HENDERSON, EBENEZER: Scotch linguist and missionary; b. in the parish of Dunfermline, Fifeehire, Nov. 17, 1784; d. at Mortlake (8 m. w.s.w. of London), Surrey, May 16, 1858. His parents were of humble station, and he enjoyed few educational advantages; nevertheless, in the midst of the duties of an active professional life, he acquired a knowledge of many languages, including not only Greek, Latin, French, German, Danish, and Swedish, but also--so it is said-Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic, Russian, Arabic, Tatar, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Manchu, Mongolian, and Coptic. In 1803 he entered Robert Haldane's seminary in Edinburgh to study for the ministry. In 1805 he left Scotland in company with the Rev. John Patterson, with whom he continued to be associated in missionary labor and friendship for a great part of his life. His original destination was the East Indies; but difficulties connected with the existing policy of the East India Company led Henderson, who bad gone to Denmark with the view of a passage to India in a Danish ship, to alter his plans, and devote his future labors mainly to the northern countries of Europe.

In Jan., 1806, he undertook a ministerial charge at Elsinore, Denmark, whence, in Sept., 1807, he removed to Gothenburg, in Sweden. In the following year he itinerated in Sweden, Lapland, and Finland, forming Bible societies in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1811 through his influence, the first Swedish Congregational Church was formed. In 1812-13 his headquarters were at Copenhagen, where a Danish Bible Society was established and where his chief work was the superintendence of a translation of the New Testament into Icelandic. In 1814 he visited Iceland, distributed the newly printed Testaments, and preached in many parts of the island. In 1816 he went to St. Petersburg, and, under the auspices of the Czar, procured the printing of the Bible in

ten dialects. In 1825, however, through the influence of the Greek Church, the work of the Bible Society was interdicted in Russia.

Henderson returned to England in 1825, and for the next twenty-five years devoted himself to the work of training others for the labors which bad occupied him for the twenty years preceding. For five years he wds theological tutor at Hoxton. In 1830 he was appointed to the theological lectureship at Highbury, where he also gave instruction in. Oriental languages. In 1850 he retired on a pen sion, but continued to preach, particularly in the Independent Chapel at Mortlake, 1852-53. In addi tion to a number of popular reprints which appeared under his editorship, Henderson's literary works include: Translation of Roos on the Prophecies of Daniel (Edinburgh, 1811); Two Dissertations on Hans Mikkelsen'a (Danish) Translation of the New Testament (Copenhagen, 1813); Iceland, or the Journal of a Residence in that Isle in 181.¢, 1816 (Edinburgh, 1818); Biblical Researches arid Travels in Russia (London, 1826); The Great Mystery of Godliness (1830); An Appeal to the Members of the British arid Foreign Bible Society (1824); The Turk ish New Testament Incapable of Defence (1825); Divine Inspiration (1836); Translation of Isaiah, with Commentary (1840); Translation of Ezekiel (1855); Translation of Jeremiah and Lamentations (1851); and Tranalationa of the Minor Prophets (1845).

Henry Cowan.

Bibliography: Th"a S. Henderson (his daughter), Mem- oir of Rbeneser Henderson, London, 1859; Bible of Every Land, p. 218, ib. 1881; DNB, xxv. 398.