Stephen Hislop

Stephen Hislop
Salted paper print (ca 1845) of Revd Stephen Hislop (1817–1863)
Born	8 September 1817 Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland
Died	4 September 1863 Bori River, Takalghat, India
Resting place	Nagpur, India
Nationality	Scottish
Education	University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Missionary; Geologist
Employer	Free Church of Scotland
Spouse(s)	Erasma Hall
Parent(s)	Stephen Hislop, Margaret Thomson

The Reverend Stephen Hislop (8 September 1817, Duns, Scotland – 4 September 1863, Takalghat), was a missionary to India, an educationist and a keen geologist. Hislop College, Nagpur is named after him, as is the green mineral Hislopite. Among his geological discoveries is the fossil reptile, Brachyops laticeps.

Hislop was educated at Thomas Sherriff's school in Duns, and then at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. As a boy, he collected insects in the country around Duns, and rocks such as copper ore from old mine workings.

Hislop married Erasma Hull.

In 1843, Hislop was made Secretary of the Ladies' Society for Female Education in India.

Hislop was ordained as a Free Church of Scotland minister in 1844. He was sent to India to work as a missionary, arriving via Bombay on 13 December 1844. He lived and worked in the Vidarbha area of Eastern Maharashtra near Nagpur for 18 years. He spent the first 15 months learning Marathi. As soon as he was fluent he began his missionary work, opening a school in Nagpur in May 1846; it later developed into Hislop College.

Sir Richard Temple praised Hislop as "among the most gifted and accomplished missionaries whom this generation has seen in India"; as being notable "for philology and antiquarian research"; and "for physical science, especially botany and geology".

Hislop was assisted by another Free Church of Scotland missionary, Robert Hunter (1823-1897), who later edited the Encyclopædic Dictionary. Both men were naturalists and keen amateur geologists, and as they walked the area around Nagpur, studied the local geology and sent papers home to be read at the Royal Geological Society in London.