William Shellabear
William Girdlestone Shellabear (1862–1947) was a pioneering scholar and missionary in British Malaya, now part of Malaysia. He admired Malay society and helped translate the Bible into Malay.
He was born on August 7, 1862, at Holkham Hall in Norfolk, England, where his father managed the estate. He first went to Malaya as a British soldier, then returned as a Methodist missionary in 1891 and worked there for decades.
Shellabear encouraged positive relations between Methodists and Malays and Islam. He showed that Malay spirituality was a genuine commitment to Islam, even if it did not fit Western expectations. He loved the Malay language and culture and promoted Malay-language schools, even though some missionaries preferred English-language schools.
He wrote many works for different audiences, including Christian Malays, Muslim Malays, missionaries, and scholars. His notable translations and publications include Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), Hikayat Abdullah (The Life of Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir), a Malay hymnal, a Malay dictionary and grammar, and a translation of Pilgrim’s Progress. He collaborated with Malay scholar Sulaiman bin Muhammed Nur on Kitab Kiliran Budi (The Book of Wisdom) and Hikayat Hang Tuah (The Life of Hang Tuah). His grammar, dictionary, and Malay Bible translation remained in print for decades.
Shellabear was active in learned societies, including the Straits Philosophical Society, the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (later the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), and the faculty of Hartford Seminary.
He founded MPH Group, a publishing house in Singapore that began in 1890 as Amelia Bishop Press, later becoming the American Mission Press (1893), the Methodist Publishing House (1906), the Malaya Publishing House (1927), and finally the Malaysia Publishing House (1963). He served as chief editor of the Methodist Publishing House and, from 1906, edited its Malay Literature Series. He helped found the Straits Chinese Methodist Church, now Kampong Kapor Methodist Church in Singapore.
Shellabear married three times. His first wife was Fanny Marie Kealy; they had a son, Hugh Percy Shellabear. Fanny died in 1895. In 1897 he married Elizabeth Emmeline Ferris (Emma), a Canadian missionary; they had a daughter, Margaret Anna Shellabear, who later became known as Margaret Gulland. Emma died in 1922. In 1924 he married Emma Naomi Ruth, who later helped his work in Java; they had a daughter, Fanny Shellabear, who became Fanny Blasdell. In 1947, Fanny and her husband were working as missionaries in Malacca.
After a long career, Shellabear continued writing until shortly before his death in Hartford, Connecticut, on January 16, 1947.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 15:44 (CET).