James Hudson Taylor 戴德生 (May 21, 1832 – June 3, 1905), was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM) (now OMF International) who served there for 51 years, bringing over 800 missionaries to the country and personally baptizing an estimated 50,000 converts. He was known for his commitment to cultural sensitivity, wearing native Chinese clothing even though this was rare among missionaries of that time. The CIM was non-denominational in practice and accepted members from all Protestant groups, including individuals from the working class and single women as well as multinational recruits. Taylor has been referred to as one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th Century. The agency that he founded was responsible for the widest Christian evangelistic campaign since the first century when Paul the Apostle brought Christian teaching to Europe.^[1] Ruth Tucker summarizes his accomplishments in her book "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya":“No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor (p. 173).”


David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in the village of Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, into a family believed to be descended from the highland Livingstones, a clan that had been previously known as the Clan MacLea. He first studied Greek, medicine, and theology at the University of Glasgow and while working in London, he emulated the example of another Scot, Robert Moffat, and joined the London Missionary Society, becoming a minister.

Livingstone originally planned to join the small Protestant missionary force in China through his medical knowledge (healing arts). The Opium Wars, which were raging at this stage with no signs of peace on the horizon, forced Livingstone to consider other options. Moffat seemed to have found an "inviting field" in Africa and Livingstone turned his thoughts there.^{[citation needed]}

From 1840 he worked in Bechuanaland (now Botswana), but was unable to make inroads into South Africa because of Boer opposition.

He married Mary Moffat, daughter of Robert Moffat, in 1845,^[1] and she travelled with him for a brief time at his insistence, despite her pregnancy and the protests of the Moffats. She later returned to England with their children.

Saint Francis Xavier (Basque: San Frantzisko Xabierkoa; Spanish: San Francisco Javier; Portuguese: São Francisco Xavier; Chinese: 聖方濟各沙勿略) (April 7, 1506 - December 2, 1552) was a pioneering Roman Catholic Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order). The Roman Catholic Church considers him to have converted more people to Christianity than anyone else since St. Paul.

Sir John Eliot (April 11, 1592 - November 27, 1632), English statesman, son of Richard Eliot (1546 - June 22, 1609) and Bridget Carswell (c. 1542 - March 1617), was born at Cuddenbeak, a farm on his father's Port Eliot estate at St Germans in Cornwall. He was baptised on April 20 at St Germans Church, immediately next to Port Eliot. The Eliot family were an old Devon family that had settled in Cornwall.

John Eliot was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, on December 4, 1607, and, leaving the university after three years, he studied law at one of the Inns of Court. He also spent some months travelling in France, Spain and Italy, in company, for part of the time, with young George Villiers, afterwards 1st Duke of Buckingham. Eliot was only twenty-two when he began his parliamentary career as Member of Parliament for St Germans in the "Addled Parliament" of 1614. In May 1618 he was knighted, and next year through the patronage of Buckingham he obtained the appointment of Vice-Admiral of Devon, with large powers for the defence and control of the commerce of the county. It was not long before the characteristic energy with which he performed the duties in his office involved him in difficulties. After many attempts, in 1623, he succeeded by a clever but dangerous manoeuvre in entrapping the famous pirate John Nutt, who had for years infested the southern coast, inflicting immense damage upon English commerce. However, the pirate, having a powerful protector at court in Sir George Calvert, the secretary of state, was pardoned; while the Vice-Admiral, upon charges which could not be substantiated, was flung into the Marshalsea prison, and detained there nearly four months.