John Wilson (Scottish missionary)

John Wilson was born in Lauder on 11 December 1804, the eldest of four brothers and three sisters, and grew up in a farming family. His father, Andrew Wilson, who lived to the age of eighty-two, was a councillor of the burgh for over forty years and represented the parish church as an elder. John's mother, Janet Hunter, was the oldest of thirteen children; she had a strong character and also lived to the age of eighty-two. The family grew up in Lauder on a hill farm sprawled across seventeen hundred acres.

As a child Wilson revealed that he was more intelligent than his siblings, learning to walk and talk at an early age. In school he was considered 'the priest' on the playground because was often seen preaching to his classmates. His being advanced for his age sometimes caused him trouble, and his preaching was sometimes seen as an offence.

When Wilson was four, he started at a school in Lauder, taught by a George Murray. He was only there for a year before he was moved to a parish school to be taught by Alexander Paterson. He left school at the age of fourteen, the standard end of school in Scotland in the 19th century. His progress was also in his spiritual life. Mr. Paterson affected not only his students' spiritually but also the community.

From 1819 he attended the University of Edinburgh, where he studied linguistics, philosophy and theology for eight years, and also mastered the languages of Gujarati, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and Zend. As he continued in his studies he discovered that teaching was a calling for him, and started to study in that field. He graduated from the University in 1828.

Wilson's first experience of teaching was as a guide and tutor to the three boys of Colonel Rose Cormack. As he guided them through the Netherlands he tutored them. These young men went on to be successful, one becoming Sir John Rose Cormack, a physician in Paris. After touring for four years with the Cormack boys and studying at the University of Edinburgh during the same period he decided to dedicate his life to the people of India, specifically the people of Bombay in the education field.

Wilson College, Mumbai, established 1832.

Rev. Dr John Wilson dressing for an early photograph by David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson

In 1829, a year after his graduation, Wilson and his wife went to Bombay as Christian missionaries supported by the Church of Scotland. The couple first studied Marathi at Harnai; then in 1831 they moved back to Bombay, where John established the Ambroli Church for the people. Determined to set up educational institutions for the young in Bombay, John first established an English school in 1832, and added a college in 1836 – now called Wilson College, Mumbai. With this School John was able to introduce European education, examinations and textbooks to the people of the city. This would gradually change the way in which schools in Bombay orchestrated themselves. In 1857 John helped to establish the Bombay University, and went on to become its Vice-Chancellor in 1869.

Wilson's wife, Margaret, also influenced the education system in Bombay, and aided the female population by establishing schools for girls in 1829. In 1832 she established a boarding school for females, now called St. Columbia High School. This was western India's first boarding school for females.

The couple also opened schools in Marathi and Hebrew for the Native Jewish community of the Bene Israel of the Konkan region, teaching Boys as well as girls and translating the Holy Bible especially the Old Testament for their benefit.

Wilson was a passionate advocate for the preservation of Indian historical monuments. He was the Honorary President of what was then the Asiatic Society of Bombay. When the Bombay Cave Temple Commission was established in 1848, he was elected the first president. He was an important lobbyist for the establishment in 1861 of the Archaeological Survey of India.[4]

In 1828 Wilson married Margaret Bayne (died 1835), daughter of the Rev Kenneth Bayne of Greenock. Following Margaret's death her sisters, Anna and Hay Bayne, joined Wilson in India as housekeepers and companions.[5]

In 1846 he married Isabella Dennistoun. She died in 1867 and he was then joined in India by her niece, Miss Taylor.

His eldest son Andrew Wilson (1831–9.6.1881) was author of "The Abode of Snow".

Wilson was the author of many books. Early in his mission he started a periodical about religion, society, culture and European thought, called The Oriental Christian Spectator, which ran from 1830 to 1862. In 1838 he wrote A Memoir of Mrs. Margret Wilson, and in 1850 a Memoir of the Cave Temples and Monasteries and Ancient Remains in Western India. In 1858 he wrote, India Three Thousand Years Ago. As the years went on he wrote many books, including Parsi Religion (1843), Evangelisation of India (1849), History of the Suppression of Female Infanticide in Western India (1855), Aboriginal Tribes of The Bombay Presidency (1876) and Indian Caste (1877).

As an archaeologist, Wilson wrote the 1847 Lands of the Bible: Visited and Described,[6] the 1861 Caves of Karla (on the Karla Caves), and the 1875 Religious Excavations of Western India: Buddhist, Brahamanical and Jaina. He also published a small account about the origins of the Bene Israel Jewish community of the Konkan rigion in 1838.

• David, M. D. John Wilson and his Institution. Wilson College, Bombay: John Wilson Education Society, 1975.
• Smith, George. The Life of John Wilson. Albemarle Street: John Murray, 1878.
• Wilson, John. History of the Suppression Of Infanticide in Western India Under the Government of Bombay. Bombay: American Mission Press, 1855.
• Wilson, John. Indian Caste. Bombay: Times of India Office, William Blackwood & Sons, 1877.
• Wilson, John. A Memoir of Mrs. Margaret Wilson. Bombay: William Whyte & Co, 1838.
• Wilson, John. Parsi Religion. Bombay: American Mission Press, 1843.