page_title: George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield)
section_title: Bishop in New Zealand
hierarchical_section_title: George Selwyn (bishop of Lichfield) / Bishop in New Zealand
caption_attribution_description: English: George Augustus Selwyn, First Bishop of New Zealand, Bishop of Lichfield
context_page_description: George Augustus Selwyn was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was Metropolitan of New Zealand from 1858 to 1868. Returning to Britain, Selwyn served as Bishop of Lichfield from 1868 to 1878.
  After his death, Selwyn College, Cambridge was founded to honour his life and contribution to scholarship and religion. The college and other educational facilities uphold the legacy of the bishop.
context_section_description: Consecrated at Lambeth on 17 October 1841, Bishop Selwyn embarked for his new missionary diocese on 26 December. He appointed William Charles Cotton as his chaplain. The 23 member missionary party set sail from Plymouth late in December 1841 on board the barque Tomatin.  In addition to their luggage, the missionaries brought various animals and four hives of bees.  On the outbound voyage, Selwyn studied the Māori language with the help of a Māori boy returning from England, and was able to preach in that language immediately on his arrival. He also acquired enough seamanship to enable him to be his own sailing master among the dangerous waters of the Pacific. In April 1842 the Tomatin arrived in Sydney.
  The boat hit a rock on landing and, rather than wait for its repair, some of the party, including Selwyn and Cotton, set sail for New Zealand on the brig Bristolian on 19 May. They arrived in Auckland on 30 May.  After spending some time as guests of Captain William Hobson, the first Governor of New Zealand, Selwyn and Cotton set sail on 6 June on the schooner Wave to visit the mission stations on the Hauraki Gulf, then north to the Bay of Islands. where he arrived on 20 June. Amongst the party was a clerk, William Bambridge, who was also an accomplished artist and was later to become photographer to Queen Victoria.
  In June 1842 Selwyn set up residence at Te Waimate mission, some 15 miles (24 km) inland from Paihia where the Church Missionary Society (CMS) had established a settlement 11 years earlier. On 5 July 1842 Selwyn set out on a six-month tour of his diocese leaving the Mission Station in the care of Sarah, his wife, and Cotton. In November Selwyn travelled on the brig Victoria down the west coast of the North Island to visit  Octavius Hadfield at the Otaki mission and the mission at Whanganui; then up the east coast to visit William Williams. By October 1843 more missionaries had arrived at Waimate, and Selwyn, accompanied by Cotton, embarked on his second tour, this time to mission stations and native settlements in the southern part of North Island. Their journey was made partly by canoe but mainly by walking, often for large distances over difficult and dangerous terrain.  Part way through the tour Selwyn decided to split the party into two sections with one section led by himself and the other by Cotton. After being away for nearly three months, Cotton arrived back at Waimate early in 1844 and Selwyn returned a few weeks later.  Some buildings at Waimate were converted for use by the College of St John the Evangelist, to teach theology to candidates for ordination.
  Later in 1844 Selwyn decided to move some 160 miles (257 km) south to Tamaki near Auckland where he bought 450 acres (180 ha) of land, giving it the name of Bishop's Auckland. The party left on 23 October and arrived in Auckland on 17 November.  During the first six months of 1845 Selwyn was away for much of the time and management of the settlement, and particularly the schools, fell to Cotton. The Bishop of New Zealand's seat was St Paul's Church, Auckland which served as Auckland's Cathedral for over 40 years, the whole time Selwyn had the role.
  Selwyn clashed with Archdeacon Henry Williams, the leader of the CMS in New Zealand, when he supported Governor George Grey's accusations of improper land purchases by Williams. Grey twice failed to recover the land in the Supreme Court, and when Williams refused to give up the land unless the charges were retracted, he was dismissed from the CMS in November 1849.  However Selwyn later regretted the position he had taken and in 1854 Williams was reinstated to the CMS after the bishop lobbied for his return to membership. The CMS missionaries held the low church beliefs that were common among Evangelical members of the Anglican Church. There was often a wide gap between the views of the CMS missionaries and the bishops and other clergy of the high church traditions of the Oxford Movement (also known as the Tractarians) as to the proper form of ritual and religious practice. Selwyn held high church (Tracta
caption: Memorial in Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
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