Benjamin Peach Keasberry (1811 - 6 September 1875) was a Protestant missionary, translator, publisher and educator. He established the

Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church ( Chinese: 布连拾街长老会磐石堂) is located on Prinsep Street within Singapore's central business district. It is approximately 350 metres from Rochor MRT station. The church, previously known a ...

and a free Malay boarding school, and translated many works into Malay, including the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, publishing them through his own printing press.

Early life and education

Keasberry was born in

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

in 1811. His father was an officer in the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

who was appointed as British Resident in Tegal, Central Java by

Sir Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles ...

in 1814. He was educated in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

and

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Career

He came to Singapore in the 1820s to do business, but was met with failure and went to Batavia to work as a clerk in a mercantile firm. Following the death of a close friend, he applied to be an assistant missionary with 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 tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

's Batavia station. From 1830 to 1834, he apprenticed under

Walter Henry Medhurst Walter Henry Medhurst (29 April 179624 January 1857), was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School. He was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese-language editions. Ear ...

, who taught him Bible translation, village preaching, hospital chaplaincy, teaching, printing, book binding, lithography and literature distribution. He travelled to the United States in 1835 to attend the

New Brunswick Theological Seminary New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. It was fo ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Keasberry initially planned to travel to China with wife, but was rejected in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. On his way back to Java, he arrived in Singapore and decided to stay to spread Christianity among the local Malay community. In order to support himself, he began giving drawing lessons. In his free time, he would interact with the local Malay community and distribute

tracts Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

. In September 1939, due to his fluency in Malay, he was invited to join the Singapore branch of the London Missionary Society as an agent. He was then tasked with preaching to the local Malay community. He initially preached society's church on

Bras Basah Road Bras Basah Road () is a one-way road in Singapore in the planning areas of Museum and Downtown Core. The road starts at the junction of Orchard Road and Handy Road, at the ERP gantry towards the Central Business District, and ends at the junc ...

. He founded the

, initially known as the Malay Mission Chapel and popularly called the "Tuan Keasberry puna Graja", in August 1843 as he believed that a larger meeting space was required. More than 60 Malays and

Peranakans The Peranakan Chinese () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (region), Nanyang (), namely the British Empire, British, Portugu ...

attended the church's inaugural service. He also taught classes at the Singapore Institution Free School with Alfred North and Munshi Abdullah. The classes were discontinued due to low enrollment numbers, and Keasberry then became an examiner for writing and drawing for the school. Keasberry established a school for Malay boys in a shophouse on Rochor Road in 1840 with 12

Orang Laut The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may a ...

students, who were taught reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, music, Bible scriptures, and later natural sciences and English In the same year, he began printing educational materials with a lithographic press borrowed from missionaries of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

. Among the first publications that he published and printed was ''The Child's Picture Defining and Reading Book'' by

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851) was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Fitch Cogswell, Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the Education of the Deaf, educatio ...

, which he had translated into Malay, and ''Kitab Darihal Tabiat Jenis-Jenis Kejadian Iaitu Guna Bagi Kanak-Kanak''. However, as the lithographic stones were defective and supplies were lacking, he appealed to the London Missionary Society for new printing equipment and supplies. In September 1842, the society transferred its printing press in Malacca to Singapore for Keasberry's use. In 1848, he moved the boarding school to a larger location on

River Valley Road River Valley is a planning area located within the Central Area of the Central Region of Singapore. The planning area shares boundaries with Orchard in the north, Museum in the east, Tanglin in the west, and Singapore River in the south. River ...

, and hired Munshi Abdullah as a teacher. The school's total enrollment later grew to 60 students, and among who attended the school was Sultan

Abu Bakar of Johor Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Al-Khalil Ibrahim Shah ibni Almarhum Maharaja Tun Daeng Ibrahim ( Jawi: ; 3 February 1833 – 4 June 1895) was the Temenggong of Johor. He was the 1st sultan of modern Johor, the 21st Sultan of Johor and the first Mahara ...

. A Malay girls' school was added in 1857. When the London Missionary Society closed its Singapore branch in 1846, Keasberry and his wife resigned from the society and continued in Singapore as independent missionaries. The printing press was then shipped to China, after which it was replaced with a small lithographic press and a fount of types which the society had gifted him, as well as printing materials from the Anglo-Chinese College in

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

, which was run by the London Missionary Society. The society also handed over its chapel in Singapore to him, which he then converted into a printing and book binding establishment. In 1849, he began printing in a style that imitated the style of Malay manuscripts. The style was very popular, and was adopted by the local Malay commercial press. Keasberry was commissioned by the

British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

to translate the

to Malay, and he did so with the assistance of Munshi Abdullah, printing it in 1853. Among the various other works he translated or printed are '' The Life of Jesus'' by

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; ; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote wo ...

, the ''

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of ...

'', the '' Hikayat Abdullah'', ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

'' by

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

, ''

The Book of Proverbs ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

'', ''

The Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( 'In the beginning'). Genesis purports to be an account of the creation of the world, ...

'' and ''

The Book of Exodus ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

''.

Personal life and death

He met and married Charlotte Parker while studying at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He died on 6 September 1875 after collapsing from a heart disease while he was preaching at the Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keasberry, Benjamin 1811 births 1875 deaths British Presbyterian missionaries Presbyterian missionaries in Singapore