Thomas Barclay

Thomas Barclay (; 21 November 1849 – 5 October 1935) was a missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England to Formosa (now called Taiwan) from 1875 until his death. His ministry in southern Taiwan has been compared to the work done in northern Taiwan by George Leslie Mackay. He founded Tainan Theological College and Seminary in 1876. Early life Thomas Barclay was born on 21 November 1849 in Glasgow, the youngest brother of six (he also had one sister). His father was a devout merchant who sold soft goods and fabrics, and claimed French Huguenot ancestry for the family. The younger Barclay was an able student, and matriculated at Glasgow University a few weeks before his 15th birthday (his young age not being unusual in those days). While there he excelled at mathematics and science, studying under Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and earning a mention in the Encyclopædia Britannica for his authorship of a scientific treatise on "the Specific Inductive Capacity of Dielectrics". He was the first student to graduate in the new Gilmorehill hall of Glasgow University, after which he studied at the Free Church Divinity College with his friends John Campbell Gibson and Dugald Mackichan. On deciding to become missionaries the three became known as the "Glasgow Three" (in reference to the Cambridge Seven) and went to Leipzig for further study. From Scotland to the Far East While at the Divinity College, Barclay had met Carstairs Douglas, brother of the principal of the college and missionary in Amoy (Xiamen). Douglas inspired Barclay and his friends to move east, with Mackichan heading to Bombay, Gibson to Swatow and Barclay to Formosa (Taiwan). He would later joke that he was chosen over Gibson for Formosa because of his longer legs, the better to navigate the hillier country in southern Taiwan. In 1885, after a year spent in Amoy learning the Amoy dialect under Douglas, Barclay moved to Taiwan-fu, the then capital of Qing-era Taiwan, where he was to spend the rest of his life in service to the church and the people of that city. He was the fifth missionary from the Presbyterian Church of England to be stationed in Taiwan-fu, after James Laidlaw Maxwell, Hugh Ritchie, William Campbell and Matthew Dickson.