MISSIONARIES: SELECTED BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES
by Rosemary Dixon-Smith

HANCE, Gertude R
ABM missionary came to SA July 1870, worked among the Zulus.

HARGREAVES, Peter (1833-1917)
Missionary active for Methodist Church in Tembuland and Pondoland 1857-1905, won many converts. Established educational and training centres and acted, at times with considerable physical courage, as peacemaker in conflicts between black communities and colonial authorities. He also featured prominently in the cession of Pondoland (part of the Transkei region) to the Cape Colony in 1894.

HARMS, Ludwig (1808-65)
Son of a Lutheran clergyman at Hermannsburg, Hanover.1849 established 'Die Hermannsburger Mission'. First it was intended to establish a station and a colony of missionaries among the Gallas of East Africa but when this failed Natal was chosen as the site of their endeavours, Hermannsburg station being founded in 1854 east of Greytown in Umvoti County.

HELM, Heinrich (or Henry) Carl Jacob (1780-1848)
Born 22 Mar 1780 Germany, Helm studied theology at the Rijks-Universiteit and was for a time Chaplain of the Dutch Fleet before joining the London Missionary Society. He married Charlotte White in England; came to South Africa on the Lady Barlow, arriving Simon's Town 13 September 1811. Helm worked as a missionary in Pella, Steinkopf and Griqualand and in 1827 was transferred to Zuurbraak as head of the Caledon Institute of LMS. Two of Helm's sons married daughters of William ANDERSON, missionary at Klaarwater (q.v.). More on the Helm/Anderson missionary dynasty can be found at
http://griquatownandersons.com

HOLDEN, William Clifford
Mehodist missionary, opened first Methodist church in Durban in May 1850. Among various works, he wrote 'History of the colony of Natal' (1855) and 'A Brief History of Methodism and of Methodist Missions in South Africa' (1877).

IRELAND, William (1821-1888)
ABM missionary came to SA 1849 with his first wife Jane, nee Wilson. She died in 1862. He then went on leave of absence to America and while there married Oriana Relief Grout, daughter of Aldin Grout; Oriana had been born in Bethelsdorp. Her mother, Hannah Grout nee Davis, died of consumption in Cape Colony when Oriana was a few weeks old; the child grew up in America. Later Oriana returned to SA with her husband William Ireland who was principal of Adams College at Amanzimtoti from 1865-1881. Oriana ran the Ireland Home for Zulu Girls. They had 7 children, of whom 5 survived. Lilla Lacon Ireland their eldest daughter later worked at Adams and at Inanda. Their eldest son Rev William Fleetwood Ireland was ordained in the Congregational ministry in 1895.

LAING, James (1803-1872)
Born 6 September 1803, Dumfriesshire. Studied at Edinburgh University. Ordained 31 August 1830 as a minister in the Church of Scotland. Married Margaret Drummond in Edinburgh 13 August 1830. Came to the Cape on the 'Aquila' as a missionary of the Glasgow Missionary Society in 1831. Assigned to the Burnshill MS on the Keiskamma River, which had been established in 1830 by William Chalmers and Alexander McDiarmid. Laing was at Burnshill for about thirty years, ministering to the Ngqika.

Laing's first wife died in 1837 and he subsequently married Isabella Mirrlees in 1842.

In 1843 Laing replaced the Rev John Bennie at Lovedale MS, remaining there for twelve years. During the War of the Axe (1846-7) the Laing family took refuge in the Kat River valley. In 1855 they left Lovedale and returned to Burnshill to rebuild the MS which was destroyed in the Frontier War of 1850-51.

He undertook journeys by wagon into the Transkei, accompanied by Isabella, and was instrumental in the completion of the translation of the Bible into the Xhosa language. The Jubilee of the Glasgow Mission was held at Burnshill in 1871, where Laing presented a paper on the history of the mission, paying special tribute to women missionaries. He died at Burnshill on 28 January 1872.

(Acknowledgements to Sandra Rowoldt Shell, from whose article on Laing these shortened extracts are taken.
For full version see http://www.oxforddnb.com/
For more on the Scottish missionaries see
www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=1164
Thanks to David Cooper for his input on Laing.)

LEARY, Archdeacon James Walter
Born 3 February 1871 at Ingxu Trading Station, Tsolo District, East Griqualand. Youngest son of William Leary of Umtata. Educated at Hurstpierpoint and Keble College Oxford, England. Took B.A. in 1893 then at Wells Theological College 18930-4. Ordained 1895. Curate of St. Saviour's, Claremont, Cape 1895-7. Missionary Priest in Diocese of Mashonaland 1898-1908. Chaplain to British Forces during Boer War 1899-1901; wounded and taken prisoner at Bryer's Store, Southern Rhodesia, November 1899; taken to Pretoria and released. Rector of Port St John's 1909-11. Co-founder of the Holy Cross Mission with Robert F Callaway in 1912. 1933 Director of Holy Cross Mission and Archdeacon of Pondoland. Captain, 4th Company, 1st Batt. Native Labour Contingent, to which he also acted as Chaplain, during WWI 1916-17. Respresented Oxford vs Cambridge in Swimming and Hockey in 1893. Captain, Keble College Soccer team. Represented Western Province in Soccer Currie Cup Tournament, Johannesburg 1895 and at Kingwilliamstown 1896. Played for Queen's Club, Bulawayo in Rugger and Soccer Cup Ties. In 1933 his address was Holy Cross Mission, via Flagstaff, Eastern Pondoland.

LIEFELDT, L
Berlin Society missionary

LINDLEY, Daniel (1801-1880)
ABM missionary came to SA in December 1834 with his wife Lucy; founded station at Mosega among Ndebele, later moved to Port Natal to work among the Zulu, but in 1839 became minister to the Voortrekkers. 1846 resumed work for ABM in Natal, founding Inanda Mission Station.

LLOYD, Charles H
ABM missionary travelled to SA in June 1862 with his wife Katie.

MARSH, Samuel D
ABM missionary came to SA with his wife Mary, leaving US in October 1847.

MCKINNEY, Silas
ABM missionary travelled to SA with his wife Fanny in April 1847.

MOFFAT, Robert
LMS missionary arrived at the Cape in 1817; worked among the Bechuana at Kuruman Mission Station for 50 years. Wrote 'Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa' (1842), and translated the Catechism as well as the New Testament into the Tswana language. His daughter Mary married David Livingstone, the missionary-explorer, who also worked at Kuruman before his travels in Central Africa.

Robert Moffat

Livingstone reads Bible to natives

OFTEBRO, Ommund (1820-1893)
Norwegian missionary arrived in Natal 1848. Worked at Eshowe Mission Station (i.e. Kwa Mondi, after Oftebro's Zulu name, Mondi) where he died and was buried at the Norwegian Cemetery. His wife Guri b Hognestad 1816 died at Eshowe in 1899. They had four children. His son Martin was an interpreter present at the capture of Cetshwayo after the Battle of Ulundi during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.

OWEN, Francis (1802-1854)
Missionary of the Church Missionary Society (Church of England). Travelled to Natal with Capt Allen Gardiner, and then to Zululand where he hoped to found a mission among Dingane's people. Witnessed the massacre of Piet Retief and his companions in 1838 and left the area. His attempt to establish a mission among the Hurutse failed and he returned to England in 1840. His Diary, edited by G E Cory, was published by the Van Riebeeck Society in 1926.

PEARSE, Horatio (?-1825)
A Wesleyan stationed for eleven years in Pietermaritzburg; in poor health, he was about to return to England on leave when the wagon he was travelling in overturned; he later succumbed to his injuries. See book by Thornley Smith 'The earnest missionary: a memoir of the Rev. Horatio Pearse' (London Wesleyan Mission House, 1868)

PHILIP, John (1777-1851)
With John Campbell sent to SA to report on state of LMS stations in SA and made four expeditions between 1818 and 1826; when the report was published in 1828 it caused much controversy. Became Superintendant of LMS; resigned 1849.

PINKERTON, Myron W
ABM missionary came to SA in August 1871 with his wife Laura.

PIXLEY, Stephen C
ABM missionary came to SA with his wife Louisa in October 1855.

POSSELT, Carl Wilhelm (1815-1885)
Berlin Missionary in Natal 1847.

READ, James (1777-1852)
Prominent member of LMS, worked among Khoikhoi At the time his allegations of ill-treatment of the Khoi and oppression by whites were considered exaggerated. He and his son were alleged to have instigated the Khoi revolt during the 8th Frontier War 1850-1853.

James Read Senior

James Read Junior

ROBBINS, Elijah
ABM missionary came to SA in September 1859 with his wife Addie; worked in the American Zulu Mission.

ROOD, David
ABM missionary arrived in SA 1847 accompanied by his wife Mrs Alvina V Rood; worked among the Zulus. On the death of Newton Adams 1851, Rood left Ifafa Mission Station to fill the gap left at Amanzimtoti.

Rev David Rood

ROWE, Samuel Evans
The Reverend Samuel Evans Rowe was born in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, England, on 1st September 1834, son of a Methodist minister, the Reverend Samuel Rowe. Samuel Evans Rowe followed his father into the Wesleyan ministry and on the Methodist Circuit preached in several towns in different parts of England. He 'rapidly rose to a high rank in the ministry' and served on the London Circuit before being called by the Missionary Committee and the Methodist Conference to go to South Africa 'which at that time needed a man who thoroughly understood (and knew how to administer) the Constitution and Policy of Wesleyan Methodism'. In October 1880, he set sail from Plymouth on the S.S. 'African', with his wife and family. The Reverend Samuel Evans Rowe was appointed to Pietermaritzburg, where he worked for twelve years, much of that time as Chairman of the Natal District. He was always interested in education, in which capacity he set up the Institution for Native Girls and served as Chairman of the Maritzburg Girls' Collegiate School. As well as his administrative skills and wide learning, his preaching and concern for the sick and needy gained him great respect. In 1890, he was elected President of the Methodist Conference in Cape Town, appointed to the Harrismith Circuit in 1895 and invited to be Superintendant of the Cape Town Circuit a year later. This last he turned down on health grounds, requesting a year's home leave in England. It was as his ship, the 'Tantallon Castle', was docking at Port Elizabeth on the Rowes' return from leave, on 4th July 1897, that Samuel Evans Rowe died of a brain haemorrhage on board ship.The funeral took place in Port Elizabeth, with a large congregation of mourners, and the Reverend Samuel Evans Rowe was buried at the South End Cemetery. 'He was a man of fine character, unusual eloquence, and magnetic personality. Among his brother ministers he ranked very high, for all admitted his great ability as a preacher and high character as a man.' [Quotations from 'The Methodist Times' and the Natal 'Times'; other information from 'The Methodist Churchman']

Rev Samuel Evans Rowe

SCHMIDT, Georg (1709-1785)
Pioneer Moravian missionary and first Protestant churchman to found mission for the Khoi at the Cape. His station was at Zoetmelksvlei beyond the Caledon River. The established Dutch recognized neither Schmidt's ordination or his authority to baptise his converts so he closed the station and left for Europe in 1744.

SCHREUDER, Hans Paludan Smith (1817-1882)
Norwegian missionary and Zulu linguist, founder of first Christian mission within Zululand. Arrived Zululand 1843, Mpande refused him entry, Schreuder tried again in 1847, then went to China. There he also experienced rejection and he returned to Zululand; was able to establish rapport with Mpande by healing the king. Schreuder had medical knowledge and was adept at trades of blacksmith, carpenter and tailor. His physical strength became legendary and he is said to have strangled a leopard with his bare hands. Established stations at Mpumulo (1850), Empangeni (1851) and Entumeni (1852). Joined by Udland, Oftebro and Larsen.

SHAW, Barnabas
Wesleyan Methodist Missionary arrived SA 1816. Worked at Leliefontein station for 10 years.
See www.genealogyworld.net/ellen/barnabas.html for full narrative.

SHAW, William
Wesleyan clergyman who worked among the Albany Settlers. From 1823, William Shaw was instrumental in establishment of chain of mission stations from Eastern Cape to Natal.
See www.genealogyworld.net/settlers/tessa.htm

SHEPSTONE, William (1796-1873)
Wesleyan missionary, father of Theophilus Shepstone. Worked at Wesleyville Mission. Theophilus Shepstone (1815-1893), later knighted, came to be associated with Anglican Church and was a supporter of Colenso during the years of schism in Natal. Theophilus's brother was named John Wesley Shepstone (1827-1916).

SOGA, Tiyo (c 1829-1871)
First South African black to be ordained as minister in the United Presbyterian Church. Grandson of Jotello Soga of the Xhosa. His mother was a converted Christian and sent Tiyo to the local mission school; he subsequently attended Lovedale and when his education was interrupted by the frontier wars was taken to Scotland in 1846 for religious instruction. In 1848 he returned to South Africa to assist in establishing a Mission Station but when the 8th Frontier War broke out Tiyo went back to Scotland, where he was ordained in December 1856. He married a Scottish yarn winder, Janet Burnside, at Govan in February 1857 and returned to South Africa to found a Mission Station at Tuturu. He translated the Gospels into Xhosa as well as part of 'Pilgrim's Progress'; his son John Henderson Soga (1860-1941), also a missionary, completed this translation. Tiyo Soga served on the board which revised the Xhosa Bible. Of his seven children, the eldest, William Anderson Soga, attended Glasgow University and became a medical missionary; William married Mary Agnes Meikle in 1885 and established the Miller Mission in Transkei where he worked until 1903. John Henderson Soga trained for the ministry in Edinburgh, qualifying in 1893 and returned to South Africa to establish a mission at Mbonda. Tiyo's son Jotello Festiri Soga (1856-1906) was the first South African-born black veterinary surgeon, and after he qualified in 1886 returned to South Africa where he did research on animal diseases in the Eastern Cape border region; Jotello Festiri Soga is rumoured to have died of an overdose of laudanum in 1906. Tiyo Soga was only 42 when he died in August 1871. John A Chalmers wrote the story of Tiyo Soga's life 'Tiyo Soga: A Page of South African Mission Work' published in Edinburgh 1877.

Tiyo Soga

SMITH, George (1845-1918)
Norfolk-born, Smith came to Natal in 1871 as missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG); ordained in the Anglican Church by Bishop McCrorie of Pietermaritzburg; became Vicar of Estcourt, Natal. As minister of St John's Church, Weston, he conducted burial services for those killed at Bushman's River Pass during the Langalibalele Rebellion 1873; later chaplain to the British Army during the Anglo-Zulu War, he was present at the Defence of Rorke's Drift, where he dispensed ammunition while encouraging the troops. He is depicted as a central figure in Alphonse de Neuville's well-known painting of the battle.

STOTT, Ralph
Methodist missionary to Indians in Natal 1862.

THOMSON, William Ritchie (1794-1891)
Glasgow missionary stationed in Kat River Settlement from 1830 with a congregation which joined the Dutch Reformed Church in 1832.

Born 9 September 1794 Tarbolton Ayrshire; father Hugh was a local schoolmaster and closely associated with the Glasgow Missionary Society (which, like the London Missionary Society was an outgrowth of the Evangelical Revival); mother Miss Davidson was related to the poet Robert Burns. William Ritchie Thomson was named after William Ritchie, the minister of the parish who baptised him - it was a Scottish custom to name the first child baptised by a new minister of a parish after that minister. Although William Ritchie Thomson didn't at first intend going into the ministry, he received his call to duty at the age of about 19. He and his first wife Frances Rodgers sailed from England on 29 April 1821 in Woodlark, arriving in Cape Town 28 July. Travelling with them was another Glasgow Missionary Society missionary John Bennie - like Thomson he was to become associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. From Cape Town the Thomsons sailed to Port Elizabeth on the schooner Albatross in the 3rd week of October 1821; from Port Elizabeth they went to Grahamstown by wagon reaching that town on 9 November 1821. Four days later they reached Fort Willshire where they were given a military escort to Chumie Mission Station on the Gwali River, where Rev John Brownlee laboured alone.

After the frontier war of 1834 Thomson's first wife died in childbirth; her funeral was held at Balfour 24 November 1836. He continued with his preaching, and was not idle during the subsequent war of 1846. In that year he married Isabella Smith (1823-1905), sister of the future Auditor-General of the Cape Colony, Sir Charles Abercrombie Smith. Isabella came to Kaffraria from Kincardineshire, Scotland, to teach and train the daughters of missionaries. When Lovedale opened in 1841, 7 sons of missionaries including Hugh and William Thomson, were admitted. No provision was made for education of daughters of missionaries; even inside the Colony proper there were only 1 or 2 schools for girls. Thus Isabella fulfilled a real need. She and William Ritchie Thomson married 7 October 1846 in the Kat River Settlement; she was 23 and made it a condition of marriage that she should continue teaching afterwards - which she did. Frances, the first wife, was a quiet person; Isabella, who outlived her husband by 14 years was someone of considerable courage as well as a resolute personality. The most well-known of William Ritchie Thomson's sons was William Rodger Thomson born at Balfour August 1832: he prepared for the ministry but eventually turned poet and journalist; for a time William Rodger was Editor of De Volksvriend; after resigning rather than submit to policy dictates by the Directors, he eventually became a Member of the Legislative Council for Fort Beaufort District, dying in 1867.

William Ritchie Thomson's children were John (Magistrate at Maclear), Hugh (Magistrate at Windvogelberg/Cathcart), Frances (married Charles Pacalt Brownlee, son of Rev John Brownlee), William Rodger, Helen Agnes (married John Laing), Elisa Catherine (married Frederick William Bompas) Harriet Jane (married Sir Edward Philip Solomon) and Charles Thomas (married Grace Peattie).

A Thomson family tree can be found in the book 'When Races Meet: the life and times of William Ritchie Thomson, Glasgow Society missionary, government agent and Dutch Reformed Church minister' by Donovan Williams (published APB Johannesburg 1967).

William Ritchie Thomson

THRELFALL, William (1799 - 1825)
Wesleyan missionary murdered by his Bushman guide in Namaqualand 1825. His story is told in Samuel Broadbent's book 'The missionary martyr of Namaqualand: memorials of the Rev Wm Threlfall, late Wesleyan missionary in South Africa who was murdered in Great Namaqualand' (published in London 1857) and in Thomas Cheeseman's 'The Story of William Threlfall'.
[For a detailed summary of the latter, see ... THRELFALL William 1799 - 1825].

TYLER, Josiah
ABM missionary came to SA with his wife Susan in April 1849. Published 'Forty Years among the Zulus' (1891), covering missionary life from 1849-1888.

VAN DER KEMP, Johannes (1747-1811)
Dutch-born missionary sent by LMS to work among Xhosa ruled by Ngika near King William's Town. Printed first work published in book form in SA (a letter from the LMS to inhabitants of the Cape 1799). Founded a settlement for vagrant Khoi at Bethelsdorp and provoked resentment among local white farmers. He retaliated with accusations of ill-treatment of blacks by farmers and was recalled to Cape Town by the colonial government. He died soon afterwards. Van der Kemp married the daughter of a slave woman from Madagascar.

VENABLE, Henry I (1811-1878)
ABM missionary came to SA in 1835 with his wife Martha in the company of Aldin Grout, Adams, Wilson etc.

WATERSTON, Jane (1843-1932)
Scottish medical missionary came to SA to be principal of a girls' school in Lovedale (Ciskei). The first woman doctor to practice in SA. In 1888 gained her MD with distinction from the University of Brussels.

WIGGILL, Eli
A Wesleyan Methodist who preached to the Bechuana and Koranna peoples, Wiggill converted to Mormonism and finally left SA for Utah.
See www.olsenfamily.us/Powellfami/WiggilBentley/EliWiggill.html for full narrative.

WILDER, George
ABM missionary came to SA in October 1880 with his wife Alice.

WILDER, Hyman A
ABM missionary came to SA April 1849 with his wife Abby.

WILSON, Alexander (1803-41)
Missionary of the first ABM party to SA leaving US in December 1834 and arriving 3 December 1835; travelled with his wife Mary who died before her husband reached Natal; on her deathbed she said: 'Tell my mother and sister and friends that I have never regretted coming to Africa.' Wilson was a physician by profession.

WITT, Otto
First missionary to represent the Church of Sweden Mission in SA, arriving 1876. For a time connected with Schreuder's mission. The Swedish Church purchased a farm near the border of Zululand and a mission was established there, named Oscarsberg in honour of the Swedish King. This is where Witt was stationed at the time of the Anglo-Zulu War 1879.

WOODWARD, RB and JDS
British-born brothers, after a period in America they became SPG missionaries to Natal circa 1871 to circa 1905; wrote the first study of ornithology in Natal, 'Natal Birds' (1899); travelled extensively in SA and collected bird specimens many of which they sent to the British Museum, as well as publishing articles in Ibis magazine.