39 Facts About Aaron Buzacott

Aaron Buzacott the elder was a British missionary, Congregationalist colleague of John Williams, author of ethnographic works and co-translator of the Bible into Cook Islands Maori.

Aaron Buzacott was stationed at Avarua, the largest town on Rarotonga, where he designed and led the construction of two buildings which still exist today: the Coral Church or Ziona Tapu, now used by the Cook Islands Christian Church; and the main building of Takamoa Theological College, an educational institution he founded in 1839 and served as both principal and educator until he retired from his station.

Aaron Buzacott assisted Williams in the construction of the mission schooner The Mission of Peace in 1828, to travel between the islands of the Pacific.

Aaron Buzacott made journeys to various Pacific islands, including Tahiti and those comprising Samoa, during his posting, and visited both New South Wales and England to visit his children studying there, and in the case of England to run the completed Bible translation through the printing press.

Aaron Buzacott became involved in both the Pitt Street and Bourke Street Congregational Churches, having become a resident of the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst.

Aaron Buzacott was born in South Molton, Devon where his father was a whitesmith and ironmonger and the family attended the local Congregational chapel.

Aaron Buzacott was of Huguenot descent; Buzacott is an alternative spelling for Buzzacott, an anglicised form of de Boursaquotte.

Greatly influenced by his mother, Aaron Buzacott recalled her prayers and religious instructions while working for the farmer, and became a devoted Christian.

Around this time, Aaron Buzacott began teaching Sunday school at the South Molton Congregational church, and eventually joined the home district missionary in preaching at nearby villages on alternate Sundays.

In early 1816, the Rev Richard Knill toured North Devon shortly before departing for Madras, and gave addresses outlining his reasons for becoming a missionary, at one of which Aaron Buzacott was present and became interested.

An opportunity arose when The Rev Joseph Hardy of Wheatly, Herefordshire, needed to visit London to obtain funds needed to pay off debt accrued in the construction of a chapel at Pembroke, and invited Aaron Buzacott to replace him during his absence.

Aaron Buzacott entered Hoxton Academy in 1820 and devoted himself for three years to the study of general and classical literature and frequently attended the metropolitan Methodist chapels, the Tottenham Court Road Chapel and Moorfields Chapel.

Aaron Buzacott completed his course in 1826, being ordained in January 1827 at Castle Street Congregational Church in Exeter.

Aaron Buzacott married the following month, and later that year the couple set sail, via Tahiti, for Rarotonga in the South Seas, where they were to spend most of the rest of their lives.

Aaron Buzacott considered schools constitute one of the most important departments of missionary labour, and he paid special attention to the selection and education of native people.

The building architecture was designed to withstand the most violent hurricanes and was still in good condition when the Buzacott family left in 1857 owing to Aaron's ill health.

In 1831 Aaron Buzacott visited all the islands in the Hervey Group, with John Williams, and found them to suffer badly from hurricanes and cyclones during the winter.

Aaron Buzacott later visited Samoa where he found American and English sailors who had run away from whaling ships, living on the islands with the permission of Samoan Chiefs but without schools.

Aaron Buzacott wrote: It was pleasing to observe, by contrasting the present condition of Rarotonga with that of Samoa, the progress the gospel had already made among us.

Aaron Buzacott departed with 5000 copies of the newly translated Bible with his wife, daughter and the newly ordained Rev William Wyatt Gill.

Aaron Buzacott presented a copy of the translated Bible to Lieutenant-Governor William Denison to be one of the first books in the newly established Tasmanian Public Library.

Aaron Buzacott retired for health reasons to New South Wales with his wife and daughter in 1857, and resided at Melbourne Cottage in Darlinghurst, a suburb of Sydney.

Aaron Buzacott traveled to the major towns and cities across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania on behalf of the Society, to advocate for the mission cause and share stories of his life's work.

Aaron Buzacott became involved with the Bourke Street Congregational Church and School, sitting on committees including one for building a new schoolroom in 1862, and becoming a deacon in 1863.

In early September 1864, Aaron Buzacott was at a committee meeting to consider the appointment of a new missionary at Rarotonga that lasted several hours and left him greatly weakened, with severe spasms continuing for several days until September 10.

Aaron Buzacott returned after three hours spent wandering on the rocks with a severe cold, and soon experienced great pain again, eventually resulting in him returning to his home at Melbourne Cottage; he would never again leave his room, though many visitors associated with missionary work called on him during his illness.

Aaron Buzacott died there on September 20,1864, attended by his wife; his nephew, Walter Aaron Buzacott; and many friends.

Aaron Buzacott was buried in the Congregational burying-ground in Devonshire Street, Sydney, now the location of the Central Railway Station; upon the clearing of the cemetery at Devonshire Street, his remains were reinterred at Rookwood Cemetery.

Aaron Buzacott's name is included on the grave of his wife and son at Abney Park Cemetery.

The work was concluded by several letters to Mrs Aaron Buzacott written just after the death of her husband and in high estimation of him, and a list of diseases prevalent in the islands of the South Seas.

Today the two-story Takamoa Mission House in the coastal town of Avarua, erected by Aaron Buzacott, is a government office; and the settlement of Arorangi, established by the Rev Aaron Buzacott as a model village to resettle people near the coast under a native pastor, a tourist destination.

Sarah Verney Hitchcock, Aaron Buzacott's wife, was from South Molton, and became known for her educational work and writings in the South Seas mission.

Aaron Buzacott kept her own written account of life in the coral islands of the Pacific, and returned to England after her husband's death.

Aaron Buzacott's sisters married missionaries; the third sister, Jane, married the Reverend Charles Hardie, who later joined the Buzacotts in the Pacific and were stationed in Samoa.

The Buzacott's son, Rev Aaron Buzacott the younger, was born in Tahiti while the family awaited transport to Rarotonga.

Aaron Buzacott was made a life governor of the Society in 1900.

Aaron Buzacott married the Reverend Stephen Creagh, of the London Missionary Society, in Sydney in 1858.

Two of their sons, Robert Luscombe and Ronald Aaron Buzacott Creagh, became farmers in Nungarin, Western Australia; Ronald's daughter Gladys married Arthur Norman Birks, a member of the prominent Birks family.

Aaron Buzacott died of croup aged two years and nine months, and was buried on Rarotonga; she was given the Rarotongan name "Takau a Makea" by Makea Pori Ariki.