Tan See Boo

Tan See Boo was born on 18 June 1833 in Xiamen, China. In 1854,[1] at the direction of William Chalmers Burns,[4] who was the first Presbyterian missionary in China, Tan converted to Christianity and renounced his profession of carving wood idols for household shrines.[5] Tan was consequently disowned by his father.[1]

After receiving his formal theological education in Xiamen,[1] Tan began life as a missionary in 1856.[6] At the request of Thomas McKenzie Fraser, a Free Church of Scotland minister,[7] Tan moved to Singapore to become the Chinese catechist of the recently-established Saint Andrew's Church Mission, which was supported by both Presbyterian and Anglican missionaries.[7]

The mission was based at the Chinese Girls' School on Beach Road;[7] Tan resided in a makeshift chapel at the school and received a salary of £28, which was doubled a year later.[8] However, Tan left the mission shortly afterwards because he could not accept the rituals of his Anglican counterparts.[9][10]

After Fraser relocated to Australia in 1860, Tan partnered with English missionaries Alexander Grant and Benjamin Keasberry. Together with Keasberry, Tan founded the Bukit Timah-based Glory Presbyterian Church,[11] which was the first Chinese church in Singapore.[12]

In 1864, Tan was formally appointed as an elder of the Chinese Presbyterian congregation in Singapore.[12] In June 1866,[12] Tan left the Presbyterian Church because he disagreed with its teachings on baptism and financial support.[8] Tan had previously requested the Church's permission to return to Xiamen to study medicine and be ordained as a Presbyterian minister who would then be able to perform baptisms, but this was denied for unspecified reasons.[12]

In 1867, after aligning himself with the Plymouth Brethren, Tan established a Chinese "gospel hall" and would live in its North Bridge Road premises until his death.[8] Tan contributed to a sizeable portion of the hall's building fund after selling his wife's jewellery as well as medicine to opium addicts.[13] On 8 May, Tan was "rebaptised" by Brethren member John Chapman, who had arrived in Malaya in 1859.[14]

On multiple occasions afterwards, Tan returned to China in the hopes of convincing other local Presbyterians to join the Plymouth Brethren instead.[15] Much to the consternation of Presbyterian missionaries in Minnan, Tan taught that Sabbath observance was not mandatory for converts.[15] According to contemporaneous accounts, Tan was more successful in getting rural believers to leave the Presbyterian Church.[16]

In 1858, Tan married Yeo Geok Neo, who was an alumna of the Chinese Girls' School.[8] Their son, Teck Soon, was born in 1859.[16] Yeo died in 1863, at the age of 22. A year later, Tan married Ang Choo Neo (also known as Primrose Vanderhoven), who was the adopted daughter of a Dutch captain; they had eight sons, one of whom was adopted, and three daughters. On 25 November 1884, Tan died at the age of 51.[17]