The Revd William Crisp was a missionary priest of the

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

in the Diocese of Bloemfontein,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, who served there from the mid-1860s. The

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization (registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Part ...

described him as “the first and greatest apostle of the native races” in the central part of South Africa, who, it added, “had sympathy with the native point of view”. Crisp was born at

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is a ...

, England, in 1842. He died in

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 1910.

Career in South Africa

Having been ordained deacon in 1862, William Crisp went out to South Africa to work in the newly established Diocese of Bloemfontein. It was there that he was ordained priest in 1866.

Thaba 'Nchu and Bloemfontein

Crisp was stationed at

Thaba 'Nchu Thaba 'Nchu is a town in Free State, South Africa, 63 km east of Bloemfontein and 17 km east of Botshabelo. The population is largely made up of Tswana and Sotho people. The town was settled in December 1833 and officially established ...

, working alongside the Revd George Mitchell, in 1871–76; and he served there again in 1881-86 after Mitchell had gone on to

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

. Crisp was responsible for the Thaba 'Nchu mission's printing press, on which Mitchell's and his own translations of portions of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

and hymns were printed. Crisp had also prepared a Catechism and other works in

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...

. In 1871 Crisp had written to the newly arrived Bishop Webb that he and Mitchell were able to converse with the people and preach in the local Serolong dialect of Setswana. By 1883 Crisp had been appointed by Webb as a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

of the cathedral in Bloemfontein, and treasurer of the Diocese; and afterwards he served as archdeacon.

Cape Town

Crisp went to

about 1900, where he was made a canon of the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

. As secretary of the diocese and treasurer of the Diocese of Cape Town and provincial board of trustees he served the

Church of the Province of South Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are loc ...

, until illness forced him to resign. Crisp died in 1910.

Translations and publications

Crisp had revised and expanded the liturgical translations produced by George Mitchell. In 1885, on the printing press at Thaba 'Nchu, he published his translation of the ''New Testament'' in the Serolong dialect of

, ''Testamente e Ncha''. Other works included his ''Notes towards a Secoana grammar'' (1880), an enlarged second edition of which was published by the

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world. The SPCK is th ...

in 1886. A revised Setswana ''Book of Common Prayer'', with Psalms, was published by

in 1887 – later to be still further revised by the Revd Charles Clulee and Bishop

Henry Bousfield Henry Brougham Bousfield (27 March 1832 – 10 February 1902) was a colonial Anglican priest and the inaugural Bishop of Pretoria 1878-1902. Life Bousfield was born on 27 March 1832, the son of William Cheek Bousfield, a barrister. He was ...

, in 1911.Muss-Arnolt, William. 1913. ''The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World''
/ref> In addition to his translation work, Crisp published a book, ''Some Account of the Diocese of Bloemfontein in the Province of South Africa from 1863 to 1894'', published by James Parker in Oxford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crisp, William 19th-century English Anglican priests 19th-century South African Anglican priests 1842 births 1910 deaths People from Southwold 20th-century South African Anglican priests