MOFFAT, ROBERT (1795-1883), Scottish Congregational ist missionary to Africa, was born at Ormiston, Haddingtonshire, on Dec. 21, 1795, of humble parentage. He began as a gardener, but in 1814 when employed at High Leigh in Cheshire, offered him self to the London Missionary Society, and in 1816 was sent out to South Africa. After spending a year in Namaqua Land, with the chief Afrikaner, whom he converted, Moffat returned to Cape Town in 1819 and married Mary Smith (1795-187o), the daugh ter of a former employer. In 1820 Moffat and his wife left the Cape and proceeded to Griqua Town, and ultimately settled at Kuruman, among the Bechuana tribes living to the west of the Vaal river. Here he worked as a missionary till 187o, when he reluctantly returned finally to his native land. He made frequent journeys into the neighbouring regions as far north as the Mata bele country. The results of these journeys he communicated to
the Royal Geographical Society (Journal xxv.–xxxviii. and Pro ceedings ii.), and when in England on furlough (1839-1843) he published his well-known Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa (1842). He translated the whole of the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress into Sechwana. Moffat was builder, carpenter, smith, gardener, farmer, all in one, and by precept and example he succeeded in turning a horde of bloodthirsty savages into a "people appreciating and cultivating the arts and habits of civilized life, with a written language of their own." David Livingstone was his son-in-law. He died at Leigh, near Tunbridge Wells, on Aug. 9, 1883. See also LIVINGSTONE, DAVID.