Ann Hasseltine Judson

Ann Hasseltine Judson (December 22 1789 - October 24 1826) was one of the first female American foreign missionaries. She attended the Bradford Academy and during a revival there read "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education" by Hannah More, which led her to "seek a life of 'usefulness'". [cite journal | author=Dana L. Robert | authorlink=Dana L. Robert | title=The Mother of Modern Missions| journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=22–24 ] Born in Bradford, Massachusetts, she was a teacher from graduation until marriage. Her father, John Hasseltine, was a deacon at the church that hosted the gathering that founded the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and according to Ann's sister Ann and family first met her husband Adoniram Judson at that time. [cite book | last=Wayland | first=Francis | authorlink=Francis Wayland | title=A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D., Vol. I | origyear= 1853 | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OojaN0ql3wMC&pg=PA31&dq=Burma+Adoniram+%22Ann+OR+Judson%22+OR+%22Ann+OR+Hasseltine%22+OR+%22Ann+OR+Hasseltine+OR+Judson%22 | accessdate=2006-06-18 | publisher=Phillips, Samson, and Company | location=Boston]

She married Adoniram two weeks before they embarked on their mission trip to India. Subsequently, they moved on to Burma. They had three pregnancies. The first ended in a miscarriage while moving from India to Burma, their son Roger was born in 1815 and died at eight months of age, and she died between her daughter Maria's birth and death at the age of six months. [cite journal | author=Richard V. Pierard | authorlink=Richard V. Pierard | title=The Man Who Gave the Bible to the Burmese | journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=16–21 ] Ann returned to the United States briefly in 1822-23 due to liver problems. [cite web | year=2003| title=Ann Hasseltine Judson: First American Woman Missionary | work=Glimpses #46 | url=http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps046.shtml | accessdate=2006-06-18] During the first Anglo-Burmese war, her husband was imprisoned for 17 months, and Ann moved into a shack outside the prison gates so as to support her husband. After his release they remained in Burma to continue their work. Ann died at Amherst, Lower Burma, of smallpox in 1826.She wrote a catechism in Burmese, and translated the books of Daniel and Jonah into Burmese. She was the first Protestant to translate any of the scriptures into Thai when in 1819 she translated the Gospel of Matthew. [cite journal | author=Dana L. Robert | authorlink=Dana L. Robert | title=The Mother of Modern Missions| journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=22–24 ] Her letters home were published in periodicals such as "American Baptists Magazine" and republished after her death as devotional writings, making both her and Adoniram celebrities in America. [cite journal | author=Ruth A. Tucker | authorlink=Ruth A. Tucker | title=Let Freedom Ring| journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=12–15 ] Her work and writings made "the role of missionary wife as a 'calling'" legitimate for 19^th century Americans. [cite journal | author=Dana L. Robert | authorlink=Dana L. Robert | title=The Mother of Modern Missions| journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=22–24 ] There have been at least 16 biographies of Ann published. The most famous biography had a new edition printed almost every year from 1830 to 1856, and was described by Unitarian Lydia Maria Child as "a book so universally known that it scarcely need be mentioned." [cite journal | author=Rebecca Golossanov | authorlink=Rebecca Golossanov | title=Did You Know? | journal=Christian History & Biography | year=Spring 2006 | volume=90 | pages=2 ]

Publications

* Knowles, "Life" (Boston, 1829) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Encyclopedia]

ee also

* Judson College in Marion, Alabama is named for Ann Hasseltine Judson.

External links

* [http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudsonann.html Biography at Wholesome Words]
* [http://www.missionaryetexts.org/#m-judson E-text of an 1829 Biography]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=bb4u5bmWDGUC&vid=ISBN0837013887&dq=ann-h-judson&jtp=1/#m-judson Google E-text of an 1829 Biography]

References