Freeman , Thomas Birch , 1809-1890 , missionary

Born at Twyford, Hampshire, England, son of an English mother and a freed African slave, Thomas Freeman, 1809; joined the Methodists; moved to Ipswich and became a preacher; head gardener on a Suffolk estate, but lost his position owing to his Methodist activism; accepted by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1837; sailed to the Gold Coast, west Africa, 1837-1838; missionary on the Cape Coast (where an indigenous Methodist church had been tenuously supported by a succession of English missionaries), 1838-1857; visited Kusami, the Ashanti capital; married, for the second time, Lucinda Cowan (d 1841) at Bedminster, Somerset, 1840; visited England to appeal for funds and recruits, 1841; the publication of his journals made him a celebrity; his pioneering work in founding many mission stations and chapels in the area underpinned later Methodist success in Ghana, western Nigeria, and Benin; married for the third time, 1854; financial controversy and other difficulties caused him to retire from missionary work, 1857; civil commandant of Accra, 1857-1860; remained in the Gold Coast, farming, writing, and preaching; returned as a missionary, to Anamabu, west Africa, 1873-1879; Accra, 1879-1886; retired and settled at Accra, 1886; died, 1890. Publication: Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku and Dahomi ... with an historical introduction by the Rev J Beecham (2nd edition, 1844); Missionary Enterprise No Fiction (1871), a semi-autobiographical novel [by Thomas Birch Freeman].