James Frederick Schon (b. c. 1802) of Ober Weiler, Baden, Germany attended the Basel Seminary and, in 1831, the Church Missionary Society College. He was ordained a deacon in 1831 and priest in 1832 when he went to Sierra Leone. He accompanied the first Niger Expedition 1841. His connection with the CMS ceased in 1853 after 20 years service. He was renowned for his African linguistic work, particularly in Hausa, and he continued to be engaged in this work after ceasing to be a missionary. He was the author of numerous works including Journal of the Niger Expedition (1842); Vocabulary and Elements of Grammar of the Hausa Language (1843); Translations of Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles into the Hausa Language (1857-1861); Grammar of the Hausa Language (1862); Dictionary of the Hausa Language (1876). In 1848 he became chaplain to the Melville Hospital, Chatham. In 1877 he was awarded the Volney Prize for his linguistic work and in 1884 received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. He died at Chatham 30 March 1889.
Schon married Anne Elizabeth Nylander in 1835 who died in Sierra Leone 5 Nov 1837. In 1839 he married Cordelia Irving who died the following year. On 5 February 1841 he married Catherine White (ne Drake), the widow of James White CMS missionary. Catherine survived her husband dying 26 Oct 1892. One daughter, Annie Catherine married Edward Thomas Higgens, CMS missionary in Ceylon, in 1858.
Reference: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905).
From the guide to the Papers of James Frederick Schon, 1850-1893, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)
