Campbell, John

Campbell, John, an Independent minister, was born at Edinburgh in March, 1766, and apprenticed to a goldsmith. About 1789, at which time he was actively engaged in measures for the extension of Sunday-schools, he began to prepare himself for the Christian ministry. He subsequently visited London to take charge of twenty-four young natives of Africa, who were brought from Sierra Leone to be instructed in' Christianity, with a view to its introduction into their native land; and in 1804 he became pastor of the Independent Church in Kingsland, a charge which he retained until his death, April 4th, 1840. Mr. Campbell took an active part in the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and several other important religious associations. In 1812 he made a journey to the stations of the London Missionary Society in South Africa, from which he returned in 1814. Of this journey he published an account (1815, 8vo). In 1818-21 he revisited Africa, and found some interesting changes produced by the civilization introduced by the missionaries. The journal of his second visit appeared in 1822 (2 vols. 8vo). Mr. Campbell published numerous works, chiefly for the instruction of youth, and he was the founder, and for eighteen years the editor of the Youth's Magazine, a religious periodical of great utility. — Jamieson, Religious Biog. p. 100.