Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809 – 31 December 1891) was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa.

Born in Osogun (in what is now Ado-Awaye, Oyo State, Nigeria), he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders when he was about twelve years old.

Crowther was freed from slavery at a coastal port by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, which was enforcing the British ban against the Atlantic slave trade.

[8] While in Sierra Leone, Crowther was cared for by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was taught English.

Due to his remarkable intellectual qualities, Ajayi was sent to school, and within a short time, he was able to read the Bible with ease.

On 11 December 1825 he was baptized by John Raban,[9] naming himself after Samuel Crowther, vicar of Christ Church, Newgate, London, and one of the pioneers of the CMS.

In 1826 he was taken to England to attend the school of St Mary's Church[10] in Islington, which had established a connection with free Africans in the 18th century.

Crowther was ordained a priest and selected for the CMS[13] project in the Yoruba mission on his second visit to England in 1843, after his brilliant account of the expedition and the rare qualities he displayed.

Its goal was to stimulate commerce, teach agricultural techniques, encourage Christianity, and help end the slave trade.

Schön wrote to the Church Missionary Society noting Crowther's usefulness and ability on the expedition, recommending that he be prepared for ordination.

[19] Crowther returned to Africa in 1843 and, with Henry Townsend, opened a mission in Abeokuta, in today's Ogun State, Nigeria.

Crowther also compiled A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language,[20] including a large number of local proverbs, published in London in 1852.

[21] Crowther had become a close associate and friend of Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, an influential politician, mariner, philanthropist and industrialist in colonial Lagos.

[27] In March 1881, he and his son Dandeson Crowther attended a conference on the island of Madeira, in the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco.