George Adam Kissling - From Germany to Africa

In 1827, as a member of the Basle Missionary Society, George Adam Kissling left his homeland of Germany in December 1827.

He had been born on the 2nd of April 1805, in a small town called Muhrr (sometimes spelt just Murr) in the Wurtemburg province. Europe had been torn by the excesses of the French Revolution, there had been wars lasting decades, violent social unrest. It was common for many to seek their destiny in foreign shores.

George Adam's family were not particularly well to do. His mother had lost four children and infancy (Magdalena [1807-1808], Gottlob [1808-1809], Catharina [1812-1814] and Christian [1817-1818]).  The other children were Johann [1810-1843], Frederich [1815-1840], Christian Karl [1819-], and Peter [1826-1882]. it appears Peter left for the USA and settled in Milwaukee.

Both parents died young, and the living children must have been cared for by relatives and friends in their youth.

Leaving school at the age of fourteen [1819], George Adam spent three years living with uncle in Ludwigsburg and Kornthal, a Settlement based on Moravian principles, learning industrial arts. At the age of eighteen [1823] he entered the University of Basle as a Theological student. Four years later in October 1827, he was ordained into the Reformed Lutheran Church (Church of the Reformed and Lutheran United Confessions).

He decided to become a Missionary, and in December of 1827 embarked for West Africa, with instructions from the Bâsle Missionary Society to translate the Scriptures into the Bassa language. He was originally located in Liberia, West Africa, where he arrived on the 2nd April 1828, his 23rd birthday.

Slave running was still practised in West Africa and the territory was, far as the white man was concerned, was known as the "White Man's Grave".

He was associated with several Missionary brethren, all of whom were removed either by death, or were compelled by ill-health to return to Europe, and so young George Adam was left alone at the station, occupying his time in teaching the black and half-caste children in the young colony of Liberia. He was then only about twenty-five years of age, and, young as he was, had evidently entered with great earnestness into the Missionary work.

After a bout of illness himself, George Adam returned to Germany where he met and married Karolina Augusta Tanner. She was the daughter of Johannes Tanner and Karolina Ehmann. Johannes was the "gallery-inspector" in Ludwigsburg. She had been born in the town George Adam had lived in as a young man. They married on the 7th of August 1832 in Evangelisch, Murr.

The couple returned to Liberia where Karolina died giving birth to a son. George Adam then paid another visit to his homeland.

Back almost immediately in the mission field, Kissling, distressed by the loss of his young wife, and his own health already affected by the conditions, was encouraged to persevere only by the quite evident success of he was achieving in his teaching. He was appointed to headmaster of the Christian Institution at Fourah Bay, for training native schoolmasters and catechists, which he attended to, in addition to the performance of his ministerial duties; for some time also he held the colonial chaplaincy.

One of his students was a young negro called Samuel Adlai Crowther, who in later life founded the Church Missionary Society in Nigeria. Crowther was rescued from a slave runner by a british ship. he later became the first West African to be consecrated Bishop. Kissling in later life, used to recall with pride, the part he played in Crowther's education.

The German Mission being finally abandoned by the Bâsle Missionary Society, his services in 1833 were transferred, by mutual arrangement, to Sierra Leone, in connection with the Church Missionary Society, who place him in charge of the two parishes of St. Peter's and St. James's at Bathurst and Charlotte.

At a later date, perhaps around 1836 or 1937, George Adam returned to England again, to the headquarters of the Christian Missionary Society.

While in London, George Adam became a visitor to the home of Mr John Hatchard. He owned the Hatchards Bookstore, currently the oldest bookshop in London and the United Kingdom. It was founded by John Hatchard in 1797 on Piccadilly in London, from where it still trades today. Mr Hatchard's portrait can be seen on the staircase of the shop today. It has a reputation for attracting high-profile authors and holds three Royal Warrants. It appears he was somewhat of a radical for his time, and his bookstore became a meeting place for those intersted in matters such as religion, human rights, and humanity in general.

At that time Margaret Moxon was working as a governess for the Hatchard household. Her father was a prominent businessman in Hull, with interests in insurance and shipping. Margaret had three sisters and one brother. The brother John and sister Ellen dired young. Mary Jane later came to New Zealand and married the Rev Thomas Chapman.

George Adam and Margaret Moxon fell in love and were married on the 3rd July 1837 in Islington in London.

In October of that same year, in the company of eight fellow missionaries, george Adam returned to Sierra Leone, taking Margaret with him. He continued his work at Fourah Bay, and on September 15th 1839, his eldest son John was born.

Margaret taught in the schools, but as time passed it became clear that George Adam's health would not stand the climate, and in 1841 the family were recalled by the Church Missionary Society to London.