CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Section III: Central Records

Part 6: CMS Circular Books & Letters, 1799-1921

The CMS Circular Books, 1799-1905, and the CMS Circular Letters, 1892-1921, relate to all regions where the Society was active.  These are large scrapbook-type volumes consisting of a wide variety of printed documents, circulars, minutes, pamphlets, memoranda, committee papers, resolutions and letters.

• They have a detailed index of names, places and subjects.
• They provide lots of information on social conditions and particular problems in different mission stations.

Four examples of items to be found in these volumes are:

• A letter from the Rev H Townsend to Captain Trotter of the Royal Navy in January 1849 about the blockade of the African coast and the need for preventative measures to suppress the slave trade.
• Suggestions for the improvement of social and intellectual conditions of the native Africans in Sierra Leone.
• Circulars on famine in India.
• An appeal for the Diocesan School in Jerusalem.