Walter henry medhurst biography of barack

&#;MEDHURST, WALTER HENRY (–), missionary, was born in London on 29 April In the register-book of St. Paul's School, where his admission stands recorded on 27 July , at the age of eleven, his father is described as William Medhurst, innkeeper, of Ross, N.B.

After quitting the school he found occupation as a printer, first at Gloucester, and afterwards with the London Missionary Society. In their service, after a few months' study and preparation under Dr. Collison at Hackney College, he embarked for China in September as a missionary printer. His destination was Malacca.

On the way the ship in which he sailed put in at Madras, and there he found a wife to share his labours. While working at the printing-press he made rapid progress in the knowledge of the Malay and Chinese languages, and developed a faculty of preaching. He was accordingly ordained by Dr. W. Milne [q.

Walter henry medhurst biography of barack Add languages Add topic. Located variously at Malacca, Penang, and Batavia, he early demonstrated enviable facility in both Malay and Chinese, and in addition to his work among orphans, engaged in energetic and effective preaching and publishing ministry. The Medhurst correspondence Walter Medhurst, like many of his fellow missionaries, was a prolific letterwriter. Login to post a comment.

v.] and his colleagues at Malacca on 27 April Of wiry frame, good health, and unfailing cheerfulness, he proved a most efficient missionary. Penang and Batavia were the scene of his earlier efforts. At Parapattan he established an orphan asylum. In he returned for a while to England. There he wrote his ‘China, its State and Prospects,’ published in , with the view of stimulating interest in Chinese missions, and especially in a new version of the bible in Chinese, a work which, with the co-operation of friends, he was able to accomplish some years later.

It is known as the ‘Delegates' Version.’ In he went back to Java. Thence, when the ports of Canton, Shanghai, and three others were opened to British merchants by the treaty of 29 Aug. , he moved to Shanghai, and laboured there for fourteen years.

On the one hand, it demonstrated the Chinese respect for the written word and literacy; on the other, it reflected the typical Chinese enthusiasm for getting something foreign for nothing. A tract that was narrowly religious and devotional in content held no interest because of the vast cultural and historical differences between China and the West. The author of numerous pamphlets and several substantial reference works, including a Chinese-English Dictionary, Medhurst is perhaps best known for his key role in producing the groundbreaking Chinese Delegates Translation Bible, published in He landed at Southend on 21 Jan.

On 10 Sept. he sailed with his wife and family from &#;Shanghai to England in order to recruit his health. He landed at Southend on 21 Jan. , and was just able to reach London, where he died on the evening of the 24th. He was buried in Abney Park cemetery on 31 Jan.

Medhurst's works were numerous. They exhibit unceasing activity of mind and a remarkable gift for languages.

Besides the works mentioned above, he published in Batavia in an ‘English and Japanese Vocabulary,’ and in –3 a ‘Chinese and English Dictionary,’ in two vols. 8vo; at Shanghai he published in ‘Chinese Dialogues,’ of which a new and enlarged edition was brought out in by his son, Walter Henry (afterwards Sir Walter) Medhurst [q.

Biography of barack obama Sponsored Search by Ancestry. Medhurst felt that these differences were responsible for the inabilities of the missionaries to attract a Chinese following, and he often "sadly lamented his own want of success" in converting Chinese during his early years in Java. A mission report from Medhurst from November , sent back to the Society in London. DNA Connections It may be possible to confirm family relationships.

v.], and in a ‘Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese,’ besides many lesser tracts.

The coloured frontispiece to his ‘China, its State and Prospects’ gives a portrait of him in conversation with Choo-Tĭh-Lang, attended by a Malay boy.