The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Selwyn, Right Rev. John Richardson
Selwyn, Right Rev. John Richardson, D.D., Bishop of Melanesia, is the son of Right Rev. George Selwyn, sometime Bishop of New Zealand and subsequently Bishop of Lichfield (q.v.). He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (third class Classical Tripos) in 1866, M.A. in 1870, and was created D.D. in 1885. He was ordained deacon in 1869 and priest in 1870, and was curate of Alrewas, Staffordshire, from 1869 to 1870, curate of St. George's, Wolverhampton, in 1871, and vicar in that and the next year. From 1875 to 1877 the Bishop was employed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a missionary in Melanesia, and on Feb. 18th in the latter year was consecrated at Nelson, N.Z., Missionary Bishop of Melanesia by the Metropolitan (Harper) of New Zealand and Bishops Suter of Nelson, Hadfield of Wellington, Cowie of Auckland, and Nevile of Dunedin. In 1891 he revisited England, and in Dec. resigned the bishopric on the ground of ill-health.