Phillip or Philip, Reverend Dr John (1775 - 1851)

Born: Kirkcaldy, Fife

Resident Director of the London Missionary Society and Superintendent of Missions in South Africa (1820-49).

Career Highlights

Reverend Phillip was born on 14 April 1775 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and married Jane Ross in Aberdeen in 1809. He arrived with his family at Table Bay on the Westmoreland from Liverpool in 1819, and acted as Resident Director of the London Missionary Society and Superintendent of Missions in South Africa until 1849. He was described as "a man of good appearance, and was possessed of a constitution so robust that he was capable of performing a vast amount of labour without fatigue ... his obstinacy was so intense that, when once he entered upon a course, no matter whether good or evil, no argument or remonstrance would turn him back".