SELWYN, GEORGE AUGUSTUS English bishop, second son of William Selwyn (1775-1855), a dis tinguished legal writer, was born at Hampstead, London, on April 5, 1809. He was educated at Eton and at St. John's college, Cam bridge, where he graduated in 1831. He returned to Eton as private tutor, was ordained deacon in 1833, and in 1841 was ap pointed first bishop to New Zealand, then just beginning to be col onized. He studied navigation and the Maori language on the voyage out and on his arrival gave himself up to a life of contin ual hardship. He spent days and sometimes nights in the saddle, swam broad rivers and provided himself with a sailing vessel. Un fortunately, just when he had gained the confidence of the natives, his ascendancy was rudely shaken by the first Maori war. Selwyn endeavoured to mediate, but incurred the hostility of both parties.
In 1854 he returned to England for a short furlough. He re turned to New Zealand with a band of able associates, including J. C. Patteson, and began to divide his large diocese into sees of more manageable proportions. The colonists came to respect his uprightness, and the Maoris learned to regard him as their father.
In 1868, while he was in England to attend the first pan-Anglican synod, the bishopric of Lichfield became vacant, and after some hesitation he accepted it. On his death, on April 11, 1878, his great work for the church was celebrated by a remarkable me morial, Selwyn college, Cambridge, being erected by public sub scription and incorporated in 1882.
See Lives by H. W. Tucker (2 vO1s. 1879) and G. H. Curteis (1889).
His son, JOHN RICHARDSON SELWYN (1844-1898), bishop of Melanesia, was born in New Zealand on May 2o, 1844. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity college, Cambridge, and was ordained deacon in 1869. The martyrdom of John Coleridge Pat teson, bishop of Melanesia, led him to volunteer for service in the Australasian Archipelago. After three years' service, during which the bishopric remained vacant, he was nominated as Pat teson's successor (1877). He returned to England in 1890 and became master of Selwyn college, where he died on Feb. 12, 1898.