Biographical entry: Selwyn, John Richardson (1844 - 1898)
- Born
- 20 May 1844
- Died
- 12 February 1898
Details
Born on 20 May 1844 in Waimate, New Zealand, John Richardson Selwyn, the second Bishop of Melanesia, was the son of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn (q.v.). He was educated at Eton and obtained his B.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1866. Ordained by his father in 1869, he worked in England, deciding to go to Melanesia at the death of Bishop Patteson (q.v.) in 1871. He worked at the Melanesian Mission headquarters a Norfolk Island under Dr Robert Codrington (q.v.) until 1874 when, at age thirty, he was selected at the General Synod as the second Bishop of Melanesia, and consecrated on 18 February 1877. Selwyn married twice, first to Clara Innes in 1872, who died five years later, and then to Annie Mort in 1885, the year he visited Queensland and Fiji to establish mission schools for plantation workers. Never a linguist like his predecessor, he was hot-tempered but brave and immensely respected. In 1889 he was crippled from what doctors called 'malarial sciatica' and went to England to recuperate. He then returned to the islands until 1891, when failing health necessitated his return to England. His doctors forbade him to return to the Pacific and so he resigned, later becoming Master of Selwyn College at Cambridge (1893-1998), founded in memory of his father. In that position, he wrote on the theology of Anglican Mission in colonial situations. Selwyn was confined to his wheelchair in his later years, and died on 12 February 1898. He was survived by his widow and six children, three of them from his first wife. (Fox 1958, 28; Hilliard 1978a, 301; obituary, SCL Mar. 1898, 1-3; Terry Brown, personal communication, 18 Nov. 2011)
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Fox, Charles E., Lord of the Southern Isles: Being the Story of the Anglican Mission in Melanesia, 1849-1949, Mowbray, London, 1958. Details
- Hilliard, David, God's Gentleman: A History of the Melanesian Mission, 1849-1942, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1978a. Details
Reports
- Southern Cross Log (SCL). Details
Images
- Title
- Anglican Bishops Cecil Wilson, J.C. Patteson, C.J. Wood, G.A. Selwyn, J.R. Selwyn, L.M. Steward and F.M. Molyneux.
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 1920s
- Source
- DOM
