Old Photograph Robert Moffat Monument Ormiston Scotland

Old photograph of the Robert Moffat monument in Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland. Robert, born 21 December 1795, died 9 August 1883, was a Scottish Congregationalist missionary to Africa, and father in law of David Livingstone. In September 1816, he was formally commissioned at Surrey Chapel in London, England, as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and was sent out to South Africa. His fiancée Mary Smith, born 1795, died 1870, was able to join him three years later, after he returned to Cape Town from Namaqualand, where he converted the chief, Afrikaner, to Christianity, and she actively assisted further missionary work. In 1820 Moffat and his wife left the Cape and proceeded to Griquatown, where their daughter Mary, who was later to marry David Livingstone, was born. The family later settled at Kuruman, to the north of the Vaal River, among the Batswana people. Here they lived and worked passionately for the missionary cause, until in 1870 they returned to Britain. Robert and Mary Moffat had ten children: Mary, Ann, Robert, who died as an infant, Robert, Helen, Elizabeth, who also died as an infant, James, John, Elizabeth and Jean. Their son John Smith Moffat became an LMS missionary and took over running of the mission at Kuruman before entering colonial service. Their grandson Howard Unwin Moffat became a prime minister of Southern Rhodesia. Robert Moffat died at Leigh near Tunbridge Wells, on 9 August 1883, and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery. A memorial monument, paid for by public subscription, was in his birthplace in 1885.



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