John Scudder

1793-1855. American Dutch Reformed missionary to India. Graduate of the College of New Jersey (1811) and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons (1813), he was turned to missions in the reading of a tract. In 1819 he and his wife left for Ceylon under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Following ordination in 1821, Scudder founded a hospital and several schools in Ceylon, later establishing a printing press and mission at Madras, India. Failing health caused him to go to South Africa, where he died. Scudder printed many tracts in Tamil and English. Seven of his sons became medical missionaries and pastors in India.