Autograph letter signed by first African bishop, Samuel Ajayi Crowther 1877

CROWTHER, Samuel Ajayi (c.1809–1891) First African Bishop in the Anglican Church. Autograph Letter Signed. Ware, 16 June 1877.
 
Single sheet, written in ink on the recto; original horizontal folds. Light creasing from folding; small loss to top left. Very good.
 
A letter written during Crowther’s episcopate as Bishop of the Niger, declining an invitation to preach at Red Lion Church on account of his impending departure: “no Sunday or week day available in June, and in July I shall be on the voyage for Africa.” 
 
Samuel Ajayi Crowther, born in present-day Nigeria, was captured and enslaved as a child, liberated by the Royal Navy, and educated in Sierra Leone. Ordained in the Church of England, he became in 1864 the first African bishop in the Anglican Communion, serving over the Niger mission during a formative period of missionary expansion in West Africa. The present letter dates from a return visit to England and refers directly to his voyage back to Africa during his tenure as bishop. Letters from Crowther are uncommon on the market.