CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section III: Central Records

Part 13: CMS Collection of Lives of Missionaries held at the Church Mission Society Library
Part 14: CMS Collection of Lives of Missionaries held at the Church Mission Society Library

Introduction to Part 13

Parts 13 and 14 focus on the lives of CMS missionaries, bringing together biographical works stored at the Max Warren Library at the Church Mission Society Library, London. Part 13 covers missionaries A-L. The majority of the missionary lives documented are men but there are also several women, including some who worked for the Church of England Zenana Society.

The books, are for the majority, written for adults, some of them by wives or husbands of missionaries, some by professional authors and some are small books written by the CMS themselves. There are also a few books written for the younger audience. The contents of the books are mixed, some being merely a story of the life and work of the missionary, but most with interesting extracts from the missionary’s letters and journals. A considerable amount of the books also contain photographs and maps.

The biographies give us a fascinating insight into the work of the missionaries and the lives of the people they worked among. There is much on itineration in and around the missions as well as on the evangelical side of the work. There is also much on local customs, traditions, homes, dress and religious practices.

Missionaries who worked in the following countries are included in this part - China, India, West Africa, Persia, Canada, New Zealand, Ceylon, Uganda, Nigeria, Palestine, East Africa, making for a comprehensive picture of CMS work around the globe.

Some of the missionaries included in are:

- Minnie Mary Apperson: CEZMS, Fuh-kien, China
- John Barton: schoolmaster in India
- Rev Rowland Bateman: Narowal, India
- Mary Bird: Persia
- Bishop William Carpenter Bompas: First Bishop of Athabasca, Canada
- Bishop John Bowen: Sierra Leone
- Archdeacon Alfred Nesbit Brown: New Zealand
- Rev Robert Bruce: Punjab and Julfa in Persia
- Bishop Guy Bullen: Egypt and Sudan
- Rev John Butler: New Zealand, first ordained clergyman to reside in New Zealand
- Rev Norman Phillips Campbell: Ceylon
- Rev Robert Clark: Punjab, India
- Rev Albert Ruskin Cook: Toro, Uganda
- Archdeacon Cowley: Canada
- Rev William Spiller Cox: Sierra Leone
- Rev Harry Crabtree: India and Winifred Perfect, CEZMS, India
- Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther: Nigeria
- Dr George Everard Dodson: Persia
- Rev William Duncan: Metlakahtla, North West America
- Dr William Jackson Elmslie: India
- Rev David Fenn: Madras, India
- Rev Henry Watson Fox: Telegu, South India
- Bishop Thomas Valpy French: Lahore, India
- Rev Max Gerson: India
- Bishop Samuel Gobat: Abyssinia and Jerusalem
- Rev Charles Andrew Gollmer: West Africa
- Rev George Maxwell Gordon: Punjab, India
- Rev Thomas Samuel Grace: New Zealand
- Rev Martin John Hall: Uganda
- Eleanor Jane Harrison and Edith Nettleton: Chungan, Fukien, China
- Rose Harvey: CEZMS, India
- Rev John Fearby Haslam: Cotta, Ceylon
- Bishop Joseph Sidney Hill: first Bishop in Western Equatorial Africa, New Zealand and Nigeria
- Anna Hinderer: wife of Rev David Hinderer, Yoruba, West Africa
- Bishop John Horden: First Bishop of Moosonee, Canada
- Rev William Augustin Bernard Johnson: Sierra Leone
- Rev John Ludwig Krapf: East Africa
- Susanna Francis Latham: CEZMS, India
- Rev James Leighton: India
- Rev Charles Benjamin Leupolt: India
- Rev Albert Bushnell Lloyd: Uganda

EXTRACTS

REEL 164

Minnie Mary Apperson (CEZMS, Fuh-kien, China)

Victory. Being reminiscences of and letters from Minnie M Apperson (later Mrs H S Philips) of the Church of England Zenana Society

“ The following is extracted from her diary letter at this period:-Kucheng, December 12, 1889 - We started our last thirty miles with one chair, to be carried ‘turn about’. It was splendid weather for walking, cold and bright, and oh! such lovely scenery all the time, as we followed a narrow path, winding up and down the hills. Below us, a river continually foaming and gurgling over huge boulders, and on its opposite side, mountains covered with thick forests of bamboo. We halted midway for fruit and biscuits, and had to come to a full stop about 4pm at a Chinese inn, for that was as far as the coolies with the loads could go that day. A thoroughly Chinese experience for my first week. Our quarters were upstairs, a largish room, but very low; for a window, a square hole, with wooden shutters, so that we could either have a good supply of air, or none at all. Dirty, of course! Floor decidedly so, and all round the room bamboo frames on trestles, to accommodate a good number of guests….”

REEL 165

Mary Bird (Persia)

Mary Bird in Persia With a foreword by the Right Rev C H Stilemen by Clara Colliver Rice

“…. Last Saturday I had my first Persian visitors! A bride of 12 years old, dressed in brilliant green silk trousers, which have attached socks of the same material, beautifully fitted to the foot; crimson silk jacket with gold embroidery round it, left open in front to show the white shirt; short full divided skirt of crimson flowered silk; red and yellow slippers. Of course over this finery she had her outdoor dress of black chadar and white veil reaching to her knees, with a fine embroidery over the eyes….”

REEL 166

Bishop William Carpenter Bompas (Canada)

An apostle of the north. Memoirs of the Right Reverend William Carpenter Bompas, D D First Bishop of Athabasca, 1874-1884, First Bishop of Mackenzie River, 1884-1891, First Bishop of Selkirk (Yukon), 1891-1906. With an introduction by the most Rev S P Matheson. By H A Cody

“…. Early in January, 1868, Mr Bompas left Fort Chipewyan and travelled up the Peace River to Fort Vermilion, and found himself in the country of the Beaver Indians, whose physical condition he described as ‘very pitiable. They are very careless and neglectful in their dress, and though quick and intelligent, appear idle and dissipated. There are but few among them sound in health, and they seem fast dying off. I do not think there is any hope of saving their lives in this world, as well as their souls for the next, except through the ameliorating influence of Christianity, brought to bear on them by means of a mission established in their midst.

The most necessary adjunct to winter travelling in the North is a dog-sledge, for dogs alone are there used for hauling provisions and fuel over the winter snows…. Much pride or zeal is shown in the North in decking the sledge dogs in gay trappings with ribbons, beads, coloured cloth, and with numerous jingling bells. A number of dog-trains together form an animated scene.

….Food is abundant here. The Indians live on moose and beaver; we on moose alone. It is well that there is beaver for the Indians to fall back on, for moose hunting is rather precarious. It is only in a wind that the hunter can elude the animal’s quick scent, and only when the snow is quite soft that he can escape its keen sense of hearing. Last fall, when there was calm weather, and the surface of the snow became hard, through rain falling on it, some of the Athabasca Indians were nearly starved to death, there being no beaver there - by so precarious a thread does the life of these poor wandering Indians hang. The beaver are numerous here. About 4,000 beaver skins have been traded at the fort this winter’….”

REEL 167

Rev John Butler (New Zealand)

Earliest New Zealand. The journals and correspondence of the Rev John Butler. Compiled by R J Barton

“SATURDAY, 18th MARCH , 1820 - During this last week we have been severely tried by the natives. They are very insolent, and enter our houses with impunity. They abuse us, and if any of the chiefs ask for an axe or anything else that we have as trade, we dare not deny them.

This morning we have had a complete skirmish in my yard, by the natives, one against the other. Mrs Butler fainted with fear, and we were obliged to give several axes, hatchets and other things to the chiefs in order to pacify and get them of the yard. They plainly tell us if we will not issue powder and muskets, we must go away, which appears the only alternative.

APRIL 10th - There has been some disturbance at Te Poonah. The natives last week killed a woman; she was a slave, and took her to Moturoa two miles distant, and there ate her.

APRIL 16th - I left the ‘Dromedary’ this morning for Wytange and Cowa Cowa to purchase pork and potatoes for the settlement, and was successful at both places…..

In the morning at daylight, the natives came together in groups, with hogs, potatoes, birds, fish-lines, curiosities etc. I made all the purchases I could, slept among them two nights in the open air, and was very kindly treated by them. De Kogie (Te Koki), the chief of the district, is a very mild man. I left them and reached home with a heavy load on Thursday, at one o’clock.

APRIL 29th - This week the natives of our district have been remarkably quiet and those of them who have come to trade with us have been very civil: there have been also several applications for European clothes, and articles of barter….”

REEL 168

Rev Robert Clark (Punjab, India)

The missions of the Church Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in the Punjab and Sindh, by the late Rev Robert Clark, edited and revised by Robert Maconachie

“The Zenana Mission, Amritsar (CEZMS)

…. Seven ladies are connected with it, the leader of whom is Miss Wauton, the oldest lady missionary of this Society in the Punjab, who came to India with Miss Hasell in 1872. Nearly 300 zenanas are now visited in different parts of the city; 700 girls are being educated in twelve schools; and some 150 widows support themselves through work which is made over to them to do, whilst at the same time they receive Christian instruction…..

We have now in the Punjab and  Sindh eighty-two English ladies in connexion with the CMS and the CEZMS, who have come from England to teach and evangelise and seek to raise the women and girls of the land. Of these eighty-two ladies, fourteen are honorary, and sixteen are medical. They are working in twenty-one stations in the Central Punjab, and on the frontier from Kashmir to Karachi. Thirty-seven of them are living amongst the people, in Indian cities or in villages where no other Europeans besides missionaries live. Their presence has doubled the efficiency of our CMS stations in the Punjab and Sindh….”

REEL 168

Dr Albert Ruskin Cook, medical missionary (Toro, Uganda)

A doctor and his dog in Uganda. From the letters and journals of A R Cook, BA, MD, BSc, medical missionary of the Church Missionary Society. Edited by Mrs H B Cook. With a preface by Eugene Stock.

The following extracts are taken from Dr Cook’s diary describing his journey to Toro:

“….Our march was just a succession of hills and swamps. As the stars came out so did the mosquitoes in crowds; but, as before, a fire kept them off….

In the morning I saw all the sick folk of the village, and gave them medicine. In the afternoon I persuaded the bishop to come in a dug-out canoe to visit an island. The dug-out, as its name implies, was a tree trunk hollowed out, and had not, therefore, very stable equilibrium. There were of course, no seats; we sat on our chairs; three quarters of an hour’s paddling brought us to the island called Kizinga. They spoke Lukonjo, but understood Lunyoro. Leobeni, the Christian teacher with us, was a Muganda, and so acted as interpreter. The island was a small one, but I counted over 200 full-grown men, who quickly surrounded us. The chief was friendly, but most of the people were sunk in the deepest heathenism, worshipping the spirits of their fathers, and all wearing charms. They go nearly naked, but men and women wear a kind of apron of goat’s skin….”

REEL 169

Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther, Bishop of the Niger

The Black Bishop. Samuel Adjai Crowther. With preface by Eugene Stock by Jesse Page

The extract records Bishop Crowther’s first impressions of the river Niger:

“Aug 21 We were gradually introduced from the mangroves into a forest of palm and bamboo trees, embellished with large cotton trees of curious shapes, interspersed among them on both sides of the river, and with other lofty trees of beautiful foliage. All hands were invited on deck by this new scenery, and the day was spent with great interest at this novel appearance. We passed on both sides of the river several plantations of bananas, plaintains, sugar cane, cocoa or Kalabe, as called by the Americans, and now and then some huts with natives in them. The natives were so timid  that they several times pulled their canoes ashore and ran away into the bush and peeped at the steamer with fear and great astonishment….”

In the following lines Bishop Crowther describes the conditions of the native women:

“A great deal of labour is entailed on the women; on them solely devolves the care of the children, to feed and clothe from childhood until they are able to render their mothers a little assistance if they are females, or if they are boys, till the fathers claim their help in the farms if they be farmers. ...they are the chief carriers of loads, grinding corn upon the millstones many times till late hours of the night, beguiling the tedious labour by their mill with songs, which labour is resumed at an early hour of the morning, preparing the flour into meal, retailing the same in the market, or hawking it about the town from house to house, and providing their husbands with provision from it - it is no wonder they are soon worn out, and a female of thirty years has an appearance of forty…..”

REEL 171

Rev Henry Watson Fox (Telegu, South India)

A memoir of Rev Henry Watson Fox, missionary to the Teloogoo People, South India With a preface by the Rev H V Elliott

“Cullapilly: Feb 13, 1847 - I am now out on my first excursion to the villages, since my return to India. I have commenced by coming here to the great annual bathing-festival, which occurs on ‘Siva-ratri’, or the Siva-night. It is a large village about twelve miles due south of Masulipatam, situated on the northerly branch of the river Kistna, and containing a considerable pagoda, devoted to the god Siva, under his common name of Nagesvaraswami, or the Lord of the Snakes. It is curious that the bathing in the river Kistna, a personification of Vishnu, should be held in connection with, and in honour of the rival god. It is a festival of three days’ continuance, the main features of which are the religious bathing by thousands in the river, and their repairing to the temple of Siva to make their obeisance and offerings to the idol….”

REEL 176

Mrs Anna Hinderer, wife of Rev David Hinderer (Yoruba, Africa)

Seventeen years in the Yoruba Country. Memorials of Anna Hinderer, wife of the Rev David Hinderer, CMS missionary in Western Africa. Gathered from her journals and letters. With an introduction by Richard B Hone

“May 17th -  Bale, the head chief, paid us a special visit to-day. He came in great state, with drums and various strange instruments of music, with his host of attendants, singing men and singing women. He marvelled greatly at our house, and could not imagine how it was made. He was quite alarmed to think of mounting the steps; but  with my husband pulling, and others pushing, we got him up. I stood at the top to receive him, in his mass of silks and velvets; he very graciously took my hand, and we walked into the room, at the sight of which he gave a great shout and wondered; he then took a fancy to the sofa, and sat there….

REEL 178

Mrs Susanna Francis Latham (CEZMS India), wife of Rev William Latham

Memories of Zenana mission life. Reprinted, with a biographical foreword written by her husband, the Rev William Latham

“…. Centuries of subordination have developed in the Hindu woman to a wonderful degree the qualities of patience, long-suffering, and forbearance; and one is often struck with the examples one comes across of domestic trial as well as of physical suffering, borne resignedly and unmurmuringly, sometimes one might even say heroically. If you want to know how to deal with Indian pupils in the constant intercourse of teaching, remember that with kindness a certain amount of strictness must also be combined. This the Oriental character needs, and the want of it will have an appearance in their eyes of weakness, and is sure to be taken advantage of….”

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