Callaway, Henry

CALLAWAY, HENRY: Church of England, missionary bishop of St. John's, Kaffraria; b. at Lymington, Somerset, Jan. 17, 1817; d. at Ottery Saint Mary (12 m. e.n.e. of Exeter) Mar. 26, 1890. In early life he was a Quaker, and after teaching from 1835 to 1839, was successively a chemist's assistant and a surgeon's assistant. He then studied surgery and was licensed by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1842 and by the Apothecaries' Society two years later. In 1852, however, failing health obliged him to sell his lucrative practise and to spend a year in France. In the following year he graduated M.D. at King's College, Aberdeen, and determined to be a physician, but his interest in missions becoming active, he was ordered deacon in 1854, having left the Society of Friends for the Church of England two years previously, and went as missionary to Africa. He was first stationed at Ekukanyeni near Pietermaritzburg, but on being priested in 1855 was made rector of St. Andrew's, Pietermaritzburg. Three years later he obtained a grant of land beyond the Umkomanzi River and settled at Insunguze, which he renamed Spring Vale. There he began his studies of Zulu religion and customs, but was recalled to England in 1873 to be consecrated first missionary bishop of St. John's, Kaffraria. In the following year he left England, and in 1876 removed the seat of the diocese to Umtata, where he founded St. John's Theological College in 1879. His fragile health, however, had already necessitated the consecration of Bransby Key as bishop-coadjutor in 1873, and in 1886 Callaway resigned his see and returned to England in the following year, settling at Ottery Saint Mary, where he spent the remainder of his life. He wrote: Immediate Revelation (London, 1841); Memoir of James Parnell (1846); Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus (Spring Vale, 1868); The Religious System of the Amazulu (Natal, 1868–70); and Missionary Sermons (London, 1875). He likewise translated the book of Psalms (Natal, 1871) and the Book of Common Prayer (1882) into Zulu.

Bibliography: M. S. Benham, Henry Callaway, M.D., D.D., first Bishop of Kaffraria; his Life-History and Work, London, 1896.