Pestonji, Hormazdji

Title

Revd, Prof

First name(s)

Hormazdji

Surname

Pestonji

Position(s) held at King's College London ^Ref: *2

Professor of Gujarati and Marathi, 1865-1873

Education & professional details

Position(s) held (non King's College London) ^Ref: *3

Wilson College, Bombay where he worked on the translation of the New Testament into Gujarati; then served for a few years with the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Kathiawar; on return to India in 1873 he joined the Baptists was sent by the Baptist Missionary Society to Poona as a missionary 1873-1890.

Publications ^{Refs: *1 *4}

With Revd Dhanjibhai Nauroji, Gujarati version of the New Testament, 1852 for Parsees; later became highly critical of the missionary movement and wrote an inflammatory pamphlet, all copies of which were destroyed; A native ministry in India, and what became of it: in connexion with the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Gujarat, in the case of their Parsi missionary, the Revd Hormazdji Pestonji; with prefatory remarks by a friend of Indian missions, with Dr. James Morgan, pub. D.R. Collie & Son, 1863

Personal details

Date of birth ^Ref: *1

1820

Place of birth ^Ref: *1

Bombay, India

Date of death

1891

Place of death

Bombay, India

Family details ^Ref: *1

Born into Parsi family in Bombay, converted to Christianity 1839; his wife and baby daughter were taken away from him because of his conversion and his wife was given in marriage to another man; was eventually reunited with his daughter who was also baptised and had married a prominent Indian pastor; later, Pestonji married a German woman and moved to London where he joined the Baptists.