 In China he is widely credited, alongside William Edward Soothill, for laying the groundwork for the large number of Christian adherents in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.Born in Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of John Stott, a crofter, and his wife, Jane Anderson.Stott initially worked in agriculture, but due to a serious knee injury at the age of nineteen, a subsequent leg amputation and evangelical Christian conversion, he became a schoolmaster and active member of the Free Church of Scotland.