William Henry Roberts (25 October 1847 – 24 December 1919) was a Baptist minister from the United States who worked for many years as a missionary in Burma.
Biography
Roberts was born on 25 October 1847, in Botetourt Springs, Virginia. He studied at Roanoke College and Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), then went on to the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago.
He served under Confederate General Robert E. Lee with the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War.
Roberts became a missionary supported by the American Baptist Missionary Union, working among the Kachin people around Bhamo and Myitkyina from 1879 until 1913.
On his arrival in Burma, Roberts obtained grudging permission from the Burmese king, Thibaw Min, to build a school and educate the Kachins. The king, a devout Buddhist, granted Roberts "land the size of a buffalo skin". Roberts bought a buffalo skin, cut it into thin strips and used it to measure out the mission compound.
Although his wife soon died from malaria, Roberts was to carry out his mission for 34 years. His daughter, Dora, and his son-in-law, John E. Cummings, also became missionaries to Burma.
In 1881 Roberts remarried and established a school in Bhamo with his second wife, Alice Roberts (d. 1933). They had a son, William Henry Roberts, Jr.
In 1917, the Roberts retired from missionary work and returned to Newton, Massachusetts, where Roberts died in 1919.
Legacy
Roberts was followed by the Swedish-American missionary Ola Hanson, who arrived in 1890 and did much work in compiling a grammar and dictionary for their Jinghpaw language, and in translating hymns and the Bible into Jingpaw. In 1892 George J. Geis arrived, establishing a mission at Myitkyina, to the North of Bhamo.
A school in Bhamo was named after Alice Roberts.
References
- ^ David Shavit (1990). "William Henry Roberts". The United States in Asia: a historical dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 423–424. ISBN 0-313-26788-X. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
- ^ Jamie James (2008). The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge. Hyperion. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-4013-0213-9. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
- ^ Shawn Zambrows. Matters of Faith: Myanmar school to honor legacy of First Baptist Church of Redlands member, Redlands Daily Facts, April 27, 2019
- Shelby Tucker (2000). Among insurgents: walking through Burma. The Radcliffe Press. p. 99. ISBN 1-86064-529-1. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
Further reading
- William Henry Roberts (1911). Pioneering among the Kachins (PDF). Boston.
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- 1847 births
- 1919 deaths
- Baptist ministers from the United States
- Baptist missionaries from the United States
- Baptist missionaries in Myanmar
- People from Kachin State
- Roanoke College alumni
- University of Richmond alumni
- Northern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni
- People of Virginia in the American Civil War
- People from Roanoke County, Virginia
- American expatriates in Myanmar
- Baptists from Virginia