James Hannington
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James Hannington | |
---|---|
former Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa | |
Church | Church of England |
Diocese | Diocese of Eastern Equatorial Africa |
Successor | Alfred Tucker |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | 29 October 1885 Busoga, Uganda | (aged 38)
Sainthood | |
Feast day | 29 October |
Venerated in | Anglican Communion |
Title as Saint | Bishop and Martyr |
Shrines | Bishop Hannington Memorial Church, Hove |
James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) was an English Anglican missionary, saint and martyr. He was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa.
Early life
Hannington was born on 3 September 1847 at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, England, about eight miles from Brighton, where his father ran a warehouse,[1] and was part of the family that ran Hannington's Department stores.[2] His father, Charles Smith Hannington, had recently acquired the property known as St. George’s. During Hannington's childhood, he blew off his thumb with black powder.[3] As a boy he was a collector.[4]
For Hannington's early education a tutor had been engaged, but when he was thirteen he was sent to the Temple School at Brighton, where he remained for the next two-and-a-half years, although he was an indifferent student.[4]
Hannington left school at fifteen to work in his father's Brighton counting house. He obtained a commission in the 1st Sussex Artillery Volunteers and rose to the rank of major.[1] Under his training and supervision, his detachment won prizes at the annual camp competitions.[4]
Ministry
In 1867 the chapel which Hannington's father had built in the grounds of his property was licensed for Anglican services.[5] At twenty-one, Hannington decided to pursue a clerical career, and entered university at St Mary Hall, Oxford, He was President of the Red Club and captain of the St. Mary Hall Boat.[1] In 1872, the death of his mother spurred a change in Hannington's life; he was awarded his B.A., and on 1 March 1874 was ordained as a deacon, and took charge of the small parish of St Peter in Trentishoe, Devon.[6] In 1875 James became curate-in-charge at St George’s, Hurstpierpoint where he stayed until volunteering for missionary work in east Africa in 1882.[3] He had by then been married for five years.
Around 1882, Hannington heard of the murder of two missionaries on the shores of Lake Victoria. This led to him offering himself to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and he left England on 17 May, setting sail for Zanzibar on 29 June, as the head of a party of six missionaries. Crippled by fever and dysentery, Hannington was forced to return to England in 1883.[7]
In June 1884, having recovered, Hannington was ordained bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and in January 1885, at age thirty-seven, Hannington again departed for Africa. His diocese included missions of the CMS at the coast and inland in Buganda.[7] While there Hannington collected a number of shells which were described by E. A. Smith in two papers in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.[1]
After arriving at Freretown, near Mombasa, in Kenya, Hannington determined to pioneer a shorter and healthier highland road to Buganda, using Christian porters and undercutting the Arab slave route to the south. He was oblivious to the political consequences of traversing Busoga, a strategically sensitive area for the Buganda state. The sudden intrusion of German imperialism at the coast made the Bugandan ruler, Kabaka Mwanga, even more suspicious of Hannington's motives.[7] An oracle (emmandwa) had said that Buganda’s conqueror would come from the east. Mwanga forbade Hannington from continuing through Busoga and sent boats to take him to Sukumaland, but Hannington refused.[8] Together with his team, he safely reached a spot near Victoria Nyanza on 21 October, but his arrival had not gone unnoticed, and under the orders of King Mwanga II of Buganda, the missionaries were imprisoned in Busoga by Basoga chiefs.
After eight days of captivity, by order from Mwanga II, Hannington's porters were killed, and on 29 October 1885, Hannington himself was speared in both sides.[3] As he died, his alleged last words to the soldiers who killed him were: "Go, tell Mwanga I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood."
Widespread persecution of Christians followed, many being killed or sold to Arab slavers.[9] Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, a Roman Catholic and an official at Mwanga's court, rebuked the king for the deed, and was beheaded for it. Hannington and his companions were among the first Martyrs of Uganda. Hannington's feast day in the Church of England is October 29. A dedication stone, erected in his memory along with the Bishop Hannington Memorial Church, Hove, England in 1938, bears the inscription "Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy".
See also
- Anglican Church of Kenya
- Anglican Church of Tanzania
- Church of Uganda
- Bishop of Uganda
- Saints in Anglicanism
References
- ^ a b c d Verdcourt, Bernard, "Collectors in East Africa", The Conchologists' Newsletter, No. 77, pp. 317–318, June 1981
- ^ "Store history" Argus
- ^ a b c Graves MSL, Dan, James Hannington Captured
- ^ a b c Hansford, F.R.S.A., F.E., "Great Churchmen", Church Society
- ^ "Brief history", St George's, Hurstpierpoint
- ^ Photo of church
- ^ a b c Anderson, Gerald H., Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1998 Archived 2013-05-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Katikkiro Mukasa Was Behind Many “Mwanga II Executions”, Buganda Watch, 21 May 2015
- ^ Quinn,Frederick, African Saints: Saints, Martyrs, and Holy People from the Continent of Africa, Crossroads Publishing Company, New York, New York, 2002 Archived 2013-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- Joyce Reason. Bishop Jim: The story of James Hannington. London, 1955. Reprinted by James Clark Company, 1978. ISBN 0-7188-2387-7 ISBN 978-0-7188-2387-0
- Hamilton, Thomas (1890). Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- James Hannigton-First Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. EC Dawson 1887 Seeley and Co.
External links
- 1847 births
- 1885 deaths
- 1885 crimes
- Anglican saints
- English saints
- 19th-century Anglican bishops
- English Anglican missionaries
- Anglican missionaries in Uganda
- Anglican missionaries in Kenya
- People from Hurstpierpoint
- 19th-century Christian saints
- Murdered missionaries
- British people murdered abroad
- People executed by Buganda
- People murdered in Uganda
- People executed by stabbing
- Anglican Bishops of Mombasa
- Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford
- Executed people from West Sussex
- 19th-century executions by Uganda
- Anglican missionaries in Tanzania