William Jones Boone (1 July 181117 July 1864) was the first

Episcopalian 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 l ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

bishop of China and Japan and the first bishop of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

outside the Roman tradition.

Life

Boone was born in

Walterboro, South Carolina Walterboro is a city in Colleton County, South Carolina, United States. The city's population was 5,398 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Colleton County. Walterboro is located west of Charleston and is located near the ACE Basin reg ...

, graduated from the College of South Carolina in 1829 and was admitted to the bar in 1833. He then attended

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...

and was ordained

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

on 18 September 1836 and priest on 3 March 1837.

Missionary work in China

Under the auspices of the

Protestant Episcopal Church Mission The Protestant Episcopal Church Mission (PECM, also known as the American Church Mission) was a Christian missionary initiative of the Episcopal Church that was involved in sending and providing financial support to lay and ordained mission workers ...

(PECM, also called the American Church Mission), Boone was appointed a missionary to China on 17 January 1837. Accompanied by his wife Amelia he commenced his journey to China from Boston on 8 July 1837 reaching

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

on 22 October the same year. In Batavia he studied alongside the priests Henry Lockwood and

Francis Hanson Francis R. Hanson (27 March 1807 – 21 October 1873) was appointed by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America as one of the first two Episcopal Church missionaries to travel to China in 1835. Ea ...

to gain a degree of fluency in the Chinese language. Prior to the conclusion of the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

Boone relocated to Macau in 1840. In February 1842 conditions in China were considered secure enough for Boone to relocate his missionary work to

Kulangsu The Gulangyu, Gulang Island or Kulangsu is a pedestrian-only island off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian Province in southeastern China. A UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, the island is about in area, and is reached by an 8-minute ferry ride fro ...

, a small island half a mile from the recently opened

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

Amoy Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

, to set up the first base for the Episcopalians. On a return visit the United States Boone was consecrated at St. Peter's Church,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on 26 October 1844 as the first

Anglican 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 th ...

missionary bishop of China and Japan (under later bishops, the missionary district was reduced and called

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

) and the first bishop of China outside the Roman tradition. Influenced by British

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum collection * Color manag ...

missionary George Smith he chose to relocate the center of his mission work to Shanghai in 1845 where he served until his death in 1864. Boone was responsible for the recruitment of numerous missionaries; notably Emma Jones, Henry M. Parker and

Channing Moore Williams Channing Moore Williams (July 17, 1829 – December 2, 1910) was an Episcopal Church missionary, later bishop, in China and Japan. Williams was a leading figure in the establishment of the Anglican Church in Japan. His commemoration in some Angl ...

his eventual successor as Bishop of China nad Japan. Boone with others is credited with the translation 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 ...

into Chinese and also contributed to a Chinese translation of the Bible. He also ordained the first Chinese priest,

Huang Guangcai Huang Guangcai (or Wong Kong-chai, Chinese: 黃光彩, 1827–1886) was the first Chinese convert, the first candidate to receive the Holy Order and was the first ordained Chinese priest from the Protestant Episcopal Church Mission (PECM). Biogra ...

(Chinese: 黃光彩, 1827–96) in 1851.

Family

He married Sarah Amelia deSaussure who died at

in 1842. His second wife was Phobe Caroline Elliott. Boone's son, also named William Jones Boone, also served as a Missionary Bishop of Shanghai in the Episcopal Church.

Consecrators

Philander Chase Philander Chase (December 14, 1775 – September 20, 1852) was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, and pioneer of the United States western frontier, especially in Ohio and Illinois. Early life and family Born in Cornish, New Hampshire to o ...

, 1st bishop of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and 1st bishop of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

George Washington Doane George Washington Doane (May 27, 1799 – April 27, 1859) was an American churchman, educator, and the second bishop in the Episcopal Church for the Diocese of New Jersey. Early life and career Doane was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He gradu ...

, 2nd bishop of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

James Hervey Otey James Hervey Otey (January 27, 1800 – April 23, 1863), Christian educator, author, and the first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, having established the Anglican church in the state, including its first parish churches and what became the Univer ...

, 1st bishop of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

William Jones Boone was the 45th bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boone, William Jones 1811 births 1864 deaths Translators of the Bible into Chinese People from Walterboro, South Carolina Episcopal bishops of Shanghai 19th-century Anglican bishops in China 19th-century American translators Virginia Theological Seminary alumni University of South Carolina alumni

Life

Missionary work in China

Family

Consecrators

See also

References