Missionary

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The first Englishman in India

The Jesuit missionary, Father Thomas Stevens, or Stephens, (c1549-1619) has been generally accepted as the first Englishman to arrive in India. He had studied in Rome and, having sailed on a Portuguese ship, settled in Goa 1579. There he learned the local languages and taught Christian doctrine to the local people.

As his father was a prominent merchant in London the information he sent home no doubt generated a lot of interest and raised awareness of the trading advantages in the East. In fact, it was not that long after, in 1600, that the Queen eventually granted a charter to the East India Company.

Moreover it is also documented that in 1583 Stevens sent a letter in Latin to his brother in Paris which described his missionary methods. He lived in Goa for over 40 years producing works in local languages . His masterpiece was the Christian Purana , an epic poem based on the life of Jesus, written in the local Konkani dialect of Marathi. This was all the more ingenious as he had to adapt European script to embrace Indian language.

Charter Act 1813

Missionary activity in the areas of India controlled by the East India Company was finally permitted with the passing of the Charter Act 1813, sometimes called the East India Company Act 1813, as described from page 75 of The government of India; a brief historical survey of parliamentary legislation relating to India by Sir Courtenay Ilbert 1922 Archive.org. Before that it had been forbidden by the EIC, who did not wish to wish to interfere with the religious convictions of the Indians in case the Company’s trade was jeopardised.

Prior to 1813 the most significant European Protestant missionary activity had occurred in the Danish enclaves at Tranquebar and Serampore.

FIBIS resources

British Protestant Missionary Societies in India and their archives

British Christian missionaries were usually sponsored in India by missionary societies from the United Kingdom. There was a wide variety from non-denominational through to Scottish Presbyterians, the Church of England societies, the Baptists, and those who now come under the United Reform Church. The archives of these missionary bodies, often rich sources of names, careers, family details and correspondence, are accessible but variously held in libraries or other repositories depending on the society. The structures of societies differ widely, but most have an archivist, and he/she may be a useful first contact. Mundus is a web-based guide to more than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials held in UK, but below are details of some of these, giving for each its current name and location and where its archives are kept. Missionary societies from outside of Britain and additional Indian missionary sources which may provide useful background have been added in separate sections below.

Baptist Missionary Society

Formed in 1792 as The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen at the instigation of William Carey. Known as the Founder and Father of Modern Missions, William Carey (1761-1834) landed in Calcutta in 1793. After a time the missionaries moved to Serampore in the Danish enclave.

Present title of the society is the “BMS World Mission”.

Contact details:

PO Box 49, 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 8XA
Tel: (01235) 517700, Archives: Tel: (01235) 517626 , E-mail: slinnell@bmsworldmission.org
BMS World Mission website

Initially consult Baptist Historical Society website.

Main source is the leading collection of Baptist history and heritage worldwide:

The Angus Library and Archive, Regent’s Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford, OX1 2LB
Tel: (01865) 288120
Email the Archivist Dr Julian Lock: julian.lock@regents.ox.ac.uk
The Angus Library and Archive website

Serampore College (est. 1818) in India also holds archival material from the earliest days of the Baptist Missionary Society's work in this part of the world. The college is situated 20 kms North-west-north from Calcutta and is an hour and a half drive from the Calcutta Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Airport, or the eighth railway station from Howrah on the Bandel Main line.:

Carey Library and Research Institute
Serampore College
P.O. Serampore
Dist. Hooghly
West Bengal
PIN: 712 201
Website: Carey Library and Research Institute

Brethren

This non-denominational, evangelical Christian group is also known as Plymouth Brethren, Open Brethren, or Christian Brethren.

The first missionary to India was Anthony Norris Groves (1795-1853), who visited there in 1833-34, and then returned with others to begin a work in 1836. Groves is known as the father of faith missions.

There was no missionary society as such; individuals were commissioned and sent out as mission workers by their assembly (local congregation).

In the UK, a centralised service was provided from Bath to produce and distribute a regular prayer newsletter and to provide specialised support services. During WWII, Bath was bombed and the Echoes of Service records were destroyed.

In 2004 no longer active Echoes of Service correspondence files relating to individual missionaries and married couples were transferred on permanent loan to the John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester. While all of these records are post-1945, many of the missionaries would have been active in 1930s. An Echoes of Service papers handlist now on the Wayback Machine alphabetically lists the missionaries covered in these files and their country of service. Most importantly, the John Rylands University library also holds copies of the magazine Echoes of service : a record of labour for the Lord in other lands from 1885 onwards, and its predecessor The missionary echo : a record of labour for the Lord in other lands from 1872. Copies have been digitized and are available on line under the collected title Echoes of service.

A useful book: Tatford, Fredk. A. That the world may know. Vol. 3 : the challenge of India. Bath, England: Echoes of Service, 1983. See the review in Recommended Reading.

Contact:

Lianne Smith,
Christian Brethren Archivist,
The John Rylands University Library,
150 Deansgate,
Manchester M3 3EH England
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3764
Email: lianne.smith@manchester.ac.uk or uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk
Website: John Rylands University Library

In 2017 Echoes of Service amalgamated with Interlink to become Echoes International. They have two offices in the United Kingdom.

Echoes International,
124 Wells Road,
Bath
BA2 3AH

or

Echoes International,
2nd Floor,
Challenge House,
29 Canal Street,
Glasgow
G4 0AD
United Kingdom
Phone: 03300 563334
Email: office@echoesinternational.org.uk
Website Echoes International

Cambridge Mission to Delhi (CMD)

"The Cambridge theologian BF Westcott's vision of a serious and respectful engagement with Indian religious tradition led to CMD's formation in 1877. Much of its work was done through two religious communities: the Brotherhood of the Ascension, a community for men, and St Stephen's Community for women. St Stephen's Hospital and St Stephen's College became important institutions in both city and nation; the latter providing an example of inspired Indian leadership supportive of Indian nationalism through the work of S.K. Rudra, principal from 1906-1923." Oxford, Bodleian Libraries. Collection overview.

Resources form part of the USPG collection held at Weston Library, refer to SPG below for access details.

Ceylon and India General Mission (CIGM)

Founded in 1892 by Scottish businessman Benjamin Davidson. Expanded from Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] into South India. Eventually CIGM's ministry reached across the subcontinent and to the Philippines. In 1968 CIGM merged with the Poona and Indian Village Mission [see below] to become the International Christian Fellowship, and then in 1989 ICF merged with SIM (Serving in Mission).

The CIGM's paper Darkness and light, 1893-1988 is available in PDF format at Past SIM Periodicals.

Contact:

international.archives@sim.org

Church Missionary Society (CMS)

The CMS can be contacted at:

CMS, Watlington Road, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 6BZ
http://www.cms-uk.org
Tel: (01865) 787400;
Archivist E-mail: ken.osborne@cms-uk.org

The main archive for the CMS is at:

Special Collections, Main Library, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT
Tel: (0121) 414 5838/39
E-mail: s.j.worrall@bham.ac.uk

For post-1960 archives contact the Crowther Centre at CMS, Oxford, Tel: (01865) 787400.

Church of Scotland Missions

Foreign Mission Committee formed in 1824. First missionary commissioned to India in 1829. In 1843 the Church of Scotland missionaries in India, with once exception, broke away and joined the Free Church of Scotland. In 1929 the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland merged and records were consolidated. The work in India had foreshadowed this union, with most congregations uniting to form the Presbyterian Church in India in 1903.

Biographical details for ordained Church of Scotland missionaries and ministers in India have been extracted from the Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae (See the review in Churches and missions reading list for more information on this publication) and will be found by searching the FIBIS database.

A useful overview of the various Presbyterian denominations' missionary work in India is found in chapters two and four of The Scottish churches' work abroad by J.H. Morrison (Edinburgh: Clarke, 1927).

Go to the general index of Ecclegen to find historical biographical information for any of the Scottish Presbyterian missionaries and ministers.

Contact details:

“Church of Scotland World Mission Council”, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4YN
Tel: (0131) 225 5722
E-mail: worldmission@cofscotland.org.uk
World Mission Council web pages

Colonial Mission Society (CMS)

Eastern Himalayan Mission

Founded in 1870 by the Church of Scotland. See Church of Scotland missions entry above for sources.

London Missionary Society (LMS)

Originally called the Missionary Society. Established in 1795. Renamed the London Missionary Society in 1818. Interdenominational, but strongly Congregationalist.

Present title: “Council for World Mission”.

The CWM archives are held at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in London.

Contact:

The Library (LMS Archives)
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Tel: (020) 7898 4180
E-mail: docenquiry@soas.ac.uk
http://www.soas.ac.uk/library

Some organisations outside of the UK hold sections of the LMS archives on microfiche; these microfiche archives are the Council for World Mission Archive 1774-1940 and Council for World Mission Archive 1941-1950. See LMS entry on Mundus for holding bodies.

Methodist Missionary Society

For the archives, also at SOAS, contact:

Lance Martin
Library (Methodist Archives)
School of Oriental & African Studies
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Tel: (020) 7898 4148
E-mail: lm37@soas.ac.uk
http://www.soas.ac.uk/library

Also see:

http://www.methodist.org.uk

Panjab Mission

Formed in 1857 by the Church of Scotland. See Church of Scotland missions entry above for sources.

Salvation Army

The first mission to India arrived in Bombay September 1882 and was led by Frederick Tucker, a former ICS officer who was later known as Frederick Booth-Tucker following the widower's marriage to Emma Booth, daughter of the Salvation Army’s founder William Booth.

A useful resource for understanding the background to the Salvation Army in India and its early history there is the online dissertation: Berry, Emily A. From criminals to caretakers : the Salvation Army in India, 1882-1914. Boston, Mass.: Northeastern University, December 2008.

The Officers' Records for the India section index cards for those who were born over 100 years ago have been transcribed and are searchable on the FIBIS database. The database entry indicates if more information, which may include a photograph, is available in the Salvation Army's archives. (Note that these index cards are not currently in the Heritage Centre's online catalogue)

Contact:

The Archivist
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre
William Booth College
Champion Park
London, SE5 8BQ.
Telephone: 020 7326 7800
Email: heritage@salvationarmy.org.uk
Website: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/international-heritage-centre

Santal Mission

Established in 1870 by the Free Church of Scotland. See Church of Scotland missions entry above for sources.

Scottish Churches Mission

Formed in Calcutta in 1908 incorporating the local work of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church. See Church of Scotland missions entry above for sources.

Scottish Missionary Society

Known for a time as the Edinburgh Missionary Society. Founded 1796, nondenominational Presbyterian. First missionary sent to India in 1822.

Following the Presbyterian schism in 1835, most of the buildings and facilities were transferred to the Church of Scotland; see Church of Scotland missions entry above.

The majority of the missionaries carried on under the auspices of the Free Church of Scotland. See Hunter, Robert. History of the Missions of the Free Church of Scotland in India and Africa [Online]. London: Nelson, 1873.

Refer to Ecclegen to find historical biographical information.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG)

Church of England mission founded 1701 by Royal Charter. First missionary sent to India in 1820.

For concise biographical information on ordained missionaries in India and related territories check the relevant years of Crockford's clerical directory : a directory of the clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland. (See the review in Churches and missions reading list for more information on this publication).

For ordained missionaries active prior to 1835 check The Clergy of the Church of England Database (CCEd).

Present title: “USPG – Anglicans in World Mission”.

Pre-1965 Archives for the SPG are now held in the Oxford Bodleian Archive & Manuscripts at Weston Library. See a description of the records at Papers of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Searching for a person or family in Indexed names will identify what is held within the archives. A reader's card is required to use these resources - check the website for more information.

Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford
OX1 3BG
Tel: +44 (0)1865 277150
E-mail: specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Website: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston


Post-1965 Archives are at USPG, London.

Contact:
200 Great Dover Street, London SE1 4YB
Tel: (020) 7378 5678
E-mail: archive@uspg.org.uk
http://www.uspg.org.uk

United Reform Church

This modern title (website) includes English Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The latter often served with the LMS. Further information from the United Reform Church History Society at Westminster College, Cambridge; Tel: (01223) 741084. Archives for the English Presbyterian’s are at Westminster College, Cambridge; archives for the Congregationalists’ are at SOAS (see LMS above).

Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS)

Mission to the Khasi Hills of North-East India, began in 1841 with founder Thomas Jones and his wife, Ann, going to Cherrapunji, a British hill station. WFMS also worked in the Jaintia Hills and the Plains of Sylhet in northern India. Note that in 1967 when the Indian Government closed the area to foreigners, mission work finished.

An article which may be of interest: Brown-May, Andrew. ‘Sex and Salvation: Modelling Gender on an Indian Mission Station’ in Evangelists of Empire?: Missionaries in Colonial History, ed. Amanda Barry, Joanna Cruickshank, Andrew Brown-May and Patricia Grimshaw [online] Melbourne: University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre, 2008.

The mission's newsletter was called Y Drysorfa.

Contacts:

Calvinistic Methodist Archive (CMA),
National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3BU
Email: enquiry@llgc.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1970 632 933
National Library of Wales website

Finding aid: Calvinistic Methodist Archive with Missions material starting at page 1136. N.B. The Foreign Mission archives may only be consulted by special permission of the Curator.


The following archive holds: Khasi and Jaintia Hills missionary minute books (Bangor MSS 36406-36407).

Archives and Special Collections,
Library and Archives Service,
Bangor University,
Bangor,
Gwynedd, LL57 2DG
Phone: +44 (0)1248 382966
Email: archives@bangor.ac.uk
Bangor University Archives

North American Protestant Missionary Societies in India and their archives

Protestant organisations or groups in Canada and/or America who worked in India.


Other Protestant Missionary Societies in India and their archives

Arguably smaller numbers of Christian missionaries were sponsored in India by European organisations, such as the German Lutherans, or organisations and groups in the British colonies such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The archives of these missionary bodies, often rich sources of names, careers, family details and correspondence, may also be accessible but variously held in libraries or other repositories depending on the society. The structures of societies differ widely, but most have an archivist, and he/she may be a useful first contact. Below are details of some of these, giving for each its current name and location and where its archives are kept.

Danish-Halle Mission

Established in 1706. Lutheran. The missionaries came primarily from Denmark and Germany. In addition to working in the Danish enclaves of Tranquebar and Serampore, there were other mission stations along the Mallabar Coast. Some worked in India under the auspices of other societies or on secondment to them, so there may be additional material held elsewhere (e.g. SPCK, see entry above).

Search the extensive archives of the Danish-Halle Mission through the online catalogues (in English), where there is biographical information in addition to indexes of the resources.

Archives held at:

Study Centre August Hermann Francke
Francke Foundations
Franckeplatz 1, Haus 24
06110 Halle (Saale)
Germany.

Head of the study center: Dr. Britta Klosterberg

Tel.0345 2127 412
E-Mail: oeffentlichkeit@francke-halle.de


Home Missionary Society of India (HMSI)

An indigenous mission, HMSI was originally established as the Women’s Home Missionary Society of India in June 1905 “to rouse the Anglo-Indian and Eurasian Communities to a direct and responsible share in the evangelisation of India.” The founders were Dr. Eva. D’Prazer, Dr. Nina Ottmann, Mrs Louise Marcar, and Miss T.M. Mergler.

The archives are not available, but Yale Divinity Library has digitized three of the mission reports: Report of the Women's Home Missionary Society of India (June, 1905-1908); Proceedings of the Twenty First Conference, held at Bangalore, January 8-9, 1931; and Proceedings of the Thirtieth Conference, held at Bangalore, January 11-13, 1940.

Poona and India Village Mission (PIVM)

Formed in 1893 by Charles F. Reeve and E.W. McGavin in response to the request of an unnamed 'Eurasian' who had visited Reeve in Tasmania, Australia. An interdenominational, faith mission mostly staffed by Australians and New Zealanders.

In 1968 PIVM merged with the Ceylon and India General Mission to become the International Christian Fellowship, and then in 1989 ICF merged with SIM (Serving in Mission).

The PIVM's paper White Already unto Harvest 1898-1968 is available as PDF at Past SIM Periodicals. As well as articles, each issue contains a list of the mission stations and the workers at each place, plus the contact details in the various states of Australia, in New Zealand and Britain.

Contact:

international.archives@sim.org

Other Indian Missionary sources

Indian Institute Library

Department of Oriental Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford, OX1 3BG
Tel: (01865) 277082
E-mail: indian.institute@bodley.ox.ac.uk or gillian.evison@bodley.ox.ac.uk
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/bodley/library/rooms/iirr

Henry Martyn (Missionary) Centre

Librarian (Jane Gregory)
Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0AA
Tel: (01223) 741088
Librarian: 07973 965430
E-mail: jg230@cam.ac.uk
http://www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk

International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA)

"The historical images in the International Mission Photography Archive come from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections held at a number of centers in Britain, Europe, and North America." Covering the period of ca. 1860-ca.1960, this online, searchable collection is part of the USC Digital Collection. Images from India come from the Basel Mission, the Danish Mission, the London Missionary Society, Methodist Missions, Regions Beyond Missionary Union, and Scottish Presbyterian missions. There is an active programme to add more images and better descriptions to this archive.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15799coll123

Mundus Gateway

A web-based guide to more than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials held in UK. http://www.mundus.ac.uk

Royal Asiatic Society

Librarian (Kathy Lazenbatt)
Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, London, NW1 2HD
Tel: (020) 7388 4539 E-mail: library@royalasiaticsociety.org
http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org

School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London (SOAS)

"SOAS holds the largest collection of Christian missionary archives in the UK; as well as personal papers of many individual missionaries. These collections span the 18th to 20th centuries and include a wealth of primary source material, such as correspondence, reports, minutes, journals, photographs and films." Key resources include the London Missionary Society (LMS) collection, the Methodist Missionary Society (MMS) collection, and the Presbyterian Church of English (PCE) Foreign Missions Committee collection.

Contact:

Missionary family stories on the web

Schools

  • Church Missionaries’ Children’s Home. This school in England was run by the Church Missionary Society for the children of missionaries. It was founded in 1850 at Highbury, London and moved in 1887 to Limpsfield, Surrey. Further details in The history of the Church Missionary Society Volume 4, page 494 by Eugene Stock 1916 Archive.org. Between the period 1907-1916 the school became known as St Michael's Limpsfield. Opening in 1887 Archiseek.com. Postcard 1907 TheWeald.com. The England and Wales censuses show the children at the school at the census dates.

Recommended Reading

  • May, Andrew - Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism: The empire of clouds in north-east India published 2012.
A review of this book by David Macadam is contained in FIBIS Journal Number 30 (Autumn 2013) page 48
Available to read online, see Historical books online, below.
  • O’Connor, Daniel - The Chaplains of the East India Company, 1601-1858, published 2012.
A review by Richard Morgan of this book is contained in FIBIS Journal Number 27 (Spring 2012), pages 53-54.
  • Pears, Walford - Schreyvogel's Mission: Lindau to Trichinopoly Pub 2011.
Daniel Schreyvogel was a missionary in Tranquebar from 1803 to 1826. A review of this book is contained in FIBIS Journal number 28.

External links

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These links mention missions from Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden , Norway and America.

Historical books online

Volume 1 In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Volume 2 1805 to 1835 Volume 3 1835 to 1861
The India Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church [USA] by Rev J E Scott, 1906 Archive.org

Individuals

  • Memoirs of the life and correspondence of the Reverend Christian Frederick Swartz, to which is prefixed a Sketch of the history of Christianity in India by Hugh Pearson, Dean of Salisbury 2nd Edition 1835 Volume I, Volume II, First American edition (abridged) 1835 Google Books. Christian Frederick Schwartz (1726–1798) was a German Lutheran Protestant missionary in India.
Schwartz of Tanjore by Jesse Page 1921. Published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain) Archive.org.
Clara A. Swain, M.D.: first medical missionary to the women of the Orient by Mrs. Robert Hoskins. 1912 Archive.org
Palace of Healing: the story of Dr. Clara Swain, first woman missionary doctor, and the hospital she founded [at Bareilly] by Dorothy Clarke Wilson 1968. Archive.org Lending Library

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