Robert Moffat (missionary)

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Robert Moffat
Missionary to Africa
Born	21 December 1795 Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland
Died	9 August 1883 (aged 87) Leigh, Kent, England
Religion	Congregationalist

Robert Moffat sitting under an almond tree at Kuruman with his wife and eldest daughter Mary. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Robert Moffat (21 December 1795 – 9 August 1883) was a Scottish Congregationalist missionary to Africa, and father-in-law of David Livingstone.

Moffat was born of humble parentage in Ormiston, East Lothian. To find employment, he moved south to Cheshire in England as a gardener. In 1814, whilst employed at West Hall High Legh in Cheshire he experienced difficulties with his employer due to his Methodist sympathies. For a short period, after having applied successfully to the London Missionary Society (LMS) to become an overseas missionary, he took an interim post as a farmer, at Plantation Farm in Dukinfield (where he first met his future wife). In September 1816, he was formally commissioned at Surrey Chapel in London as a missionary of LMS (on the same day as John Williams) and was sent out to South Africa. His fiancée Mary Smith (1795–1870) was able to join him three years later, after he returned to Cape Town from Namaqualand (where he converted the chief Afrikaner to Christianity) and she actively assisted further missionary work.

In 1820 Moffat and his wife left the Cape and proceeded to Griquatown, where their daughter Mary (who was later to marry David Livingstone) was born. The family later settled at Kuruman, to the north of the Vaal River, among the Batswana people. Here they lived and worked passionately for the missionary cause, until in 1870 they returned to Britain. During this period, Robert Moffat made frequent journeys into the neighbouring regions as far north as the Matabele country. The results of these journeys he communicated to the Royal Geographical Society (Journal 25-38 and Proceedings ii). Whilst in Britain on leave (1839–1843) an account of the family's experience, Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa (1842) was published. He translated the whole of the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress into Setswana.

Besides his early training as a gardener and farmer, and later as a writer, Moffat developed skills in building, carpentry, printing and as a blacksmith. On his return to England he received a testimonial of £5000.

Robert and Mary Moffat had ten children: Mary (who married David Livingstone), Ann, Robert (who died as an infant), Robert, Helen, Elizabeth (who also died as an infant), James, John, Elizabeth and Jean. Their son John Smith Moffat became an LMS missionary and took over running of the mission at Kuruman before entering colonial service. Their grandson Howard Unwin Moffat became a prime minister of Southern Rhodesia.

Robert Moffat died at Leigh near Tunbridge Wells, on 9 August 1883, and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery. A memorial monument, paid for by public subscription, was in his birthplace in 1885.

Residents of High Legh organise a Robert Moffat Memorial 10 km run beginning and ending at his cottage.^[1]

His printing work in Kuruman was supported by an iron hand press that was brought to Cape Town in 1825 and taken to Kuruman in 1831. Rev. Moffat used it until 1870 when he retired, after which it was taken over by William Aston and A J Gould and was in use until about 1882. In 1918 it was taken to the Kimberly Public Library where it remained^[2] until it was returned to the Moffat Mission in Kuruman in 1996. It is back in occasional use printing commemorative documents.^[3]

Robert Moffat Monument, Ormiston, East Lothian

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Moffat, Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

↑ http://www.highlegh.org/race.htm
↑ Bradlow, Frank R (1987). Printing for Africa (1 ed.). Kuruman: Kuruman Moffat Mission Trust. p. 36. ISBN 0-620-11489-4.
↑ Gilley, Lawrence C (February 1997). "Letters from Mozambique: Press". Balaza, Maxixe, Mozambique. Retrieved 10 May 2010.

Bibliography

Alan Butler, Kuruman Moffat Mission, Kuruman Moffat Mission Trust, Kuruman, (1987)
John Smith Moffat, Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat (1885)
C. S. Home, The Story of the L. M. S. (1894)
William Walters, Life and Labours of Robert Moffat, D.D., Missionary in South Africa, (1885)

External links

Wikisource has the text of an 1879 American Cyclopædia article about Robert Moffat (missionary).

Friends of West Norwood Cemetery (Word format)
Robert Moffat biographies
Moffat Mission near Kuruman, Northern Cape, South Africa
Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "Moffat, Robert". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.

v t e Protestant Missions to Africa

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Persondata
Name	Moffat, Robert
Alternative names
Short description	Scottish missionary
Date of birth	21 December 1795
Place of birth	Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland
Date of death	9 August 1883
Place of death	Leigh, Kent, England

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