KIRK, WILLIAM (1825-1915) was born at Ferry on Trent, near Gainsborough, educated at private schools and became a local preacher at 12. In 1846 he was ordained in London, and the following year sailed for the New Zealand mission field in the John Wesley.

After spending a few months in Auckland he was appointed (1849) to the station at Newark, Hokianga, where in 1848 he married Emma (1828-1906), daughter of the Rev J. Hobbs (q.v.). Four years later he was transferred to Wanganui. Proceeding thither in the schooner Hannah Leithart, which was wrecked on the bar of the river, they were assisted by the settlers to their station at Ohinemutu, far up the river. There they spent four years, living most of the time in a rough hut with earthen floor. Transferred to Canterbury in 1853, Kirk saw the first church of his denomination erected in Christchurch and another started in Lyttelton. From Waikouaiti he erected the first church in Port Chalmers, and then returned to the North Island, taking up a station and industrial school at Kai-iwi, which were broken up by the war of 1860. Thereafter Kirk served at Mangonui, Nelson, Wellington, New Plymouth, Auckland and Richmond, retiring in 1889. He died on 9 May 1915.

Morley; W. J. Williams; Methodist Conference, 1938; Cycl. N.Z., i.

Reference: Volume 1, page 252

🌳 Further sources