Charles Mackenzie (bishop)

For other people with this name, see Charles Mackenzie (disambiguation).

Charles Frederick Frazier Mackenzie (1825–62) was a Church of England Bishop of Central Africa. He is commemorated in some Anglican Church calendars.

Charles Frederick Mackenzie
Bishop
Born	1825 Portmore, Peeblesshire, Scotland
Died	31 January 1862 (aged 36–37) Africa
Venerated in	Anglican Communion
Feast	31 January

Life

He was born at Portmore, Peeblesshire, Scotland, the ninth son of Colin Mackenzie and Elizabeth Forbes. Anne Mackenzie, editor of all 31 years of The Net Cast in Many Waters: Sketches from the Life of Missionaries, London, 1866–1896, was his unmarried sister. He was educated at Bishop Wearmouth school and Edinburgh Academy, and entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1844. He migrated to Caius College, where he graduated B. A. as Second Wrangler in 1848, and became a Fellow of Caius.

He was ordained as a priest in 1852 and served as curate of Haslingfield near Cambridge, 1851–4. In 1855, he went to Natal with Bishop Colenso and served as Archdeacon of Natal. They worked among the English settlers till 1859 when he returned to England briefly to raise support for more direct missionary work. In 1860, Mackenzie became head of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa and he was consecrated bishop in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, on 1 January 1861. Following David Livingstone's request to Cambridge, Mackenzie took on the position of being the first missionary bishop in Nyasaland (now Malawi); he was called at the time (Missionary) Bishop in (or of) Central Africa.

Mackenzie's grave with the cross placed there by David Livingstone in 1863

Moving from Cape Town, Mackenzie sailed with Livingstone up the Zambezi and Shire rivers with a small group, including Horace Waller, to start work. He arrived at Chibisa's village in June 1861 with the goal to establish a mission station at Magomero, near Zomba, while Livingstone continued with his expedition. Mackenzie directly opposed the slave trade causing the enmity of the Yao. He worked among the people of the Manganja country until January 1862 when he went on a supplies trip together with a few members of his party. The boat they were travelling on sank and as their medical supplies were lost, Mackenzie's malaria could not be treated. He died of Blackwater fever on 31 January 1862 on an island in the Shire River, and was buried at Chiromo. Livingstone erected a cross over his grave a year later.

An International school in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, is named after him.

See also

• Church of the Province of Central Africa

References

Sources

• Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863.
• Goodwin, Harvey (1865). Memoir of Bishop Mackenzie (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Deighton, Bell.
• Mackenzie, Alexander (1894). History of the Mackenzies. Inverness.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Further reading

• Awdry, Frances (1904) [1878]. An Elder Sister: a short sketch of Anne Mackenzie, and her brother the missionary bishop (3rd ed.). London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hunt, William (1893). "Mackenzie, Charles Frederick" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Hunt, William; White, Landeg (4 October 2012). "Mackenzie, Charles Frederick (1825-1862)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49151. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)