WATKIN, JAMES (1805-86) was born at Manchester in a good Methodist home. At an early age he felt the call to the ministry, and commenced preaching in the Oldham street circuit, where he profited by the ministry of Jabez Bunting and Richardson Watson. He declined an offer to defray the cost of his study at Oxford for the ministry of the Church of England, and was accepted as a candidate for the Wesleyan ministry (1830). Owing to one of the party designated for Tonga being unable to go, he joined Turner and William Woon and, having been ordained in the Sloane Terrace Chapel, Chelsea, and married (1830) to Hannah Entwistle (niece of the Rev Joseph Entwistle), he sailed from Gravesend on 7 Aug 1830 in the whaler Lloyds (owned by a Quaker). Touching at Bay of Islands, Watkin proceeded to Tonga. On his arrival there (Mar 1831) he found the people on the crest of a religious revival, due to the labours of Walter Lawry, Nathaniel Turner (q.v.) and others. Taufa-ahau became the Christian king of all the Tongan groups and Watkin was his close friend and confidant. The king being attacked by non-Christian chiefs, the missionaries removed for safety to Vavau, but Watkin returned alone to face the fury of the savage warfare. In 1838 he published the pamphlet Pity Poor Fiji. At the conclusion of seven years' successful work in Tonga, Watkin proceeded with his family to Sydney (Sep 1837) and for the next few years worked with great success in New South Wales. Having read a German translation of Watkin's appeal for Fiji, Wohlers volunteered for missionary work. He and his colleagues were sent to New Zealand by a German mission society. Watkin was designated for Kapiti by the Wesleyan conference in England (1839), but before his arrival Hadfield (q.v.) was sent there by the Church Missionary Society. Bumby, while on a visit to Sydney to confer with the missionary committee (1840), received John Jones's offer of a passage for a missionary to be appointed to Waikouaiti, where he had a whaling station. Watkin was selected for the post, and sailed with his family in the Regina, reaching his destination on 16 May, six weeks after the visit of D'Urville. Watkin found the settlement a hotbed of drunkenness, immorality and violence, from which the natives mainly suffered. He took a determined stand alike against the vices of the whites and the savage customs of the Maori, persuaded the Maori to refrain from fighting and set a new standard of life for the whites. Though the southern Maori dialect differed widely from Tongan, he preached in Maori four months after his arrival. He collected 2,000 words and phrases in Maori and sent an elementary reading book to be printed in Ngai-Tahu at Mangungu, but it was not available until Dec 1841. Schools were established at Waikouaiti and Matainaka and partly-instructed native teachers were stationed at Stewart Island and Moeraki. In Feb 1843 he held the first administration of the sacrament to native communicants. In Oct Watkin visited Wellington for a district meeting and in Mar 1844 he went to Jacobs River. Visits were paid to Otago in Nov 1840 by Bishop Pompallier; in Dec 1842 by representatives of the Anglican church; and in Jan 1843 by Matene te Whiwhi and Tamihana te Rauparaha. When Bishop Selwyn visited him early in 1844 Watkin thought of withdrawing his 26 native teachers to leave the field clear. Tuhawaiki had pleaded for a missionary, and Watkin encouraged Wohlers to establish himself at Ruapuke. The Deborah, with the preliminary expedition for the Otago settlement, brought the Rev Charles Creed to succeed Watkin (Apr 1844). When he sailed for Wellington in Jun he left 227 church members in Otago.

Watkin's last years were spent in Australia. He settled in New South Wales in 1855, and was president of the national Methodist conference of Australia at Adelaide in 1862. He retired in 1869, and died near Sydney on 14 May 1886. Watkin was a short, sturdy figure of great energy; widely read, thoughtful and witty.

Pratt (p); Morley; W. J. Williams; The Press, Jun-Jul 1931; Hoani Matiu in Otago Witness, 4 Nov 1930.

Reference: Volume 2, page 239

🌳 Further sources