Rev. Thomas Babington Macaulay

Summary

Sierra Leonean-born Yoruba recaptive, Anglican priest and educator. Son of Ojo-Oriare of Iseyin (Oyo), a slave liberated by the British West Africa Squadron and resettled at Kissy. Trained at the CMS Fourah Bay Institution and ordained in 1854. In June 1859 he opened the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, with six pupils — the first secondary school in what is now Nigeria — and served as its first Principal until his death on his 52nd birthday in 1878. Married Abigail Crowther, daughter of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther; their son Herbert Macaulay would become the father of Nigerian nationalism. Through his school he trained nearly the entire first generation of educated Lagosian Christians who staffed the colonial civil service, professions, press and pulpit.

Documented contributions

• 01Founded and was first Principal of [CMS Grammar School, Lagos](/heroes/herbert-macaulay) (6 June 1859) — Nigeria's oldest secondary school
• 02Ordained Anglican priest (1854); first West African ordained in the second wave of CMS clergy after Bishop Crowther
• 03Trained the first generation of indigenous Lagos clergy, civil servants, journalists and lawyers
• 04Married Abigail Crowther — daughter of [Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ajayi_Crowther); father of [Herbert Macaulay](/heroes/herbert-macaulay), founder of the Nigerian National Democratic Party
• 05Translated and adapted English educational curricula for Yoruba and Lagos contexts; key figure in CMS's indigenous-clergy strategy