John Weeks (bishop)
John Wills Weeks (1799–1857) was an Anglican bishop who led Sierra Leone from 1855 until his death two years later. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, in 1799 and baptised on 8 October 1799. Weeks served as a CMS missionary in Sierra Leone from 1825 to 1844, but ill health forced him to return to England. Back home, he became the incumbent of St Thomas's Church and the headmaster of Cranbrook School in Lambeth, and he earned a Doctor of Divinity degree.
He married twice. His first wife was Anna Pope (née Haynes), whom he married on 7 December 1826; she died in January 1839. His second wife was Phoebe Graham, from Bungay, Suffolk; she died in 1866 and is buried in West Norwood.
Weeks was appointed Bishop of Sierra Leone in 1855 and served until his death on 25 March 1857 in Sierra Leone. His papers are kept at the University of Birmingham.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:23 (CET).