Francis R. Hanson (27 March 1807 – 21 October 1873) was appointed by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America as one of the first two Episcopal Church missionaries to travel to China in 1835.
[2] Under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church Mission on 30 June 1834, Hanson and the Rev.
Henry Lockwood set sail from New York to Canton, China, as the first missionaries of the Episcopal Church to serve in that country.
Finding China too dangerous to set up a permanent mission outpost and even to learn the Chinese language,[3] both missionaries relocated the same year first to Singapore and then to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) to study the Chinese language and set up a mission school serving the local Chinese speaking community.
[4] Due to ill health, Hanson repatriated to the United States in 1838, serving as rector of Trinity Church, Demopolis, Alabama from 1839 until 1851.