1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Henderson, Ebenezer

HENDERSON, EBENEZER (1784–1858), a Scottish divine, was born at the Linn near Dunfermline on the 17th of November 1784, and died at Mortlake on the 17th of May 1858. He was the youngest son of an agricultural labourer, and after three years’ schooling spent some time at watchmaking and as a shoemaker’s apprentice. In 1803 he joined Robert Haldane’s theological seminary, and in 1805 was selected to accompany the Rev. John Paterson to India; but as the East India Company would not allow British vessels to convey missionaries to India, Henderson and his colleague went to Denmark to await the chance of a passage to Serampur, then a Danish port. Being unexpectedly delayed, and having begun to preach in Copenhagen, they ultimately decided to settle in Denmark, and in 1806 Henderson became pastor at Elsinore. From this time till about 1817 he was engaged in encouraging the distribution of Bibles in the Scandinavian countries, and in the course of his labours he visited Sweden and Lapland (1807–1808), Iceland (1814–1815) and the mainland of Denmark and part of Germany (1816). During most of this time he was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. On the 6th of October 1811 he formed the first Congregational church in Sweden. In 1818, after a visit to England, he travelled in company with Paterson through Russia as far south as Tiflis, but, instead of settling as was proposed at Astrakhan, he retraced his steps, having resigned his connexion with the Bible Society owing to his disapproval of a translation of the Scriptures which had been made in Turkish. In 1822 he was invited by Prince Alexander (Galitzin) to assist the Russian Bible Society in translating the Scriptures into various languages spoken in the Russian empire. After twenty years of foreign labour Henderson returned to England, and in 1825 was appointed tutor of the Mission College, Gosport. In 1830 he succeeded Dr William Harrison as theological lecturer and professor of Oriental languages in Highbury Congregational College. In 1850, on the amalgamation of the colleges of Homerton, Coward and Highbury, he retired on a pension. In 1852–1853 he was pastor of Sheen Vale chapel at Mortlake. His last work was a translation of the book of Ezekiel. Henderson was a man of great linguistic attainment. He made himself more or less acquainted, not only with the ordinary languages of scholarly accomplishment and the various members of the Scandinavian group, but also with Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic, Russian, Arabic, Tatar, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Manchu, Mongolian and Coptic. He organized the first Bible Society in Denmark (1814), and paved the way for several others. In 1817 he was nominated by the Scandinavian Literary Society a corresponding member; and in 1840 he was made D.D. by the university of Copenhagen. He was honorary secretary for life of the Religious Tract Society, and one of the first promoters of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews. The records of his travels in Iceland (1818) were valuable contributions to our knowledge of that island. His other principal works are: Iceland, or the Journal of a Residence in that Island (2 vols., 1818); Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia (1826); Elements of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation (1830); The Vaudois, a Tour of the Valleys of Piedmont (1845).

See Memoirs of Ebenezer Henderson, by Thulia S. Henderson (his daughter) (London, 1859); Congregational Year Book (1859).