Barnabas Shaw Article

000301Shaw, Barnabas * 12.04.1788 at Elloughton, England+ 21.06.1857 at Mowbray, South Africa---Barnabas Shaw was born on 12.04.1788 at Elloughton, Yorkshire in England. He was a Wesleyan Methodist Missionary, founder of Methodism and of its first mission stations in southern Africa. He was the son of a small farmer, Thomas Shaw, and his wife, Elizabeth Best. Shaw joined the Methodist Society and began to preach in 1808. After the customary probationary period he was ordained a minister in 1814. Offering his services for the foreign mission field, he was directed to work in Cape Town. Before setting out for South Africa in December 1815, he took lessons in Dutch in London. Shaw and his wife arrived at the Cape on 13.04.1816. He was refused permission to preach in Cape Town by the then Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, and when he met Johann Heinrich Schmelen of the London Missionary Society in early 1816, he decided to travel with him to identify a suitable site for mission work, which he founded at Lilyfontein near the Kamiesberg in the northern Cape Colony as the first Wesleyan mission station. Notable early baptised Christians were Jacob Links (+ August 1825) and Johannes Jager. Links had become a probationary minister and, in 1822, an ordained minister of the church. During his stay at Lilyfontein, he both made and initiated several trips into Bushmanland with a view to establish stations there. In July 1819 the Rev. J. Archbell joined the mission staff as Shaw's assistant. Accompanied by the Rev. J.J. Kicherer, Shaw visited in 1820 the London Missionary Schmelen at Bethany in Great Namaqualand. Together they explored the Fish River area in search for a site for another mission station. The Kaikhaun (Red Nation) Chief Tsawúb Gamab (1814-1824) welcomed the idea. In furtherance of the idea Shaw, sent Archbell and Links to consult Tsawúb Gamab and establish a mission station. Bosfontein (to-day Grootfontein South) was identified as a site, but for many years not realised. In 1825 he agreed to allow Links, Jager and the Rev. William Threlfall, missionary in Lily Fountain, to again explore the possibility of opening a mission station in the Fish River area. Not long after they had left (probably August 1825) they were all murdered by the San Naughaap north-west of Warmbad, for the sake of their possessions. Following the killing of Threlfall and his party, Europeans avoided to travel to Great Namaqualand until the mid-1830s. In 1826 Shaw left Lilyfontein permanently and settled at Cape Town in order to start a Methodist missionary service there until 1837. A donation in 1832 by Josiah Nisbett of the Madras Civil Service, made the establishment of a mission station at Warmbad in Great Namaqualand possible, permanently to head the Methodist mission at the town. Shaw recommended to the missionary committee in England that the Rev. Edward Boyer Cook, his assistant, be sent to found the station. The Wesleyan Missionary Society took over all missionary activities from the London Missionary Society (until 1840). Consequently on 16.07.1834 Cook (until 09.03.1843) revived the missionary work in Warmbad which was dormant since 1811, the days of the London Missionary Society and after the Warmbad mission station was destroyed by the Orlam Afrikaners under Jager and Titus Afrikaner. Cook called Warmbad "Nisbett Bath" in honour of Josiah Nisbett. He worked there with Peter Links (until 1839). The Wesleyan Missionary Society called the missionary work in Great Namaqualand which later expanded to the north (Naosanabis (Leonardville)(1843), Windhoek (1844) and Gobabis (1845)) the "Damara Mission". In 1838 5Hawoben (Veldskoendragers) began to settle at 5Khauxa!nas. The Wesleyan missionaries Joseph Tindall, Benjamin Ridsdale and John A. Bailie worked among the 5Hawoben. In 1839 Wesleyan missionary Joseph Tindall (until April 1842) worked with missionary Cook at Warmbad. Tindall was followed by Benjamin Ridsdale (01.02.1844-1847) who meticulously described 5Khauxa!nas (or Schans Vlakte which was re-discovered by Klaus Dierks in 1986). He was followed by missionaries Macleod (from 01.02.1844), John A. Bailie (1848-1850), Richard Ridgill (1855-1858), John Thomas (1857-1859), J. Priestley (1859-1864) and Timotheus Sneeue (1863-1864), as well as M. Godman (1864-1866), the last of the Wesleyan missionaries. Due to financial constraints the Wesleyan Missionary Society transferred the business of the Damara Mission to the Rhenish Missionary Society in 1866. With the exception of a six year stay in England from 1837 until 1843, Shaw remained at the Cape until he died on 21.06.1857 at Mowbray. He was married to Jane Butler in 1814. They had one son, Rev. Barnabas J. Shaw.---Gender: mField of activity: RELProfession: MissionaryMarried to: Jane Shaw, née Butler, married 1814 RAW DATA: DSAB I:709-711; Chronology of Namibian History, 2003 (Dierks);