Isaac Hughes (1798 – 23 June 1870) was a British Calvinist missionary and preacher. He was born to Welsh parents Edward and Mary Hughes in
Manchester. His father came from
Bontuchel in
Denbighshire and his mother came from
Brynsiencyn in
Anglesey.
After some time in
Sheffield and
Rotherham, he married Elizabeth Jones from
Llangollen on 18 August 1823 and departed Britain a month later on 24 September on a ship from
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...
, arriving in
Cape Town, South Africa on 30 December.
He initially worked as a blacksmith, reaching
Kuruman in August 1824 and
Griquatown in late 1827,
also working in
Lattakoo
Dithakong is the name of a place east of Kuruman in the Northern Cape, South Africa, which had been a major destination for several of the earliest nineteenth century expeditions from the Cape to the interior of the subcontinent. In colonial liter ...
and
Graham's Town
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana Loc ...
. In 1839 he became a missionary.
In 1845 he worked along the
Vaal River and opened a new station in Backhouse, which later developed into the town
Douglas. After his wife died he remarried a missionary's daughter, Anne Magdalena Vogelgezang, in 1850. He died on 23 June 1870 after a 47-year career.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Isaac
1798 births
1870 deaths
English Calvinist and Reformed ministers
English Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in South Africa
English people of Welsh descent
Clergy from Manchester
English emigrants to South Africa