Nathaniel Turner

Nathaniel Turner (March 1793 – 16 December 1864) was an English-born missionary for the Wesleyan Church in early colonial New Zealand, Australia, and Tonga.

Early life in England Nathaniel was the fifth of seven children of Thomas and Elizabeth Turner. He was baptised on 10 March 1793, at the Anglican parish church of Wybunbury in Cheshire. The family lived in a village just north of Wybunbury, called Hough, Cheshire. When the youngest son, Thomas, was eighteen months old, his mother died aged only 39. Eight months later their ten-year-old daughter Ann died, followed to the grave by their father Thomas on 7 April 1801, aged 41. The eldest of the orphans, Aaron, was only 16; Nathaniel only eight. They were brought up by friends and relatives in the village.

Nathaniel was fostered by an uncle, and became involved with the local Methodist Church. Although brought up in the Church of England, he attended Wesleyan class-meetings and eventually, on 5 February 1812 “found peace with God”. Fellow missionary William White was ordained the same day. On arrival back at Wangaroa, in the pouring rain, the Turners had to scrabble up the muddy bank to find the dismal house that was to be their home for the next three years.

The group of sixteen walked all day, meeting help coming to their aid from Kerikeri, having been alerted by Stack. Further rescuers came from the CMS station in Paihia, and with their help the missionaries made it to Kerikeri by 7pm. After a night there, the group moved further from danger, heading by boat to the CMS mission station in Paihia. A few days later, they heard that the Wesleydale mission had been totally destroyed; the buildings burnt, the cattle killed, and the stores of wheat burnt. The Mission party eventually returned to Sydney, leaving New Zealand on 28 January 1827. a cousin of Anne Turner. Nathaniel would visit the various villages and stations en route, taking in a large circuit, and preaching to chain-gangs of convicts working on the roads. Meanwhile, Anne was left at home to bring up the ever-growing family. agreed to be the Turners’ tutor and accompany them to New Zealand. On 8 April 1836 they sailed for New Zealand in the “Patriot” arriving on the West side of the Northland peninsula, twenty miles up the Hokianga River at a place called “Mangungu” - or “Broken to Pieces” in Māori.

Nathaniel visited the surrounding mission stations, including the Anglican ones, and the place he had been eight years before. He made a reconnaissance of the whole area to find the site for two new missions. On one such journey he was accompanied by his eldest son Thomas; they travelled down river to the mouth of the Hokianga to oversee the building of the new mission station. Nathaniel caught a fever while there, which made him delirious. In the boat home he was suddenly taken with a desire to throw himself overboard and drown: Thomas had to hold him back and keep him in the boat. Nathaniel raved on, and said he would never regain his sanity and spend the rest of his life in the lunatic asylum in Tasmania. But at least Nathaniel comforted himself in the knowledge that a friend of his, Dr Officer, ran the place and would look after him. Thomas managed to get his demented father home, and kept in bed for several days. and hundreds of natives were on the spot in a few minutes. The flames rapidly bursting through the roof, every effort was made to save whatever could be got out of the house. Mrs Turner had scarcely left her room for ten weeks but had strength given her to get the children and herself out of the burning building. Flakes of fire were already falling on Mr Hobbs house, a few yards distant. The children with their mother were now being carried in the arms of willing natives to Mr Woon’s house, out of reach of danger, when Mrs Turner would have them stop, that the children might be counted. One was missing, but it was not known from which family. Instant search was made in both houses, and in a bedroom on fire a little boy was found. It was constructed with a rectangular floor plan having seven rooms, one of which was a large parlour, a pair of dormer windows and a verandah along the front.

But ill health plagued Nathaniel, and it became time to leave New Zealand. With a family now of ten all packed up, they sailed on 24 August 1839 for Sydney on the “Francis Spaight”. They arrived after a seventeen-day voyage. a Wesleyan minister born in Nottingham, who went on to become the President of the Australasian Conference, and to found Wesley College in Melbourne in 1866.

In November 1840 the TURNER family moved up to Launceston, leaving two sons in Hobart - one in a banking job and the other at school. The chapel is a neat brick building, sufficiently lofty to admit galleries, and cost £2,300. It stands on land given by the Local Government, under the administration of Governor Sir George Arthur. The foundation-stone was laid by Philip Oakden, Esq., April 20th, 1835, and it was opened for public worship on Christmas-day of the same year. The building on the right is the Minister's residence; that at the left is the day-school, in which the children of both sexes are educated. At the rear of the chapel, there is a room in which a Sunday-school and some of the week-evening services are conducted ; underneath which is a vestry, chapel-keeper’s residence, &c.Over the next three years Nathaniel travelled the country around Launceston preaching and visiting. He made the long ride to Hobart several times for district meetings, and once to act as temporary General Superintendent of Missions. His fourteenth child was born while he was away on one trip in April 1842, only to die eight months later. These rides across country were not without incident: on one occasion his new horse, pulling a gig, kicked and plunged, threw Nathaniel out of the cart, and pulled the cart's wheel over him. from England and Rev. William Boyce on a tour of inspection in the ship “Wesley” to New Zealand and Tonga; Nathaniel greatly enjoying the return to the places he had served in over his thirty-year career. They went on to Fiji where Nathaniel heard terrible stories of cannibalism, and inspected the works of the Wesleyan missionaries there. He returned to Sydney in 1854. His wife Anne lived on for a further 29 years. In her last years she lived with her son-in-law, Rev. John Harcourt, in Kew, Victoria. She died on 10 October 1893, aged 95, and was buried in the Crouch family plot in St Kilda Cemetery.

Ann Sargent, born in March 1823 in Hobart, died in 1900. She married Rev. John HARCOURT (1817–1893), a much respected Wesleyan minister. They lived in Melbourne and had five children. Thomas, born March 1824, lived in Tasmania and died at sea on the way to see his father in 1852. Nathaniel Bailey, born in May 1825 in New Zealand but died in infancy in 1826. He was buried in the mission garden at Wesleydale, but his body was dug up by invading Maoris. John Sargent, born December 1826, died 1900. He married Adelaide BALL and had three sons: Leonard Haslewood (1864–1906); Norman Harcourt (born and died 1866); and Leslie Mountford (1872–1953). Leonard's daughter Jean married Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart in 1913, but they divorced in 1938. Martha, born Tonga, August 1828, and died in 1905. She married William KENT, and lived on the Jondaryan Station in the Darling Downs in Queensland. They had 43 grandchildren from their 14 children: Mary; William; Fassifern; Walton; Annie; Alice; Helen; Sydney; Mabel; Irving; Crofton; Agnes; Martha; and Graham. Nathaniel, born October 1829, lived in Hobart and died 1910. He married Thirza Chipman HURST, and had four children: George; Annie; Jeanette; and Harry. George, born December 1830, died in infancy. Josiah George, born September 1832 in Hobart, lived in Maitland, NSW, and died in 1910. He was the author of his father's biography, and was ordained a Wesleyan Minister in 1858. He married Sarah OWEN, and had 13 children. Charles Wesley, born April 1834, lived in Christchurch, New Zealand and died in 1906. He married Emily IREDALE on 16 June 1857, on the same day as his younger sister's wedding. They had 13 children. From his second marriage to Ellen KEIG, Charles had two further children. Mary Emma Bloor, born July 1835 in Hobart and died on 12 October 1904 in St Kilda. She married Thomas James CROUCH, an architect, in Sydney on 16 June 1857, and had 12 children. Sarah Eliza Hopkins, born November 1836, married Henry JORDAN (1818–1890). After a period in London as an Immigration Agent for Queensland, they lived in Brisbane. They had seven children. Hannah Jane, born in 1838 in Hokianga; died unmarried on 23 March 1907, and was buried in the CROUCH family plot with her mother and sister Emma. Louisa Elizabeth, born 1840, died 1914. She married William GRAHAM, and had nine children. GRAHAM was Scottish born, and was a farm manager and ‘squatter’ in the Darling Downs in Queensland, and represented the area in the Legislative Assembly until his death in 1892. Edwin, born April 1842, died in infancy.

Legacy Reverend Nathaniel Turner was a significant figure in the history of Wesleyan missions in the Pacific, particularly in New Zealand and Tonga. His contributions had a lasting impact on the religious, cultural, and social landscapes of these regions. He was known for his respectful engagement with local cultures, which helped facilitate the acceptance of Christianity among indigenous populations. This approach fostered a more harmonious relationship between missionaries and local communities.

A street in the New Zealand village of Kaeo is named after him, in recognition of his key role in the establishment of the Wesleydale mission.

He left 14 children and 80 grandchildren, many of whom went on to have successful lives in Australia and New Zealand, as preachers, farmers, politicians and soldiers.

His obituary includes this assessment: ”Mr. Turner was emphatically a ‘good man’. Of him it could be said, as of Nathaniel of old, he was a man ‘in whom there was no guile’.”