John Campbell (born March 1766 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

– 4 April 1840

Kingsland, London Kingsland was a small road-side settlement centred on Kingsland High Street on the Old North Road (the present A10), around the junction with Dalston Lane. It is no longer discernable as a separate settlement, though the historic street patter ...

), was a Scottish missionary and traveller.

Life

He attended the Royal High School and was at one time apprenticed to a goldsmith. Campbell helped found the Magdalene Society, a

Religious Tract Society The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerci ...

of Scotland in 1793, and the ''Missionary Magazine'' in Edinburgh in 1796. His consuming interest in Christian philanthropy led him to preach widely in neglected villages and hamlets, promote the establishing of numerous Sunday schools and found societies like the

Magdalene asylum Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were initially Protestant but later mostly Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, ostensibly to house "fallen women". The term referred to femal ...

to help prostitutes in Edinburgh and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. His opposition to the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

led to his involvement in the foundation of the

Society for the Education of Africans The Society for the Education of Africans was an English abolitionist organisation which provided for the education of the sons of prominent Africans in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Society was led by the Clapham Sect, and founde ...

. He collaborated with

James Alexander Haldane The Rev James Alexander Haldane aka Captain James Haldane (14 July 1768 – 8 February 1851) was a Scottish independent church leader following an earlier life as a sea captain. Biography The youngest son of Captain James Haldane of Airth ...

in bringing some 30-40 African children to be educated in England. Following the Haldane Revival, Campbell became a Congregational Church minister. He was minister at ''Kingsland'', an independent chapel he had founded, from 1802. He was instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society and became a director of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

. The London Missionary Society sent him to the

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

in June 1812 to inspect the mission stations there. He set off from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in February 1813, calling in at

Bethelsdorp Bethelsdorp is a town in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, 20 km north-west of Port Elizabeth. History Established in 1803 by Rev. J.T. van der Kemp on the farm Roodepas of Theunis Bo ...

and

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

, then the military headquarters. Heading north he visited

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the ...

and Klaarwater (later

Griquatown Griekwastad is a country town in South Africa. It is sometimes still called Griquatown (the meaning of the town's name in Afrikaans), a name which is now considered historical. The town is in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa by road we ...

), and then travelled further north to

Litakun Dithakong is the name of a place east of Kuruman in the Northern Cape, South Africa, which had been a major destination for several of the earliest nineteenth century expeditions from the Cape to the interior of the subcontinent. In colonial lite ...

, the kraal of the Batlhaping kgosi (chief) Mothibi. His return trip went via Klaarwater, Pella and the

Kamiesberge The Kamiesberg or Kamiesberge (Khoikhoi ''"Th'amies"'' = ''"jumble"''), is a mountain range of jumbled granite inselbergs or bornhardts dotted over sandy plains and centered on Kamieskroon in Namaqualand in South Africa. This range is very like th ...

, arriving in Cape Town at the end of October. He wrote an account of this trip as ''"Travels in South Africa, undertaken at the request of the Missionary Society"'' and it was published on his return to London in 1815. The town of

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

, east of

, was named in his honour. Campbell returned to the Cape in February 1819 in the company of John Philip. His orders were to inspect and improve the mission stations which had fallen into a neglected state. On this visit he instructed the missionary Robert Moffat to start a mission among the

Bechuana The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the pop ...

tribe. Campbell once more ventured into the interior, leaving Cape Town in January 1820 and travelling as far north as Mosega in

Barotseland Barotseland ( Lozi: Mubuso Bulozi) is a region between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe including half of eastern and northern provinces of Zambia and the whole of Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province. It is the homeland of the ...

, on which journey he also came across the large settlement of

Kaditshwene Kaditshwene aka Gaditshweni or Karechuenya, was a South African Iron Age settlement some northeast of the town of Zeerust, North West province. It was the cultural capital of the Bahurutshe people, one of the principal Tswana tribes and a cen ...

near the

Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mountain ...

. He left for England in February 1821, publishing two further volumes covering his second journey. He subsequently delivered a series of lectures on his missionary work.''Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa'' vol 3

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell (Missionary), John 1766 births 1840 deaths Clergy from Edinburgh Scottish Congregationalist missionaries Congregationalist missionaries in South Africa 18th-century Scottish people 19th-century Scottish people Scottish goldsmiths People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Scottish explorers Scottish magazine publishers (people) Scottish philanthropists Christianity and slavery Scottish abolitionists Scottish Congregationalist ministers Congregationalist abolitionists