Charles John Abraham (1814 – 4 February 1903) was the first Anglican Bishop of Wellington. He married Caroline Palmer who became a noted artist.
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Life
Born in Farnborough, Hampshire, in 1814, the son of Royal Navy captain Abraham, he was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge and was later a fellow. He gained his BA in 1837, MA (Cantab) in 1840, BD in 1849, and received the degree of DD in 1859. He was made deacon on 11 March 1838, and ordained priest 26 May 1839, both at Lincoln. He was Assistant Master at Eton until 1850, when he went out to New Zealand to become Master of the English department of St John's College, Auckland.
In 1853, he was appointed Archdeacon of Waitemata by George Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand. Selwyn had for two or three years been offering to members of the Church of England a Church Constitution, under which they were to govern themselves; and during the two years which followed, while absent in England, he left Abraham to set out its principles.
In 1857, a convention of churchmen was held in Auckland, which resulted in the framing of the Constitution. In the following year Abraham, who had also been acting as chaplain to the bishop, was appointed first Anglican Bishop of Wellington: he was confirmed (legally taking the See) on 4 September 1858 and consecrated a bishop on 29 September by John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury; Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford; and John Lonsdale, Bishop of Lichfield, at Lambeth Palace chapel. He arrived back in New Zealand 30 March 1859 and was installed at St Paul's Pro-Cathedral on 3 April.
When the New Zealand Wars broke out by reason of the purchase by the government of the Waitara block, Abraham presented a protest to the governor, claiming for the Maori as British subjects the right to be heard in the Supreme Court.