MATHER, Robert Cotton. Manchester 8.11.1808 — London 21.4.1877. Rev. British (Scottish) Missionary and Hindi Scholar in India. Son of Rev. James Mather and Ann Speakman (1772–1809), educated at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities (M.A. 1831) and Homerton College, ordained in 1833. “Went to India for the London Missionary Society, after Benares, settled at Mirzapur [in 1838] founding a mission. Built schools and churches.” Returned to England in 1873. LL.D. 1862 Glasgow. His wife, Elizabeth Sewell, the author of a Bible dictionary in Hindustani, returned after his death to Mirzapur and died there in 1879. They had children. Father-in-law of —> M. A. Sherring.

Publications: Revised and edited the Bible in Hindustani, wrote in Hindi and Urdu, e.g. a commentary on the New Testament in Hindustani.

– Christian Missions in India on the present state and prospects of Christian missions in India: and the duty of the churches at the present crisis of our Indian affairs. 20 p. L. 1858.

– Glossary, Hindúṣtání and English, to the New Testament and Psalms. 226 p. London 1861.

Sources: Buckland, Dictionary; *K. Prior, Oxford D.N.B.; C.W.S[utton], D.N.B. 37, 1894, 30f.; Wikipedia with portrait.

ancestry.com names his mother (but ignores wife) and locates his birth in Salford, Lancashire 8.11.1809, death in North Finchley, Middlesex.