WILLIAMS, WILLIAM LEONARD (1820-1916), the eldest son of Bishop W. Williams (q.v.), was born at Paihia and educated at the mission school, at St John's College, Auckland, and afterwards at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. (3rd class lit. hum.) in 1852. He was admitted a deacon by the Bishop of London and in the following year he returned to New Zealand and commenced his missionary life under his father in Poverty Bay. In 1862 he became archdeacon.

Three years later his labours amongst the Maori were interrupted by the Hauhau rising. Having removed his family to Auckland, he returned to Poverty Bay and remained throughout the trouble, being within a few miles of the massacre by Te Kooti on 10 Nov 1868. In 1877 he made Gisborne his headquarters. On the resignation of his father in that year, Williams declined an invitation to be nominated as bishop on the ground that work amongst the native population had the first claim upon him. In 1883 he assumed control of the Te Rau Maori Theological College, of which he was principal until 1894. He was appointed canon of Napier Cathedral in 1889. In 1894 he was elected to succeed Bishop Stuart, and he was consecrated in the following year to the see of which his father was the first bishop.

Williams's scholastic work in Maori is of a high order. In 1862 his First Lessons in the Maori Language appeared; and in 1871 he published a revised edition of his father's dictionary. His East Coast Historical Records was published some years after his death. He contributed many papers to the proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. In 1897 Oxford University conferred on him the degree of D.D.

Williams married in 1853 Sarah, daughter of John Bradshaw Wanklyn, of Halecat, Westmoreland. He died on 24 Aug 1916.

Who's Who NZ., 1908; Cycl. NZ., vi; D.N.B.; Hawkes Bay Herald, 25 Aug 1916; Jacobs.

Reference: Volume 2, page 261

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