1. Reverend John Williams 2. The Reception of the Rev. J.Williams, at Tanna, in the South Seas, the Day Before he was Massacred. 3. Massacre of the Lamented Missionary the Rev. J.Williams, and Mr. Harris. 4. The Lamented Missionary The Revd. John Williams

Rare collection of George Baxter engravings of the missionary Reverend John Williams who was massacred at Erromanga, New Hebrides (present day Vanautu).

The collection comprises;

1. 1838 Portrait before his death (Sml)  H 130mm x 105mm
2. 1841 Landing                                               H 213mm x 317mm
3. 1843 Massacre                                            H 213mm x 317mm
4. 1843 Portrait  (large)                                H 267mm x 218mm

Williams sailed in the Camden missionary vessel accompanied by several European and a number of native missionaries. Some were later landed at the Island of Tanna.  Williams, Mr Harris, Mr Cunningham and Captain Morgan Landed at Erromanga where the two former were attacked and killed by natives.

1. Baxter’s first portrait in colour.    Ref: 71 Courtney T. Lewis
2. Landing                                                  Ref: 82a Courtney T. Lewis
3. Massacre                                               Ref: 82b Courtney T. Lewis
4. Portait (L)                                              Ref: 71 Courtney T. Lewis

John Williams (1796-1839 the son of John Williams, his ancestors on his father’s side had been Baptists for many generations.In 1814 he underwent an Evangelical conversion and became a member of the Tabernacle Church (Calvinistic Methodist) and in 1816 volunteered for missionary service with the London Missionary Society. He sailed to Tahiti with the third party of missionaries to arrive in the islands after the nominal conversion of Tahiti in 1815.

They sailed in November 1816 on the voyage they arrived at Hobart Town in March 1817 and held the first Evangelical service conducted in Van Diemen’s Land. In May the party arrived in Sydney where already an itinerant Evangelical ministry had been established by earlier missionaries. William Ellis (1794-1872), who arrived in July 1816, had visited the ‘interior’, conducted regular services based on Parramatta, taught reading and writing in a Sunday school at Prospect, and set up the mission press in the home of Rowland Hassall. The mission party left for the islands in September 1817.

Williams was regarded as the most enterprising missionary in the islands. In December 1821 he and his wife paid a three-month visit to Sydney, where he preached and addressed public meetings. On his own initiative he also bought a ship with Marsden’s reluctant approval, to trade between Raiatea and Sydney; and he engaged Thomas Scott to instruct the people of Raiatea in the culture of sugar-cane and tobacco. Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane was so impressed by Williams that he supplied stock to the mission and gave him magisterial authority for the islands. In 1838, when Williams had become a public figure, he returned to Sydney in the mission ship Camden, and drew considerable crowds to his meetings. Having recently given evidence before the committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines, he was influential in the establishment of the local Aborigines Protection Society, and was also responsible for founding an Auxiliary Missionary Society in Sydney.

News of his violent death at Eromanga in the New Hebrides on 20 November 1839 was received with much public sorrow and a new impetus was given to Australian Congregationalism.