Born August 9, 1788, to Adoniram and Abigail (Brown) Judson in Malden, MA, Adoniram Judson grew up in a Christian home with his father a Congregational Church minister. Still, Adoniram, the younger, chose to be a deist, a believer in a god in nature who doesn’t influence people’s lives. His beliefs broke his mother’s heart as she prayed for his conversion.
After college graduation, Judson traveled in the northern states until one night when he overheard the man in the next room moaning all night. The following day Judson learned the young man had died and was a college classmate. Judson knew the man had been an unbeliever and worried about his soul. What did Adoniram really believe? He returned home, became a Christian on December 2, 1808, and entered Andover Seminary “by special favor.”
He joined the Third Congregational Church at Plymouth and met other college students, who experienced the same heartfelt burden to become a missionary to people of other lands. They formed a missionary society and met often at a haystack on the college grounds to pray for the foreign people and to ask God to consecrate them and to open a way to become overseas missionaries. One writer called that haystack “the birthplace of American missions.”
On June 27, 1810, those men formed the General Association of the Congregationalists. After trying to operate through the London Missionary Society, which didn’t work, Judson and the others developed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Their first missionary sent was Adoniram Judson to India.
In the interim, Judson had proposed to Ann Hasseltine and married her on February 5, 1812. She had agreed to Judson’s missionary plans. However, his parents and family pleaded with him not to leave. The day after their wedding, Judson was ordained a minister. On the 19th the Reverand and Mrs. Judson sailed away on the brig, Caravan for Calcutta.
During the four-month journey, the Judsons studied the Bible. Their studies led them to believe in baptism by immersion. This decision was a huge one because it flung aside his seminary training and cost them their Congregational financial backing. There was no Baptist mission board. Yet on September 6, 1812, Judson and Ann were baptized by the Rev. Ward in Calcutta. When the American Baptists heard this, they organized the American Baptist Missionary Union
While the Baptists looked for funds, the Judsons were ordered to leave India on the Georgianna, described as a “crazy old vessel.” They rode out a monsoon in that old vessel, and Ann gave birth to their first child on it with Adoniram as the doctor. The baby died after only eight months and was buried at sea.
So they floated to different ports around India and finally were welcomed on July 13, 1813, in Rangoon, Burma. Not one Christian lived in that land of millions. The dirty village streets were littered with garbage. Still, the Judsons stayed. Another baby was born and died in infancy and was buried beneath a large mango tree.
After six, long years the first convert, Moung Nau, was baptized on June 28, 1819. More Christian converts were slowly added.
Meanwhile the Anglo-Burmese War began, and Judson was imprisoned for 21 months for being a British spy. One source wrote, "In this room [prison] were confined one hundred persons of both sexes and all nationalities, nearly all naked, and half famished. The prison was never washed or even swept. Putrid remains of animal and vegetable matter, together with nameless abominations, strewed the floor. In this place of torment Mr. Judson lay with five pairs of fetters on his legs and ankles, weighing about fourteen pounds, the marks of which he carried to his dying day. At nightfall, lest the prisoners should escape, a bamboo pole was placed between the legs and then drawn up by means of pulleys to a height which allowed their shoulders to rest on the ground while their feet depended from the iron rings of the fetters."
Ann snuck him food during the night. He was released because of his wife’s pleadings and British help. He tried to stay out of the political affairs, but the Burmese recruited him as a translator. After only six weeks, he was imprisoned again because the English were winning the war. He was soon released by the English, who cared for the Judsons until they returned to their mission work. Judson refused the $3,000/year income from the English.
When the Judsons arrived home to Rangoon, their helpers had fled, and the property was destroyed. Judson decided to relocate at Amherst for greater safety. He went to the city of Ava to negotiate a commercial treaty, and while there, Ann died. After 14 years of marriage, Judson buried his dear wife Ann.
Then he took up mission work again, resumed his Bible translation, talked with inquirers, and preached every Sunday. He moved to Maulmain, a city growing more than Amherst. Judson translated the entire Bible into the Burmese language, one of his greatest accomplishments. On October 24, 1840, the entire book was ready for the press. Later he wrote a Burmese-English dictionary, finished on January 24, 1849.
Eight years later, Judson married Sarah Boardman, the widow of one of his fellow missionaries. They had eight children in their eleven-year marriage. Sarah climbed and forged her way through the Burmese landscape to start successful schools When Sarah died, Judson returned to America, his only furlough. While there, he consulted with author Emily Chubbuck to write his second wife’s memoirs. As a result of their meeting, they married on June 2, 1846, and both returned to Burma.
In the spring of 1850, Judson grew ill. His friends thought a sea voyage would help him, so weeping Burmese carried him aboard, though they wanted him to stay for they loved him so much. Thomas Ranney went with Adoniram; Emily stayed in Burma.
On April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson, age 62, died. Emily learned of his death four months later. Sixty-three churches had been founded, and Judson had personally baptized 7,000 Burmese, leaving 163 native pastors, missionaries, and assistants to continue his wor. A government survey recorded 210,000 Christians in Burma because of Judson’s work. He was buried at sea.
Our Faithful God