Robert Morrison was born on January 5, 1782 in Bullers Green, near Morpeth, Northumberland. He was a Scottish missionary, the first Christian Protestant missionary in China.

When he was three years old his parents removed to Newcastle. There he was taught reading and writing by his maternal uncle, who was a schoolmaster, and at the proper age he was apprenticed to his father as a last and boot-tree maker. IN 1798 he joined the presbyterian church, and three years later entered on a course of study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew under the instruction of the Rev. W. Laidler. In 1802 his mother died, and his inclinations, which had for some time tended towards missionary work, now determined him to enter that field. He obtained admission to the Hoxton Academy (now Highbury College), and stayed there for a year. He was then sent to the Missionary Academy at Gosport, which was under the superintendence of Dr. David Bogue.  In 1805, he was transferred to London to study medicine and astronomy, and to pick up any knowledge of the Chinese language which he could gain, it had been determined by the London Missionary Society to send him to China. By good fortune he met a Chinaman named Yong Samtak, who agreed to give him lessons in the language. Having made some acquaintance with the Chinese written character, he made a transcript of a Chinese manuscript at the British Museum, containing a harmony of the Gospels, the Acts, and most of the Pauline epistles; and copied a manuscript of Latin and Chinese dictionary which was lent to him by the Royal Society.

Morrison lived in Macau for many years. He married in 1809, and had three children. After twenty-five years of intense work he translated the whole Bible into the Chinese language and baptized ten Chinese believers. Morrison pioneered the translation of the Bible into Chinese and planned for the distribution of the Scriptures as broadly as possible, unlike the previous Roman Catholic translation work that had never been published. Morrison worked with such contemporary missionaries as Walter Henry Medhurst and William Milne (the printers), Samuel Dyer (Hudson Taylor's father-in-law), Karl Gutzlaff (the Prussian linguist), and Peter Parker (China's first medical missionary). He served for 27 years in China with one furlough home to England.  In 1826 after his furlough, he returned to Canton, where he resided until his death on 1 August, 1834. On 5 August, he was buried at Macau. He left seven children, two by his first wife and five by his second.

Morrison and his coworkers laid the foundations for educational and medical work that significantly impact the culture and history of the most populous nation on earth. When Morrison was asked shortly after his arrival in China if he expected to have any spiritual impact on the Chinese, he answered, “No sir, but I expect God will!”

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