Williams, Samuel Welles

LL.D. (Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., 1850), Congregation alist, layman; b. at Utica, September, 1812; d. at New Haven, Conn., Feb. 17, 1884. He studied at the Ren elaer School, Troy, N.Y.; went to China in 1833 as a printer for the A.B.C.F.M. Mi ionary Board at Canton; printed at Macao, Medhurst's Hokkeen Dictionary (Chinese), 1835; visited Japan, 1837, and translated into Japanese Genesis and Matthew; a isted in editing The Chinese Repository, Canton, 1838-51; was interpreter to Commodore Ferry's Japan expedition, 1853-54; became secretary and interpreter of the American Legation, Peking, 1855; a isted Minister Reed in negotiating the treaty with China, 1856. He visited the United States in 1845, where he staid three years, teaching; again in 1860; returned to live there in 1876, and was appointed lecturer in Chinese in Yale College, New Haven, Conn. He was president of the American Bible Society, 1881-83. He was one of the most eminent of sinologues. He was the author of Easy Le ons in Chinese, Macao, 1842; A Chinese Commercial Guide, 1843, 5th ed. Hong-Kong, 1863; An English and Chinese Vocabulary in the Court Dialect, Macao, 1844; The Middle Kingdom: a Survey of the Geography, Government, Education, Social Life, Arts, Religion, etc., of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants, New York, 1848, 3d ed. 1857, new ed. rev. 1883, 2 vols, (a standard work); Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Canton, 1856; Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Shanghai, 1874 (this was the great work of his life); Chinese Immigration, New York, 1879. *