Kuruman missionary Robert Moffat is born

Robert Moffat, missionary of the London Missionary Society at Kuruman and father-in-law of Dr David Livingstone, was born in Ormiston, Scotland, to a working class family. He was trained as a gardener and worked at High Leah, near Liverpool. At the age of 21, he came to South Africa and started his ministry in Namaqualand. In May 1821 he and his wife Mary, an indispensible helpmate, carried on their mission work in the neighbourhood of Kuruman. The Moffats returned to Britain in 1870. The main achievement of Moffat was translating the Bible into Setswana, the first bible in an indigenous southern African language. Click here to read more about missionary work in southern Africa.