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Herbert Williams (bishop)

Bishop of Waiapu; New Zealander Anglican bishop and scholar of the Māori language (1860–1937)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ5735926 ↗
Source-derived summary

Herbert William Williams (10 October 1860 – 7 December 1937) was the 6th Anglican Bishop of Waiapu and a distinguished scholar of the Māori language.

Williams was born at Waerenga-ā-Hika, Gisborne, New Zealand, the son of Sarah Williams and Leonard Williams. He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, The University of New Zealand and Jesus College, Cambridge; graduating Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1884. He was ordained in 1886, then embarked on his ecclesiastical career with a curacy at West Wratting, Cambridge diocese, Ely from 1886-1888. Williams married Bertha Mason on 27 September 1888 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their children include Nigel Williams (a priest; 23 March 1901 – 25 July 1980).

He was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). From March 1890 to 1894 he was a tutor at Te Rau Kahikatea Theological College, which had been established in Gisborne by his father, Leonard Williams. He became the vice-principal in 1894, and from 1894 to 1902 he was the principal of the college. He was appointed as the Superintendent of the Missionary East Coast District.

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“Herbert Williams (bishop)” enters the record as bishop of Waiapu; New Zealander Anglican bishop and scholar of the Māori language (1860–1937). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Herbert, Williams and bishop can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1860, 1937, 1884, 1886—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1860-10-10. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Herbert, Williams and bishop.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5735926. VIAF identifies the subject as 42206510. The Library of Congress control number is no96068518. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1860, 1937, 1884 and 1886.

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This entry incorporates text from “Herbert Williams (bishop)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.