John Shaw Burdon (; 18265January 1907) was a British

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

with the

Church Mission 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 ...

who in time became a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Life

Burdon was ordained to the priesthood by the Bishop of London in December 1852; and resigned in 1896. He opposed Britain's part in the Anglo-Chinese

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...

s. He was consecrated a bishop on 15 March 1874, by John Jackson,

Bishop of London The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...

, at

Lambeth Parish Church Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite b ...

; to serve the

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

in Victoria and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Burdon was a translator with Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky of the

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

. He resigned his See "a few months" before December 1897. Burdon was a friend and fellow travelling evangelist of the young

Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the OMF International, China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 54 years in China. The society tha ...

. He married Harriet Ann, whom he lost to illness in 1854 in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. His second marriage in 1857 was to Burella Hunter Dyer, the daughter of missionary Rev.

Samuel Dyer Samuel Dyer (, 20 February 1804 – 24 October 1843) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China in the Congregationalist tradition who worked among the Chinese in Malaysia. He arrived in Penang in 1827. Dyer, his wife Maria, and t ...

. She died the following year of

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

, also in Shanghai. His third wife also predeceased him. Burdon is fluent in

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan langua ...

. In April 1855, Burdon and

stationed in

Chongming Island Chongming (), Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze, Yangtze River in East China covering as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing Island (Shanghai), Changxing an ...

, adjacent to

. When they preached,

spoke first in Mandarin, then Burton interpreted into

, which is native to the island. The school, named

Tong Wen Guan The School of Combined Learning, or the Tongwen Guan was a government school for teaching Western languages and science, founded at Beijing in 1862, right after the conclusion of the Second Opium War, as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. I ...

, was officially opened on 11 June 1862 and Burdon was hired as the first English instructor.Broomhall (1983), 443 He died at Bedford on 5 January 1907, and was buried at Royston.

Family

Burdon was married three times: first, to Harriet Anne Forshaw on 30 March 1853, who died at Shanghai on 26 September 1854 ; second, to Burella Hunter Dyer, on 11 November 1857, who died on 16 Aug. 1858; third, to Phoebe Esther, daughter of E. T. Alder, vicar of Bungay on 14 June 1865. She died on 14 June 1898; they had three sons.

Bibliography

* ''Old Testament Manual'' * Christian Joy: A Sermon, Preached in the London Mission Chapel, Shanghai, 25 November 1858, the Last Thursday in the Month, Usually Observed in the United States of America as Thanksgiving Day (1858)
The Chinese Term for God: A Letter to the Protestant Missionaries of China
(1877) * Colloquial Versions of the Chinese Scriptures: A Paper to be read at the Shanghai Missionary Conference (1890)

Notes

References

* *
John S. Burdon 1826 – 1907
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burdon, John Shaw 1826 births 1907 deaths Anglican missionaries in China British missionaries in China Principals of St. Paul's College, Hong Kong English Anglican missionaries 19th-century Anglican bishops in China Anglican bishops of Victoria, Hong Kong Christian missionaries in Hong Kong Clergy from Glasgow