McALL, ROBERT WHITAKER: English Congregationalist, and the founder of the McAll Mission (q.v.); b. at Macclesfield (17 m. s, of Manchester), Cheshire, Dec. 17, 1821; d. in Paris May 11, 1893. He was the son of a Congregational minister, but at first proposed to take up the profession of architecture. Almost at the outset of a promising career, however, he felt himself drawn to the ministry, as his father had wished; and after completing his studies at the Free College of Theology at Whalley Range, near Manchester (1844-48), he was called to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Sunderland. Subsequently he held charges at Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, and Hadleigh, his sermons everywhere being marked by their simplicity, force, and elegance. While at Leicester, he became distinguished as a street preacher, and in all his pastorates he did extensive work in the villages, where he was eminently successful in enlisting the services of young men. In Aug., 1871, while on a ten days' visit to France with his wife, he heard, at Paris, the words of a working man which determined his future career. Convinced that there was an opportunity for evangelistic work in France among those who had abandoned religious faith, McAll, having consulted prominent French Protestant pastors, and having secured the consent and cooperation of his church at Hadleigh, returned to Paris, where, with the permission of the Government, he began evangelistic work in the communistic quarter of Belleville (Jan. 17, 1872). The work was at first carried on by the private means of McAll and his wife; but within a year interest was aroused in the undertaking, and contributions came in generously. In 1882, wishing to put the mission on a permanent foundation, McAll formed a board of directors, who in turn made him honorary director for life. This office he resigned in 1892 and returned to England to raise the funds which were urgently needed to carry on the work. Early in the following spring, becoming seriously ill, he went once more to Paris, where he died, and was buried with military honors. His wife, who died at Paris May 6, 1906, gave her last years to the mission with a devotion equal to that of her husband. McAll was the author of ninety-seven published works, chiefly tracts, many of which were written in French; and he also wrote or translated fifty hymns for the Cantiques populaires, the hymnal used in the McAll missions and by many other French Protestants.

Louise Seymour Houghton.

Bibliography: R. W. McAll, Founder of the McAll Mission, Paris: a Fragment by himself, a Souvenir by his Wife, London, 1896; and literature under McAll Mission.