Ajayi Crowther

The Most Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther
Primate of all Nigeria
Crowther as bishop in 1867
Church	Church of Nigeria
See	Niger
In office	1864–1891
Personal details
Born	c. 1809 Osogun
Died	December 31, 1891(1891-12-31) Lagos
Education	St Mary's Church; Fourah Bay College

Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809–31 December 1891) was a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun (in what is now Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria), Crowther was a Yoruba who also identified with Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group.

Ajayi was 12 years old when he was captured, along with his mother and toddler brother and other family members, along with his entire village, by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. However, before his slave-ship left port, it was boarded by a British Royal Navy ship under the command of Captain Henry Leeke, and Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was released. Ajayi's mother was a descendant of King Abiodun.

While in Sierra Leone Crowther was cared for by the Anglican Church Missionary Society and was taught English. He converted to Christianity. On the 11th of December 1825 was baptized and he named himself after the vicar of Christ Church, Newgate, London - Samuel Crowther, who was one of the pioneers of the CMS. Ajayi was baptized by John Raban.

While in Freetown, Crowther became interested in languages. In 1826 he was taken to England to attend St Mary's Church in Islington and the church's school. He returned to Freetown in 1827 and attended, as the first student, the newly opened Fourah Bay College, an Anglican missionary school, where his interest in language found him studying Latin and Greek but also Temne. After completing his studies he began teaching at the school.