Morrison, ROBERT

Morrison, ROBERT, the founder of Protestant missions in China, was born of Scottish parentage at Morpeth, in Northumberland, 5th January 1782. He studied at one of the Independent colleges, and in 1807 he was sent to Macao and Canton by the London Missionary Society. In February 1809 he was appointed translator to the East India Company's factory at Canton, and by 1814 he had completed the translation and printing of the whole of the New Testament. Four years later, by the help of William (afterwards Dr) Milne, he had done the same with the Old Testament; and in 1823 he completed and printed his great Chinese Dictionary in six large quarto volumes, at an expense to the East India Company of £12,000. It occupied him for sixteen years, and in connection with it he had accumulated a library of 10,000 Chinese books. It contained 40,000 words expressed by Chinese characters, and was afterwards translated into Japanese. In 1816 he acted as interpreter to Lord Amherst. In 1818 he established an Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca. When he returned to England in 1824, he brought with him his collection of books, ultimately presented to the Council of University College, London. After visiting France, Ireland, and Scotland, he in 1826 returned to China. In 1834 he accompanied Lord Napier to Canton as interpreter, and died there 1st August. Besides the works already mentioned, he is the author of Horæ Sinicæ (1812), being translations from the popular literature of the Chinese, a Chinese Grammar (1815), and Chinese Miscellany (1825). In 1839 his widow published his Memoirs. See also Townsend's Robert Morrison (1888).