[2] Born in Newport, Rhode Island, he was the son of Dr. David Olyphant, a Scottish supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who arrived in America in the 1740s shortly after the Battle of Culloden, and Ann (née Vernon) Olyphant, granddaughter of Richard Ward, governor of Rhode Island.

[4] On behalf of King and Talbot, Olyphant arrived in Canton in 1820, where he met the Scottish missionary Robert Morrison.

"[6] As a result, the chosen individual, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, became the first American Protestant Christian missionary in China.

[2] In 1842, Samuel Wells Williams, an American Sinologist, described him as a "steady and munificent friend of all efforts for the good of China".

[12] Forced by ill-health to leave China for the US, Olyphant died en route in Cairo, Egypt, on June 10, 1851.