Newell , James Edward , 1852-1910 , missionary

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, 1852; trained at Lancashire Congregational College; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to Savai'i, Samoa, was ordained in Farnworth, married Elizabeth Emma Sidlow (d 1882), and sailed for the South Pacific, 1880; arrived and began his service at Matautu, Samoa, 1881; sailed to Sydney, 1883; married Honor Jane Gill (1857-1922; daughter of the LMS missionary in the Cook Islands, W W Gill) in Sydney, 1884; sailed frequently on the mission ship the John Williams III to place and visit students in Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Papua; visited the mission outstations, 1885; served at the Malau seminary on Upolu, which trained pastors and teachers for Samoa and for missionary service within Oceania, from 1887; visited England, 1891-1893; visited the outstations, 1894, 1896; mediated between Samoans and contending colonial powers, 1898-1899; an expert on Samoan law and custom; edited the Christian magazine Sulu (Torch) and guided formation of the council of elders (Au Toeaina) - the Samoan presbytery, nucleus of the future self-government of the Samoan church; when Western Samoa became a German colony (1900), his knowledge qualified him as LMS adviser and negotiator with the governor Wilhelm Solf; visited England, 1901-1902; improved his German and visited missionary societies in Germany to recruit German-speaking staff for Samoa, 1902; persuaded the Samoan orator-chief and deacon of the church, Lauaki Mamoe of Savai'i, of the inadvisability of a revolt against Germany, 1908; with August Hanke, a leader in the Rhenish (Barmen) mission, planned to send Samoan LMS missionaries to the Madang field of German New Guinea, and following the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh went to Barmen to make arrangements, but died of pneumonia at Gütersloh, Germany, 1910.