Joseph John Freeman

Joseph John Freeman (1794-1851) served as Secretary of the London Missionary Society from 1839 to 1846. Educated at Hoxton Academy (1812-1816), he ministered to Independent churches in Chelmsford, Dawlish, Westbury and Kidderminster between 1816 and 1826. From 1827 to 1835 he served as an LMS missionary to Madagascar. When he returned to England in 1837, he assumed the pastorate of the Independent church at Walthamstow, where he assisted in the founding of the Walthamstow School for Missionary Children (later Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks). He also began working for the LMS at that time. In 1842-1843, he visited the West Indies on behalf of the LMS, examining the working conditions among the blacks on the islands after emancipation. He was most impressed with their generosity, claiming that the former slaves in British Guiana and Jamaica had contributed a quarter of a millions pounds to the work of their churches and missions. During 1848-1851, he visited mission stations in Madagascar and South Africa; he died at Hamburg, Germany, in September 1851, on his return to England. See Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895 (London: H. Frowde, 1899), 681-710.