💬 Famous Quotes
📋 Basic Information
📖 Biography
John Robert Morrison (Chinese name Ma Ruhan, 马儒翰; April 17, 1814 – August 29, 1843) was English, of Northumbrian family origin (his father, Robert Morrison, was born at Morpeth, Northumberland). He was the second son of Robert Morrison (马礼逊), the first Protestant missionary to come to China in modern times, and was also called “the younger Morrison.”
Morrison was born in Macau in 1814 and died of illness in Hong Kong on August 29, 1843. He was later reburied in the British East India Company (Protestant) cemetery next to the Camões Garden in Macau (then the Protestant Cemetery of Portuguese Macau, today the Macau Protestant Cemetery), together with his father Robert Morrison, his mother Mary Morton, and his elder brother James, who died soon after birth. During the Opium War he took part in British operations and served as interpreter in the negotiations for the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking. After Britain seized Hong Kong, he became a member of the Hong Kong Executive Council and Legislative Council and also acted as Colonial Secretary: on August 21, 1843, while George Malcolm (麻恭) was away from Hong Kong, he became Acting Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, and he died in office on August 29. A surviving painting by George Chinnery shows Morrison (on the right) with his colleagues.
On his name: Ma Ruhan mostly used his father's name, calling himself Morrison (马礼逊); only once, as an exception, did he call himself Ma Ruhan. To tell the two apart, historians refer to him by the name he used least. Nevertheless, some earlier writers, without looking closely, mistakenly believed that the missionary Robert Morrison took part in the Opium War; in fact he had died in 1834.
Profile
- Acting Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, term: August 21, 1843 – August 29, 1843; preceded by George Malcolm (麻恭); succeeded by Frederick Bruce (卜鲁斯)
- Born: April 17, 1814, Portuguese Macau
- Died: August 29, 1843 (aged 29), British Hong Kong
- Resting place: Protestant Cemetery, Portuguese Macau
- Parents: Robert Morrison, Mary Morton
- Profession: translator; acting official