James Simester (Chinese: 沈雅各; Foochow Romanized: Sīng Ngā-gáuk; Pinyin: Shěn Yǎgè; February 18, 1871 - October 19, 1905) was an American Methodist missionary and educator to Fuzhou, China.

Born on February 18, 1871, in Huntington, Staffordshire, England, James Simester was converted at age fourteen and called to preach when sixteen.

He married Winifred Smack (1875 - 1952) in Madison, New Jersey, on August 6, 1896,[2] and the couple arrived in Fuzhou on September 27, 1896.

[1] James Simester died of Dengue fever on October 19, 1905, in Fuzhou.

[1] His daughter, Edith Winifred Simester, returned to Fuzhou and worked here as a missionary in the 1930s and 40s.