Scudder, John (1793-1855)
Pioneer American physician and evangelist in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India
John Scudder was born in Freehold, New Jersey, and was educated at the College of New Jersey (1811) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York (1813). He established a successful medical practice in New York, and in 1816 married Harriet Waterbury. He sailed for Ceylon in 1819 as the first medical missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Stationed among the Tamils of Jaffna peninsula, he was ordained by fellow missionaries in 1821 and launched a ministry of intensive evangelism together with a hospital, day and boarding schools, and training of medical students. In 1836 Scrudder was transferred to Madras, from where he did extensive touring. He spent 1842 to 1846 on health furlough in the United States, where he promoted missions with great success. Returning to India, he worked three years at Madura, then at Madras until 1845, when he went to South Africa on health leave, where he died.
Scudder published many tracts in Tamil and English. Immensely dedicated and energetic, he would stand for 11 hours at a time in the Indian sun, preaching and distributing literature. Scrudder’s heritage includes seven missionary sons and two daughters. The great Medical College and Hospital at Vellore, India, was founded by his granddaughter Ida S. Scrudder.
David M. Stowe, “Scudder, John,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 610.
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Bibliography
Digital Texts
Scudder, John. Dr. Scudder’s Tales for Little Readers, about the Heathen. New York: American Tract Society, 1849.
Scudder, John. A Voice from the East to the Youth: in a Series of Letters to the Children of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of North America. New York: Board of Publication of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 1859.
Waterbury, J.B. Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D. New York: Harper, 1870.
Primary
Anderson, Rufus (1796-1880), Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions: 4 letters from Boston (USA) 1836-1848.
Secondary
Goodsell, Fred F. They Lived Their Faith. Boston: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1961. Pp. 189-191.
Scudder, Dorothy J. A Thousand Years in Thy Sight: The Story of the Scudder Missionaries of India. New York: Vantage Press, 1984 (orig. 1934).
Portrait
“John Scudder Image.” In Waterbury, J .B. Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D.: Thirty-Six Years Missionary in India. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1870.