Rev. Samuel Broadbent

Samuel (1794-1867)

Yorkshire-born pioneer Wesleyan Methodist missionary and the first missionary to cross the Vaal River. Accepted into the ministry and at age 21 went to Ceylon. Arrived at the Cape 1820 and appointed to Rev Barnabas Shaw as an assistant to Rev Edward Edwards of Kamiesberg mission, Rietfontein, Namaqualand. He had instructions from LMS to form a station in the Bechuana country (Tswana). He set out from Rietfontein (substation of Kamiesberg mission) in December 1821;on the 3rd day he fell against his wagon while holding it on a steep ridge and sustained internal injuries. He went on to Griquatown where Rev H Helm of LMS received him. Here his wife gave birth to a son which lived 24 hours. Continuing tribal wars made founding the mission in Tswana territory impossible at that time and Broadbent went to Graaff Reinet where 6 months of careful nursing by Rev Abraham Faure of the NGK saved his life. Hodgson and Broadbent travelled to the Vaal in November 1822, crossing by raft, then east along the northern side of the Vaal where no missionary had been before; later established station at Maquassi. He mastered the Tswana language. On 1 July 1823 his son Lewis Broadbent was born: reputed to be the first white child born in the Transvaal, Lewis was later a missionary to India. Broadbent left Maquassi when he fell ill, and the station was destroyed but Hodgson returned there in August 1825 with Rev James Archbell and rebuilt the structure. Finally it was abandoned but the missionary work continued when the tribe migrated and settled elsewhere notably at Thaba Nchu. Broadbent, still unwell, embarked for England in November 1825 and from 1827 until his retirement in 1863 he continued his mission in England where he died in the 52nd year of his ministry. He published ‘The missionary martyr of Namaqualand: memorials of the Rev Wm Threlfall, late Wesleyan missionary in South Africa who was murdered in Great Namaqualand’ (published London 1857). In 1865 he also published his own account of his SA experiences.