Alexander Chisholm (1814 - 1862)

Born 30 Jul 1814 in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Davies) Chisholm — married 12 Jul 1842 in the Independent Chapel, Arthur Street, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 29 May 1862 at age 47 in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Alexander Chisholm was born in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (United Kingdom), in 1814. He moved to Oswestry, Shropshire, England, in 1842 to study Indian languages with the Reverend William Reeve, minister of the Independent Chapel. He changed his mind in favour of the Pacific when new missionaries were needed to replace John Williams and a companion who had been killed by local people in 1839. Mr Chisholm married Betsy Davies on 12 July 1842 and was ordained as a minister in Liverpool two days later. He became a missionary and was sent by the London Missionary Society to the South Pacific. He and his wife arrived in Tahiti (French Polynesia) in March 1843. They were transferred to Samoa and settled in Sala'ilua on the island of Savaii, moving in 1845 to Sapaipalii. In 1846, they were transferred to Papara, Tahiti, and in 1852, as a consequence of measures by the French authorities, they retired to the island of Raiatea, where Mr Chisholm continued to work as a missionary until 1860, when they returned to England. ^[1]

On their return to England they settled in Oswestry. There Mr Chisholm continued to work on revising a translation of the Bible into Tahitian, a language that had only recently been put into writing.

He died in 1862 in Oswestry, aged 47. ^[2]

He was buried in the vault of the Old Chapel in Oswestry.

Sources

1. ↑ Copy of biographical notes made by Mrs Alexander Chisholm, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/2a43e1e8-32ac-34f8-a359-ab3eac4e0c17?component=a6eaf2f5-bbe4-3b41-9164-4f365bee3662&terms=%22alexander%20chisholm%22
2. ↑ England and Wales General Register Office, online index (deaths); GRO Reference: 1862 J Quarter in Oswestry, Volume 06A, page 431 (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/).

• Information obtained from a cousin, Mr Norman Home of London, who has researched the history of the family and who circulated a two-volume family history privately to relatives in 1993. Information was also got from Roderick Chisholm.