William Goodell (missionary)

William Goodell (1792–1867) was an American missionary. He was born at Templeton, Mass., educated at Phillips Academy (Andover), Dartmouth College, and Andover Theological Seminary. He was accepted as a missionary by the American Board and at the close of 1822 sailed for Malta and thence the next year went to Beirut, where he aided in establishing the station which became the center of the Syrian mission. In 1828, on account of threatened war between England and Turkey, the missionaries moved to Malta, where Goodell worked in the preparation and printing of books for the mission, until the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at Navarino in 1831, when the way to Constantinople was open and he commenced the Armeno-Turkish mission. During his missionary life, he and his devoted wife endured many trials and perils and were compelled to move their residence 33 times in 29 years. One of his main works was the translation of the Bible into Armeno-Turkish (Turkish written in Armenian letters), spending twenty years in the task and its revision. In 1865, after 43 years, he returned to the United States and died in Philadelphia on February 18, 1867, at the residence of his son, Dr. William Goodell. His son-in-law Edward Dorr Griffin Prime published his memoirs in 1876.