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Rev. George Stallworthy was an LMS (London Missionary Society) missionary. Born, August 16, 1809, at Preston Bissett, near Buckingham. Studied at Homerton College. Ordained, October 3, 1833, at Ramsgate. Appointed to the Marquesas. He sailed, October 27, 1833; arrived at Tahiti, March 23, 1834. On September 11, 1834, he left Tahiti, with Mr. Darling, to the mission on the Marquesas; arriving at St. Christina, October 6. He settled at Vaitahu. The Marquesas Mission having been relinquished in 1841, Mr. Stallworthy, in December, 1841, left those islands in the ‘Camden’ and arrived at Tahiti, December 13, going to Papaoa. In February 1844 he joined the Samoan Mission at Falealisi, Upolu. There he married his first wife, Charlotte Burnett Wilson (the daughter of Charles Wilson, an LMS missionary). When Charlotte and George married, she already had TB, and 18 months later she died at Upolu, August 2, 1845. However they did have a son, George Burnett Stallworthy. Her grave stone in Samoa reads: “Charlotte Stallworthy; born at Tahiti 1817; married Feb 2 1844; First wife of George Stallworthy (Taluale) of Falealii; Died at Samoa August 1845”. Her parents were living nearby, having retired to Falealii, so they raised the child until 1855 when, at age 10, George (Jr) was sent back to England to go to school. (He later became a minister.) In March 1846, Stallworthy left Samoa by the appointment of the Directors, to visit Tahiti. On that trip he met Mary Ann Darling (b. 1819) on board the ‘John Williams’. He returned to Samoa at the close of August, and eventually George proposed to Mary Ann and they married in Apia on 13 Oct. 1847. (She was also the daughter of an LMS missionary.) In 1858, Mr. Stallworthy visited the New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and Niue, and afterwards, Fakaofo, one of the Tokelau group. In January 1859, Stallworthy removed to Malua, to temporarily replace Mr. Turner in the Seminary there, however he died in November of that year, leaving his wife with eight children (and his first son in England). The family caught the ‘John Williams’ ship back to Tahiti. Then, after leaving Tahiti for Sydney in 1860, 3 of the children died of diphtheria. (William, Louisa and Sarah Ann are buried on Raiatea.) Mary Ann and the remaining children carried on to Sydney, where eventually their health improved, and they carried on to England. Mary Ann Stallworthy died in England in 1872. One of his descendants, John J. Lewis, wrote a book called: “Wind in the Palms- Mission in the SW Pacific 1817-72- David Darling- George Stallworthy” (now out of print).

Born: 1809
Died: 1859