He Married His Mentor’s Daughter

Livingstone first encountered the father of the man who had encouraged him to travel to Africa in the early 1840s. In the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, close to the location where Livingstone had been stationed, Mary Moffat worked as a teacher in the Kuruman school. In 1845, the two made the decision to wed despite Mary's mother's opposition. David would take Mary along on several of his escapades in Africa, and she gave birth to six of his children. Having reunited with her husband at the mouth of the Zambezi River in 1862, she would later sadly pass away from malaria.

The union of Livingstone and Mary Moffat in 1845 was initially just a practical, unromantic endeavor. Livingstone had come to the conclusion that he required a wife to assist him in his missionary effort. At the age of 23, Mary desired to acquire a home of her own and anticipated joining a missionary organization like that of her parents. Both were limited in their options for marriage partners at the isolated Kuruman mission site. Livingstone didn't exactly gush over his new wife, calling her "a plain, practical woman, not a romantic.” But with time, he developed a strong love for her. This is also the fifth fact in the list of facts about David Livingstone we want to mention.