Francis Roger Hodgson

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Francis Roger Hodgson (1853 – 4 April 1920)[1] was a British Anglican missionary and Bible translator in Zanzibar, and later a parish priest in Devon, England.

Early life[edit]

He was born on 21 October 1853 in Southport, the eldest son of the Rev. Richard Hodgson, son of Francis Roger Hodgson of Manchester, and his wife Caroline Fletcher, fifth daughter of the Rev. Charles Fletcher of Southwell, Nottinghamshire; his parents were married in 1852. His father was rector of Pilton, Northamptonshire from 1858 to 1870.[2][3][4][5] He had a younger brother, Charles Herbert Hodgson, also a cleric, who became a master at Sherborne School.[6][7][8]

When Hodgson was young, his father was from 1854 to 1858 a curate at Warton, Fylde and Freckleton in Lancashire, parish of Kirkham, nominated by the incumbent the Rev. Thomas Henry Dundas, a Trinity College, Dublin graduate involved with the Society for Propagation of the Gospel.[9][10][11][12] He was educated at Rugby School, and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1873, aged 19, graduating B.A. in 1876, and M.A. in 1883.[2][13] He was ordained deacon by William Jacobson in Chester Cathedral in 1877.[14]

Missionary and translator[edit]

Edward Steere, Anglican Bishop in Central Africa from 1874, was in England for his health in early 1877. He was successful in recruiting for the Universities' Mission to Central Africa.[15] Among those who joined were Hodgson and his wife Jessie.[16] In May 1877 Hodgson wrote to Robert Marshall Heanley on "A Journey from Zanzibar to Magila", Magila on the east coast of Africa being in what is now Muheza District, Tanzania.[17][18] Hodgson presented a paper at the 1878 Chester diocesan missionary conference, about the Central Africa mission. In it he described the hope that "there might be in time a black bishop on the east coast of Africa as there was already on the west coast."[19]

Hodgson was appointed Archdeacon of Zanzibar in 1882.[6] The Anglican congregation on Zanzibar grew steadily, drawing on formerly enslaved people and others on the margins of society. Hodgson took administrative responsibilities for mission work from Steere, and collaborated on Bible translation work.[20]

Before Steere's death in 1882, he and Hodgson had completed a revised New Testament translation into Swahili. Steere had also begun work on the books of Isaiah, Kings, and Genesis.[21] The British and Foreign Bible Society printed their book of Genesis in 1884.[22] With the assistance of Jessie, Hodgson made the first Old Testament translation into southern Swahili in Roman script. The Zanzibar dialect, Kiunguja, grew in popularity to become standardized written Swahili.[23]

St John's Church, Mbweni, on a former slave estate, completed by Hodgson, photograph c.1880

Hodgson completed work on St John's Church at Mbweni;[24] and he handed over the Mbweni station to William Percival Johnson, a good friend.[25] In 1889, he finished his Old Testament translation, and he and his family returned to England, via the Suez Canal.[21][24] Further work on the Bible translation was carried out by Arthur Cornwallis Madan.[26]

Later life[edit]

In 1890 Hodgson became perpetual curate of Frithelstock, Devon.[27] In 1895, his father Richard died.[28] Later that year, the British and Foreign Bible Society published their translation of the Old Testament from their London print shop.[23] This translation became a reference for George Pilkington as he made the Lugandan Bible translation in the 1890s.[21]

Family[edit]

Hodgson's wife Jessie died in 1933 at age 80; she was born in 1853 and had been a medical missionary in Zanzibar.[29][30] In 1886, she gave birth to their only son, Richard.[28] Mission records indicate that in 1888 Jessie was "invalided".[31]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hampstead Death Records 1920 https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BMD/D/1920/4/AZ/000418/079
  2. ^ a b Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Hodgson, Francis Roger" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ "Births". London Evening Standard. 21 October 1853. p. 4.
  4. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Hodgson, Richard (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  5. ^ "Clergymen Married". Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. 24 April 1852. p. 6.
  6. ^ a b The Hodgsons of Sherborne, 1881-1922.retrieved at http://oldshirburnian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Hodgsons-of-Sherborne-by-Michael-Hanson.pdf
  7. ^ Welch, Reginald Courtenay (1894). The Harrow School Register, 1801-1893. Longmans, Green. p. 391.
  8. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Hodgson, Charles Herbert" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  9. ^ "The Church and Universities". Leeds Intelligencer. 4 March 1854. p. 8.
  10. ^ "Presentation to a Clergyman". Preston Chronicle. 9 October 1858. p. 6.
  11. ^ The British Magazine. John Turrill. 1840. p. 220.
  12. ^ Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1845). Report of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the Year ... Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. p. 61.
  13. ^ England, Rugby School, Rugby (1902). Rugby School Register 1850-1874. A. J. Lawrence. p. 289.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Ordinations". Oxford Journal. 2 June 1877. p. 5.
  15. ^ Porter, Andrew. "Steere, Edward (1828–1882)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26353. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  16. ^ Anderson-Morshead, A. E. M. (1909). The history of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, 1859-1909. London: Universities' Mission to Central Africa. p. 102.
  17. ^ Korieh, Chima J.; Njoku, Raphael Chijioke (21 November 2007). Missions, States, and European Expansion in Africa. Routledge. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-135-91533-9.
  18. ^ Greenfield-Liebst, Michelle (September 2017). "Sin, Slave Status, and the "City": Zanzibar, 1865–c. 1930". African Studies Review. 60 (2): 139–160. doi:10.1017/asr.2017.81. S2CID 229168476.
  19. ^ "Diocesan Missionary Conference in Chester". Cheshire Observer. 14 September 1878. p. 7.
  20. ^ "Hodgson, Francis and Jessie". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. 1853–1920.
  21. ^ a b c Biblical translations of early missionaries in east and central Africa. (Part I. Translations into Swahili) by Viera Pawlikova-Vilhanova Retrievable from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274513058_Biblical_Translations_of_Early_Missionaries_in_East_and_Central_Africa_I_Translations_into_Swahili
  22. ^ HODGSON, Francis Roger; STEERE, Edward (26 February 1884). Mwanza. Kitabu cha kwanza cha Musa. [Genesis translated into Swahili by Edward Steere ; edited by F.R. Hodgson. B. & F.B.S. OCLC 771219576 – via Open WorldCat.
  23. ^ a b Historical Catalogue of the British and Foreign Bible Society, under "Southern Swahili"
  24. ^ a b Anderson-Morshead, A. E. M. (1909). The history of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, 1859-1909. London: Universities' Mission to Central Africa. p. 243.
  25. ^ Johnson, William Percival (1925). My African Reminiscences, 1875-1895. Universities' Mission to Central Africa. pp. 34 and 119.
  26. ^ Anderson-Morshead, A. E. M. (1909). The history of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, 1859-1909. London: Universities' Mission to Central Africa. p. 248.
  27. ^ Exeter Diocesan Architectural and Archaeological Society (1894). Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society. p. 6.
  28. ^ a b The Standard (newspaper), London 07 Mar 1895, retrievable from https://www.newspapers.com
  29. ^ "Mrs. Jessie Hodgson". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 3 March 1933. p. 14.
  30. ^ Death record of Jesse Hodgson https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BMD/D/1933/1/AZ/000578/038 Her age and location match that of Francis' probate records https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBOR/GWR/00387557
  31. ^ Anderson-Morshead, A. E. M. (1909). The history of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, 1859-1909. London: Universities' Mission to Central Africa. p. 432.
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