland on 29 Sep 1883.

Gorst; Morton; W. Williams; Sherrin and Wallace (p); Davis; Southern Cross, 22 Apr 1867; N.Z. Herald, 3 Oct 1883.

Reference: Volume 1, page 26

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