JUDSON, Adoniram, American mission ary: b. Malden, Mass., 9 Aug. 1788; d. at sea, 12 Aug. 1850. He was a member of the first American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, consisting of five members. Sent to London to confer with the London Missionary Society, he was captured, on the way, by a French privateer and imprisoned at Bayonne. Released, later on, he proceeded to London and accomplished his mission. Returning to Amer ica, he and four other missionaries, Hall, Newell, Nott and Rice, were sent to India (or Burma) by the American Board of Foreign Missions (February 1812). In Calcutta Judson and his wife joined the Baptists, and their activities resulted in the formation of the American Bap tist Missionary Union (1814). After consider able wandering, Mr. and Mrs. Judson settled in Rangoon (1813). Although they do not seem to have had very great success in gaining con verts among the natives, the government. never theless, did not show itself at all friendly toward their efforts, which had netted them a score or more of converts in 11 years. On the breaking out of war between Burma and the East India Company, Judson was imprisoned for a year and seven months, and even then was released only on a peremptory demand on the part of Gen. Sir Archibald Campbell. After a year at Amherst in Lower Burma, he went to Maulmain, where he was successful in found ing a church. Returning to America in 1845 on account of his own ill health and that of his family, he went back to Rangoon in 1847, where he occupied a goodly part of his time in the preparation of a dictionary. Forced by
returned ill health to leave the country, he was carried on board ship at Maulmain and died on the voyage four days later. His body was buried at sea. Judson was an indefatigable and tireless worker, and his work must be judged from two points of view, the aims actually ac complished and the general results of his labor upon conditions not only in the country in which he labored but upon all of India and Further In dia. In his 37 years of missionary labor be suc ceeded in gradually working up a sentiment in the East in favor of religious toleration which is to-day bearing fruit in many quarters. One of his most successful efforts was the organization of an extensive, trained body of native assist ants to aid him in the translation of the Bible and other works into and in the com pilation of his Burmese-English and English Burmese dictionary, Burmese grammar and Pali dictionary. These works, though intended pri marily as aids for missionaries in Burma and the India countries generally, have been great aids to the study, by students and scholars of the languages of the East, in which Judson's missionary efforts and the publicity they had received had helped to increase the growing interest. Consult lives of Judson by his son, Edward Judson (New York 1883 and 1898) ; and by Wayland. See Junson, ANN HASSEL TINE ; JUDSON, SARAH HALL; JUDSON, EMILY