Thomas and Sarah Buddle served as missionaries among the Māori people at Whāingaroa, Porirua, Waipā, and Te Kōpua.

[1] In 1844, he was appointed as head of the Wesleyan Native Institution, Three Kings near Auckland, a college devoted to training Māori teachers.

For the next twenty-one years he ministered to Māori and Pākehā congregations in Auckland while also serving in leadership positions in Wesleyan missionary conferences.

In 1860 he published a pamphlet, "The Maori King Movement in New Zealand,"[2] in which he described the dangers of the growing political power of the Kīngitanga and cautioned against the use of military force.

He gave his last sermon on 17 June 1883 in Onehunga and grew increasingly ill complaining of pains in his chest.