James Schön
{{Short description|German missionary and linguist}}
James Frederick Schön (1802, in Ober Weiler – 30 March 1889, in Chatham) was a German missionary and linguist who was active in Sierra Leone. He also participated in the Niger expedition of 1841.{{cite web|title=Papers of James Frederick Schon|url=http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/44/1205.htm|website=Mundus|publisher=Mundus Project|accessdate=25 August 2016}}[https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/readbook/JournalsoftheRevJamesFrederickSchonandMrSamuelCrowther_10269817#0 Forgotten Books website] Journals of the Rev. James Frederick Schön and Mr Samuel Crowther, who, with the Sanction of Her Majesty's Government, accompanied the Expedition up the Niger in 1841, in Behalf of the Church Missionary Society (1842) (online copy)
After attending the Basel Seminary, Schön attended the Church Missionary Society College in London;[https://dacb.org/stories/sierra-leone/schone-jakob/ Dictionary of African Christian Biography website, Jakob Schon] he was ordained as a priest in 1832 and immediately went to Sierra Leone. He remained active with the Church Missionary Society until 1853.
He became a naturalized British subject in 1854.
He became an expert on the Hausa language and is credited with writing the first Christian material in Hausa when he translated the Lord's Prayer in 1843.[https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ajet/12-1_054.pdf Biblical Studies website, A History Of The Hausa Bible: 1980 Edition, article by Musa A. B. Gaiya, published in The Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology (1993), page 55] He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University 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.[http://www.jamesfamilytree.org.uk/2421.htm James Family Tree website, Reverend James Friedrich Schon] He and Elizabeth had nine children and also took in several other children including Sarah Forbes Bonetta.[https://blackpresence.co.uk/sarah-forbes-bonetta/ Black Presence website, Sara 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)[https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22910876786&searchurl=an%3Dsch%25F6n%2Bjames%2Bfrederick%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2 ABE Books, Vocabulary of the Mende language, retrieved February 20, 2024]
- Magana Hausa: Hausa Stories and Fables (1885)[https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31392780888&searchurl=an%3Dsch%25F6n%2Bjames%2Bfrederick%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3 ABE Books, ''Magana Hausa: Hausa Stories and Fables', retrieved February 20, 2024]
His papers are archived at the University of Birmingham.[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F50376 UK National Archives website, Schon, James Frederick, (fl 1833-1846), Missionary to West Africa, retrieved February 20, 2024]
See also
References
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