Innocent, John
1829-1904; e.m. 1852

MNC missionary in China. He was born on 29 October 1829 in Sheffield, where he grew up in the Scotland Street MNC chapel and was converted under the preaching of James Caughey. In 1859 he was appointed as a pioneer MNC missionary to North China along with William N. Hall, and served there for 38 years, apart from two years on furlough in Sheffield and Southport.. His work was based mainly in Tientsin, where his wife Jane started a girls school. Their daughter Annie and son George joined them in their missionary work. On his return to England in 1897 he was elected President of the Conference. When ill-health prevented his return to China to become principal of the Tientsin Training Institution, he was made a permanent member of the Missionary Committee and was appointed a Guardian Representative in 1900. He died in Nottingham on 28 November 1904.

Sources
  • George Thomas Candlin, John Innocent; a story of mission work in North China (1909)