About: John Whiteley (missionary)

John Whiteley (20 July 1806 – 13 February 1869) was a missionary for the Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS) in New Zealand, active from his arrival in the country in 1833 up until his death. Born in England, he came to New Zealand with his wife and initially settled in the Hokianga where there was an existing WMS mission station. As the WMS expanded its activities in the country, Whiteley later established and ran a mission at Kawhia for several years. He subsequently worked in the Taranaki region, where the colonists there had become embroiled in land disputes with the local Māori. The tensions in the area meant Whiteley, sympathetic to the settlers' cause, found it difficult to carry out his missionary work. On 13 February 1869, he was murdered at Pukearuhe by a Ngāti Maniapoto war party.