Bumby, John Hewgill
1808-40; e.m. 1830
WM missionary, born at Thirsk on 17 November 1808. After nine years in circuit work, in 1839 he was sent to take charge of the New Zealand mission, one of a group intended to counteract colonial exploitation of the Maori people at a time when the organized settlement of New Zealand was in prospect. Gifted as a leader and preacher, he immediately set about assessing the needs of the Mission. He undertook a voyage to the south, accompanied by a number of younger Maori, trained at the Mission, whom he left at strategic places as native teachers. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in February 1840 while he was in Sydney seeking further support for the Mission. He was drowned on his way home when the canoe overturned on 26 July 1840 while crossing the Hauraki Gulf. He was mourned as a man of energy and great promise.
- Alfred Barrett, The Life of the Rev. John Hewgill Bumby (1852)
- I. Whyle (ed.), Rev. John Bumby Commemoration (Auckland, NZ, 1990)