David Hazelwood

  General Notes:

Reverend Hazlewood was the first person to convert the Old Testament from the Hebrew into the Fijian Language. He served as a missionary in Fiji and is very famous within the Wesleyan Church. Many students in the UK study his work. Fiji did not treat his family well, three of the four children he had with second wife Sarah died as infants. It seems the fourth child, David, went to Australia with his parents just before his father died. It seems a shame that the Reverend died so young, at only 35, as he achieved so much in such a short time.
His original translation which was later revised before publishing is now being reprinted by Andrew Thornley, a Fijian Methodism historian from Sydney.
There is a diary in existence, see details below, the transcript is held by the State Library of NSW
Diary of Reverend David Hazlewood (transcription of 1841-1850 journal made in 1994 lby Daphne Penalver)
Reverend David Hazlewood [1820-1855] arrived in Sydney from England in 1842. In 1844 he left as a missionary to Fiji, arriving there after a four month stay in Tonga. He stayed in Fiji until 1853 when he returned to New South Wales in failing health and died at Maitland in 1855. A skilled linguist, his publications include "A compendious grammar of the Feejeean language; with examples of native idioms" [1850] and" A Feejeean and English dictionary; with examples of common and peculiar modes of expression, and uses of words."..[1850].
Thanks to Sandra Stevens for assistance with this information

David married Jane McIntyre on 8 Feb 1844 in Parramatta, NSW. (Jane McIntyre was born in 1812 in Liverpool and died on 23 Feb 1849 in Fiji.)

David next married Sarah Webster on 9 Jun 1851 in Parramatta, NSW. (Sarah Webster was born on 20 Dec 1819 in Frome, Somerset and died on 9 Sep 1903 in NSW, Australia.)