{{Portal|Christianity}}'''John Wills Weeks''' (1799–1857) was the Anglican Bishop of Sierra Leone<ref>”The book of dignities; containing lists of the official personages of the British Empire” Haydn, J.T: London, Moxon & Co, 1860</ref> from 1855<ref>London Gazette of Friday, May 11 Morning Chronicle Saturday, May 12, 1855; Issue 27574</ref> until his death in Sierra Leone two years later.<ref>From the London Gazette of Tuesday, Aug. 18 The Times Wednesday, Aug 19, 1857; pg. 6; Issue 22763; col A</ref>

John Wills Weeks was born in Dartmouth, Devon in 1799 and baptised at St Petrox Church there 8 Oct 1799.<ref>https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62250/records/1069284?tid=&pid=&queryId=8b926e96-752f-4d5e-946a-71c802b96d78&_phsrc=PIV40551&_phstart=successSource</ref><ref>see census records at ancestry.co.uk</ref>{{better source needed |date=December 2024}} A CMS missionary in Sierra Leone from 1825 to 1844 when ill-health caused his return to England,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ampltd.co.uk/collections_az/cms-4-05/contents-of-reels.aspx?h=church%20missionary%20society%20archive|title=CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE Section IV: Africa Missions Part 5: West Africa (Sierra Leone), 1820-1880|website=www.ampltd.co.uk|access-date=2018-04-05}}</ref> he became incumbent of St Thomas's Church and headmaster of Cranbrook School, Lambeth<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18590927.2.11.3|title=The Wreck of the Admella.|date=1859-09-27|work=Daily Southern Cross|access-date=2018-04-05|pages=1}}</ref> until his appointment to the episcopate. He became a Doctor of Divinity (DD).<ref>“Registrum sacrum Anglicanum: an attempt to exhibit the course of episcopal succession in England; from the records and chronicles of the church” Stubbs, W: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1858</ref>

On 7 December 1826, Weeks married his first wife Anna Pope, née Haynes, widow of John Pope, a missionary who died after only 6 months of service in Sierra Leone. She predeceased him 10 January 1839. His second wife Phoebe Graham, née Davey, née Goodwin, from Bungay in Suffolk, widow of Henry Graham, died in 1866 and was buried in West Norwood.<ref>ancestry.co.uk</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Register of Missionaries 1804-1894 |publisher=Church Missionary Society |url=http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk./Documents/Details/CMS_OX_Register_01 |access-date=3 January 2021 |format=Available through: Adam Matthew, Marlborough, Church Missionary Society Periodicals}}</ref>

Weeks died on March 25, 1857.<ref>[https://ia600107.us.archive.org/19/items/sierraleoneafter00ingh/sierraleoneafter00ingh.pdf Internet Archive, ''Sierra Leone: After A Hundred Years'', by the Right Rev E. G. Ingham (1894), page 202]</ref> His papers are held at the University of Birmingham.<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F41742 National Archives website, ''Weeks, John Wills'']</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} {{S-start}} {{S-rel|en}} {{S-bef|before=Owen Vidal}} {{S-ttl|title=Bishop of Sierra Leone|years=1855&ndash;1857}} {{S-aft|after=John Bowen}} {{S-end}}

{{Bishops of Sierra Leone}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, John}} Category:Year of birth unknown Category:19th-century Anglican bishops in Sierra Leone Category:English Anglican missionaries Category:Anglican missionaries in Sierra Leone Category:Anglican bishops of Sierra Leone Category:1799 births Category:1857 deaths Category:People from Dartmouth, Devon Category:British missionaries in Sierra Leone