James Schön
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James Frederick Schön (1802, in Ober Weiler – 30 March 1889, in Chatham) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
missionary and linguist who was active in
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
. He also participated in the Niger expedition of 1841. After attending the Basel Seminary, Schön attended the Church Missionary Society College in London;Dictionary of African Christian Biography website, ''Jakob Schon''
/ref> he was ordained as a priest in 1832 and immediately went to Sierra Leone. He remained active with the
Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...
until 1853. He became a naturalized British subject in 1854. He became an expert on the
Hausa language Hausa (; / ; Hausa Ajami, Ajami: ) is a Chadic language spoken primarily by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coas ...
and is credited with writing the first Christian material in Hausa when he translated the
Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
in 1843. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
in 1884.


Family

His first wife was Anne Elizabeth Nyländer, the daughter of Gustavus Nyländer, another missionary and linguist. They had one daughter, Annie Catherine, who married a CMS missionary named Edward Thomas Higgens. His second wife was Cordelia Jackson Irwine; he later married Elizabeth Catherine Drake, the widow of James White, another CMS missionary.James Family Tree website, ''Reverend James Friedrich Schon''
/ref> He and Elizabeth had nine children and also took in several other children including Sarah Forbes Bonetta.


Works

* ''Translations of seven Parables and Discources of our Lord Jesus Christ into the Sherbro Language of West Africa'' (1839) * ''Journal of the Niger Expedition'' (1842) * ''Vocabulary and Elements of Grammar of the Haussa Language'' (1843) * Translations of Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles into the Hausa Language (1857-1861) * ''Grammar of the Haussa Language'' (1862) * ''Dictionary of the Hausa Language'' (1876) * ''Vocabulary of the Mende language'' (1884) * ''Magana Hausa: Hausa Stories and Fables'' (1885) His papers are archived at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
.UK National Archives website, ''Schon, James Frederick, (fl 1833-1846), Missionary to West Africa'', retrieved February 20, 2024
/ref>


See also

Samuel Ajayi Crowther Samuel Ajayi Crowther ( – 31 December 1891) was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun (in what is now Ado-Awaye, Oyo State, Nigeria), he and his family were captured by Fulani sl ...


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schon, James 1802 births German missionary linguists 19th-century German linguists 1883 deaths German Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in Sierra Leone Anglican missionaries in Nigeria