James Hannington
English missionary consecrated in 1884 as the first Anglican bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. He was seized on his way to Buganda and speared to death in Busoga on the orders of King Mwanga in October 1885.
Hannington wrote that he was born on 3 September 1847 (Dawson, Life of Hannington p. 6). He was consecrated bishop at Lambeth on 24 June 1884 (Dawson, Life of Hannington p. 310). On his way to Buganda he was stopped at Luba’s in Busoga and held prisoner (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195). His diary, which later reached the missionaries, ends on 29 October 1885, the eighth day of his imprisonment (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195). The missionary Robert Ashe tells that Mwanga II’s messengers then led him out, that he was speared to death and his porters killed, and that one wounded porter survived to tell what had happened (Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195). Alexander Mackay wrote that Mwanga ordered the execution “in a fit of fear and madness” (Mackay of Uganda p. 468).
The Church of England commemorates him on 29 October as a martyr in Uganda (Church of England, Calendar 29 October). See the Martyrs of Uganda.
In the timeline
- 1885 to 1886, firm dateThe Martyrs of Uganda
In 1885 and 1886 King Mwanga of Buganda has Christian converts killed, Anglicans and Catholics alike, many of them burned together in 1886, and an Anglican bishop put to death. Both churches honour them as martyrs.
Primary sources
James Hannington, First Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa: A History of His Life and Work, 1847–1885
- Dawson, Life of Hannington p. 6archive.org
- Dawson, Life of Hannington p. 310archive.org
Two Kings of Uganda; or, Life by the Shores of Victoria Nyanza
- Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda pp. 181–195archive.org
A. M. Mackay, Pioneer Missionary of the Church Missionary Society to Uganda
- Mackay of Uganda p. 468archive.org
Common Worship: The Calendar
- Church of England, Calendar 29 Octoberchurchofengland.org