After his father remarried the family moved to a farm near Scone and James finished his education at Perth Academy.

The church considered him suitable as a medical missionary and sent him to Glasgow University to train as a physician.

His mother was thought to be a major influence in Stewart’s life from whom he received his love and appreciation for beauty.

He told his cousin, "I shall never be satisfied till I am in Africa with a Bible in my pocket, and a rifle on my shoulder to supply my wants.

"[3] “The real African is not the thoughtless, laughter-loving, untrainable savage, or typical Quashee of works of fiction, or the 'half child' that so many, even of the present day, take him to be.

Nor is he the wholly docile, teachable, and plastic creature of whom anything can be made when looked at with purely philanthropic eyes.

In reality, he is quite a different sort of bein, stronger and more difficult to shape, though lighthearted and good-humored generally” On 13 August 1861, James Stewart traveled to Cape Town with Livingstone's wife.

When he arrived in Africa he teamed up with David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary who was a national hero in Britain for his medical work.

He warned people who went there of "descent into mere animalism and fixed and hopeless barbarism," showing how he viewed the lives of the Africans as inferior to his life.

Stewart also implicitly suggested that Africans were racially inferior to Europeans, both physically and biologically.

[2] In 1875, the Free Church of Scotland founded Livingstonia in honor of the well-known Scottish doctor, David Livingstone and asked Stewart to run it.

He wanted Livingstonia to be on the shores of Lake Malawi, and received financial backing from a group of Glasgow businessmen.

The mission was located at the south end of the lake at Cape Maclear and opened in October 1875.

The mission focused on improving (or providing) housing and diet (or food) as a way to promote health.

He also instructed native nurses and hospital assistants and laid a foundation for a medical school.

Stewart had sole medical charge of all the boys and girls at Lovedale, but he also wanted to create a hospital there.

He gained the respect of natives by charging a small amount for the medicine and treatment he gave them.

In 1899 he succeeded Rev Alexander Whyte as Moderator of the General Assembly, the highest position in the Free Church of Scotland.