Anderson, Christopher, 1782-1852 (theologian)
Dates
- Existence: 1782 - 1852
Biography
Christopher Anderson was an Edinburgh-based pastor and biblical scholar. He was the only surviving child of William Anderson’s second marriage to Jean Moubray, and he was bom in the West Bow of Edinburgh. Not being a strong child, he was sent, aged nine, with his brother Charles, to a country school at Lasswade, outside Edinburgh. At fourteen, Christopher was apprenticed to John Muir, ironmonger in Edinburgh, but left after serving only four years of his time, to become a clerk in the Friendly Insurance Company, where his uncle, Christopher Moubray, was cashier. It was expected that young Christopher would follow in his uncle’s footsteps, but four years later, when his father died, he left the Insurance Company, his heart set on becoming a missionary in India. He had come to this decision due to the influence of James Haldane, the evangelist, to whose preaching he had been introduced by his brother James, the surgeon.
Christopher attended classes at Edinburgh University for a year, studying Chemistry, Greek, Logic, and Moral Philosophy under Professor Dugald Stewart, whose monument now stands on Calton Hill. Christopher decided to join the English Baptists and left Edinburgh to study under a Baptist minister at Olney in Buckinghamshire, and also at the Baptist College in Bristol. Returning home that summer, he took more classes at Edinburgh University in Anatomy and Civil History. About this time, Christopher realised that his constitution was not strong enough for him to go out as a missionary to Serampore in India, and he made up his mind to become a pastor in Edinburgh. He worshipped with the English Baptists in Cordiners' Hall, but left them, when having lost their pastor, they abandoned the taking or the Lord’s Supper. Christopher started a little church of his own in Richmond Court, off the Pleasance. His ordination took place in 1808, when he was twenty-six; and for over forty years he was to remain with this same church, nearly to the time of his death.
He made several tours over the years to the Highlands and Islands, to Ireland, and even to the Continent. He preached and lectured and collected funds on these journeys to support the Serampore mission, and to help the Gaelic Schools Society and the Edinburgh Bible Society, both of which he founded. He was also secretary of the Edinburgh Bible Society for over forty years.
Another year, he made a preaching tour of Ireland lasting five weeks, having had a very disagreeable crossing overnight from Portpatrick to Donaghadee. He travelled to Belfast by stage-coach and then took the mail to Dublin, where he was appalled by the contrast in living standards of the different social classes. He worked hard for the establishment of schools for those who only spoke the native Irish language and also for the provision of Irish-speaking Protestant preachers.
His longest journey was to Copenhagen in 1826 – three thousand miles there and back through Germany – the purpose being to visit the King of Denmark. Frederick VI granted him an audience and he also talked with the heir-presumptive, Prince Christian, on the mission at Serampore, which was in Danish territory. The King incorporated a University College at Serampore, the first of its kind in India, and generously augmented the funds of the Baptist Missionary Society.
Meanwhile, Christopher had got married at the age of thirty-four with Esther Athill, eldest daughter of the Honourable James Athill, Chief Justice of the island of Antigua in the West Indies. Esther and he had five children, all dying in childhood, and she herself died of tuberculosis after only eight years of marriage.
In 1845, Christopher finished writing the ‘Annals of the English Bible’, in eight volumes. The University of New York offered Christopher a Doctorate of Divinity, but Christopher declined, feeling that such recognition was only of earthly value.
In 1851, a man named Mr Thomas, who had radical ideas on religion, took over the ministry and forced Christopher out of his own Church, having taken legal possession of Charlotte Chapel. Christopher died in February 1852, the day before his seventieth birthday.