Robert Samuel Maclay was born on February 7, 1824, in Concord, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Robert and Arabella (Erwin) Maclay and a descendant of John Maclay who emigrated to Pennsylvania from the north of Ireland in 1734.
Maclay studied at Dickinson College. He graduated in 1845.
Maclay was ordained a Methodist minister in the following year and in October 1847, was included in the first important group of missionaries sent to China, being assigned to Foochow a few weeks after the opening of the Chinese field.
Five years later, he became secretary and treasurer of the Foochow group and served in this capacity from 1852 to 1872, becoming "practically the founder of Methodist missions in China. " He also assisted in the translation of the New Testament into the local dialect and in collaboration with the Rev. C. C. Baldwin published at Foochow An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect (1870).
Because of his "pre-eminent fitness for responsibility, " he was designated to lead the new mission to open Japan to Methodism, and he remained in general charge of the Japanese work from 1872 till his return to the United States in 1888. While serving in Japan, he undertook a special trip to Seoul, Korea, to confer with the ruler of the then "Hermit Kingdom, " and in 1884, he secured permission to establish Christian missions in the peninsula.
Korea has since been regarded by missionaries as ranking among the regions most responsive to Christian propaganda. As in Foochow, Maclay helped in translating the New Testament into the native language of Japan.
(Excerpt from An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Lang...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Maclay was twice married. His first wife was Henrietta Caroline Sperry, to whom he was married at Hong Kong on July 10, 1850. She died in 1879 and on June 6, 1882, he was married to Sarah Ann Barr, at San Francisco. Edgar Stanton Maclay was a son by the first marriage.
1782 - 1 July 1850
1786 - 24 October 1862
1823 – July 19, 1890 Was a California State Senator and the funder of the city of San Fernando, California in the San Fernando Valley.
Born in 1851.
April 18, 1863 - November 2, 1919
December 23, 1838 – November 14, 1929 Was an American lawyer, judge, and one of the founders of the University of Southern California (USC).
December 26, 1841 – July 4, 1938 Was an American doctor, educator, historian, and religious leader.
