John Wilson (missionary)

John Wilson (1804–1875) was a Christian missionary and educator in Bombay presidency, British India. In 1829 he married Margaret Bayne and together they went as Christian missionaries to Bombay, India. He is the founder of Wilson College, Mumbai and Bombay University. He was also the president of the Asiatic Society of Bombay from 1835 to 1842; and later was elected Moderator of the Church of Scotland.

John Wilson was born in Scotland in 1804, the eldest of four brothers and three sisters, and grew up in a farming family in Lauder, Scotland. His father, Andrew Wilson, who lived to the age of eighty-two, was a councillor of the burgh for over forty years and represented the parish they attended as an elder. John's mother, Janet Hunter, was the oldest of thirteen children; she had a strong character and also lived to the age of eighty-two. The family grew up in Lauder on a farm sprawled across seventeen hundred acres.

As a child he revealed that he was more intelligent than his siblings, learning to walk and talk at an early age. In school he was considered 'the priest' on the playground because was often seen preaching to his classmates. His being advanced for his age sometimes caused him trouble, and his preaching was sometimes seen as an offence.

When Wilson was four, he started at a school in Lauder, taught by a George Murray. He was only there for a year before he was moved to a parish school to be taught by Alexander Paterson, under whom he made such progress that he graduated from school at the age of fourteen. His progress was also in his spiritual life. Mr. Paterson affected not only his students' spiritually but also the community.

After he finished school he attended the University of Edinburgh, where he studied linguistics, philosophy and theology for eight years, and also mastered the languages of Gujarati, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and Zend. As he continued in his studies he discovered that teaching was a calling for him, and started to study in that field. He graduated from the University in 1828.

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