Mary Cover Lawry

While in Tonga, she was able to quickly develop relationships with Tongan woman through shared interests in their children, husbands, and homes.

Margaret Reeson wrote the biographical fiction book Currency Lass (1985) about Lawry's life.

She said about the book, "For a long time I wanted to write a storey that expressed what it was like to be a missionary’s wife.

[1][2] She was born a year after her parents arrived in Sydney on the Nautilus, after having been Anglican missionaries at Tahiti.

Her husband was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary and the son of Anna and Joseph Lawry of Cornwall, England.

The couple married in a triple ceremony on 22 November 1819 with her brothers Samuel and Jonathan and their brides Lucy Mileham and Mary Rouse, respectively.

[2] My affairs with my dear Mary are all settled… My heart cleaves to the young lady whom I have chosen for my companion thro’ tribulations; and from her I expect nothing but sweetness and the very best of enjoyments; but the family are Calvinistic Dissenters, which thing annoys me.Although Rowland Hassall had strong Anglican-Calvinist sympathies, he welcomed Protestant missionaries of differing faiths into the area, and often into his home.

The first Wesleyan Chapel in Parramatta, located next to their simple "Mission House", was opened in 1821.

Arriving in Tonga, they faced threats, theft, and resistance as well as encounters with Māori war canoes.

Lawry carried her child with her to communicate with the Tongan women about folk medicine, female knowledge, and lore.

In this tiny area, it is all right to be ourselves.Men, on the other hand, was concerned about how to subdue and control the native peoples and converting them to Christianity.

According to Chilla Bulbeck, "women were not the explicit purveyors of colonial domination that their husbands were: British menfolk provided the iron of rigid rule and railroad.

"[8] The biographical fiction book about Mary's life, Currency Lass (1985) by Margaret Reeson, brought to light that missionary women were partners to their husbands, and many women worked "behind the scenes" to bring change to indigenous communities.

Lawry became pregnant shortly after arriving in Cornwall, England, where many of Walter's family lived.