America's First Female Foreign Missionary

Ann Judson
Missionary to the Far East (Myanmar)

Ann Hasseltine Judson and her husband Adoniram Judson, were the first Americans to establish a mission in the Far East . More than a missionary's wife, Ann herself felt the call to the mission field before marrying Mr. Judson. She gave her life to God for service wherever He might call her.

(1789-1826): Teacher, translator, author and first missionary wife of Adoniram Judson, she was the first American woman missionary to go overseas. Born in Bradford, Massachusetts, Ann became a Christian at sixteen, studied at Bradford Academy, and taught school for several years. Married Adoniram on February 5, 1812, and within a few days they began a four month ocean journey with some other missionaries on the brig "Caravan" bound for Calcutta, India. Ordered to leave India, the Judsons went to Rangoon, Burma, arriving on July 13,1813. Ann learned the Burmese and Siamese languages, did translation work, taught Burmese girls, and managed her household and cared for her husband during his 18 month imprisonment in 1824-25. When home in the United States briefly in 1822 because of ill health, she wrote a history of the Burmese work titled American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire, which was published in 1823. She died October 24, 1826, at the age of thirty-seven. Both a son, Roger Williams (born 1815) and a daughter, Maria (born 1825) died in infancy (8 months and 27 months respectively).