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Robert Morrison (1782-1834):
Robert Morrison was born on 5 January 1782 near Morpeth, Northumberland. In 1798 he joined the Presbyterian Church, and in January 1803 began to study at Hoxton Academy [now Highbury College]. Once accepted by the London Missionary Society in 1804, he transferred to the Missionary Academy at Gosport where he remained until 1805. As Morrison's destination was to be in China, he spent two years studying the Chinese language and acquiring a basic knowledge of medicine, from an introductory course for missionaries at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London.
Morrison was ordained on 8 January 1807 at the Scots Church, Swallow Street, Westminster and arrived in Canton on 7 September 1807. The first two years in Canton were dedicated to further study of the Chinese language and to work on translating the scriptures. In 1809 he was appointed Chinese Translator in the East India Company, a post which he held until the lapse of its Charter in 1833, thereby gaining both a secure income and the right to remain in China. From 1833 to 1834 he held the post of Chinese Secretary and Interpreter under Lord Napier.
It is for his role as a pioneer missionary that Robert Morrison is perhaps most significant. He was the first British protestant missionary to work in China, and his influence can be seen neither in the number of converts he made nor in any overt role as an Evangelist, but rather in the foundations which he established for future missionary work in a society otherwise hostile to Christianity. Against this background, Morrison's task for the London Missionary Society was to make "the translation of the Holy Scriptures, into the Chinese language, the first and grand object of his attention". His three major works were a Dictionary of the Chinese language in three parts, completed in 1823, a Grammar of the Chinese language (1815), and, with the assistance of the Revd. William Milne, a Translation of the Old and New Testaments, completed in 1819.
The most significant of Morrison's educational endeavours was the establishment in 1818 of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. The Morrison Education Society, created after Morrison's death by foreign residents in Canton, encouraged a mutual exchange of cultures and knowledge of languages, and Morrison's commitment to the need for a greater understanding of Chinese language and culture by the west led to the founding of the Language Institution in Bartlett's Buildings, London, 1824-1826.
Morrison's observation of the medical needs of the native community resulted in the establishment of a dispensary in Macao offering medical treatment to the Chinese. The dispensary was headed by a Chinese practitioner, familiar with the main principles of Western medicine, who was assisted by Dr. J. Livingstone, surgeon to the East India Company. However it was not until Benjamin Hobson's arrival in China in 1839 that the influence of Western medical practice became significant.
Robert Morrison died in Canton on 1 August 1834. He was married twice. Firstly in February 1809 to Mary Morton, who died in 1821, and secondly in November 1824 to Eliza Armstrong. He had seven children, two (John Robert and Mary Rebecca) by his first wife and five by his second.
John Robert Morrison (1814-1843):
John Robert Morrison, the eldest son of the Revd. Robert Morrison by his first wife Mary, was born at Macao in 1814. He was educated initially in Europe, studied the Chinese language under his father, and from 1827-30 attended the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca.
From 1830 Morrison worked as a translator for the English merchants in Canton, China, and in 1832 accompanied Edmund Roberts, a United States merchant and diplomat, on an investigative mission to Siam (Thailand) and Cochin China (former French colony of Indo-China), resulting in the conclusion of trade treaties. He was also responsible for compiling the Chinese Commercial Guide, which provided information on British trade in China to the merchant community.
Following the death of his father in 1834, he was appointed Chinese Secretary to the British government. In this capacity he was directly involved in the diplomacy surrounding the outbreak of the 'opium wars' (1839-1842), and in the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Nanking.
With the establishment of peace, Morrison was made a member of the Legislative and Executive Council, and official Colonial Secretary of the Hong Kong government, by the English plenipotentiary Sir Henry Pottinger.
In addition to his official duties, John Robert shared his father's commitment to the spread of Christianity. On the death of Robert Morrison, he continued the work of the English Protestant Church in Canton, supporting those Chinese converts persecuted by the Chinese authorities, assisting with the revision of Robert Morrison's translation of the Bible, and appealing to the London Missionary Society to continue the missionary work in Canton. In February 1838 he was made Recording Secretary of the Medical Missionary Society. John Robert Morrison died in the autumn of 1843 from malarial fever. He was unmarried.
Benjamin Hobson (1816-1873):
Benjamin Hobson was born on 2 January 1816 at Welford, Northamptonshire, the son of an Independent minister. He began his medical studies as an apprentice at Birmingham General Hospital, and, in 1835 transferred to University College London, gaining the MB degree of the University of London, and Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Prompted by a desire to use his medical knowledge in the service of Christianity, Hobson was appointed as a medical missionary for the London Missionary Society. In 1839 he left for China. On his return to England in 1859 he practised medicine in Clifton and Cheltenham, until retiring in 1864.
Dr Hobson died at Forest Hill, Sydenham on 16 February 1873. He was married twice: firstly in 1839 to Jane Abbay until her death in 1845, and secondly in 1847 to Mary Rebecca Morrison, daughter of the Revd. Robert Morrison. He had two children by his first wife and two by his second.
Dr Hobson is significant for being the first British protestant medical missionary to work in China. In general the work of the pioneer missionaries, including that of the Revd. Robert Morrison, had focused on the study of the language, the production of Christian literature and on the creation of openings into Chinese society. For Dr Hobson the role of such a missionary was both philanthropic and evangelistic: priority was given to meeting the medical needs of the native people in the belief that this would gain their confidence. His work in China was therefore devoted to the development of medical facilities in Macao, Hong Kong and Canton, the introduction of Western medical techniques, the preparation of texts in Chinese dealing with western medicine, and the provision of medical education in order to train native physicians.
Arriving in China in 1839, Hobson's first post was with William Lockhart at the hospital recently established by the Medical Missionary Society in Macao. Hobson's medical observations at this time cover the famine, small pox, cholera, leprosy and, in particular, the problems of opium addiction. His concern with the harmful effects of the opium trade led him to voice openly his opposition to the attitude of the English government.
In 1843 Benjamin Hobson moved to Hong Kong to take charge of the Missionary hospital newly founded by Peter Parker. As in Macao, the hospital was in great demand, with the treatment of ophthalmic conditions being the most common need. In the more tolerant atmosphere of Hong Kong, Hobson's commitment to the need for medical education of the native Chinese became apparent: firstly in his support for the China Medical and Chirurgical Society, founded in 1845; secondly in the training given to 'pupil assistants'; and thirdly in proposals to the Committee of the Medical Missionary Society for the establishing of 'medical classes'. However, a conflict of approaches to the role of the missionary and to the strategy of the Medical Missionary Society led to the creation of two separate associations, the Hong Kong Missionary Society (1845), supported by Dr Hobson, and the Medical Missionary Society in Canton supported by Peter Parker.
In 1847 Hobson moved to Canton to continue the work which had been neglected since the death in 1834 of his father-in-law, the Revd. Robert Morrison. Although Christianity was increasingly tolerated in China, the native city of Canton remained closed to Westerners, and Hobson had to establish his hospital in the Kam-Li-Fau district, in the Western suburbs. Hobson's medical observations continued, and show a continuing concern for leprosy and the problems of opium addiction. Similarly his awareness of the need for medical education is reflected in the importance of training given to pupil assistants, most of whom were subsequently considered competent to undertake small operations.
In 1856, in the face of the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Kam-Li-Fau hospital was closed. Dr Hobson transferred first to Hong Kong and then in 1857 to Shanghai, before returning to England in 1859. The eight years spent in Canton were perhaps the most significant in terms of Dr Hobson's contribution to the acceptance of Western medical practice, and enabled the publication in Chinese of major works bringing together selections from key English works on specific medical subjects. These works became standard medical texts for the Chinese and were translated into various languages including Korean and Japanese.