James Legge Hannah Legge

James Legge was born on 20 December 1814 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire. He studied at Kings College and the University of Aberdeen, and at Highbury College. He was ordained on 25 April 1839 at Trevor Chapel, Brompton. On 30 April 1839, he married Mary Isabella Morison (b 3 April 1816).

He was appointed to the London Missionary Society (LMS) in 1839, and was posted to China. He arrived at Malacca on 10 January 1840, where he served as Head of the Anglo Chinese Mission in Malacca from 1840-1843. In 1842, he received the diploma of D.D. from the University of New York. After the opening of the Ports of China, he left Malacca on 6 May 1843, for Singapore. There he began his work translating and annotating the Chinese Classics, which he was to continue until shortly before his death. He proceeded to Macao, and arrived at Hong Kong on 10 July 1843. At the Conference of LMS Missionaries that year, he was appointed to the charge of the Anglo-Chinese Theological Seminary at Hong Kong. Between November 1845 and 1848, Mr and Mrs Legge visited England and China, before returning to Hong Kong. Mrs Legge died at Hong Kong on 17 October 1852. During a visit home to England (1858-1859), James Legge married his second wife, Hannah Willetts, widow of the Reverend G. Willetts and daughter of John Johnson. In June 1859, they sailed with his two daughters, to Hong Kong.

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