CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Series III: Central Records

Part 15: The Church Missionary Society Record, 1830-1875 held at the Church Mission Society Library

Part 16: CMS Awake! - A Missionary Magazine for General Readers, 1891-1921

             continued as Eastward Ho!, 1922-1940

Part 17: CMS Minutes, 1876-1898 and Indexes to Minutes, 1875-1907

Part 18: CMS Minutes, 1898-1949

Introduction to Part 17

Part 17 continues coverage of the CMS Minutes, covering the period 18 July 1876-1898. It also covers the Indexes to the Minutes for 1875-1907. The Minutes of the various CMS Committees are entered in chronological order in the volumes.

For the years included in Part 17, the Committee Minutes covered are: General, Finance, Funds, Correspondence, Clerical Sub-Committee, Special, Patronage, Children’s Home Visiting Sub-Committee and Institution Visitors.

The Minutes are all handwritten but are for the most part in copper-plate handwriting and therefore very easy to read.

The Minutes of the Finance and Funds Committees are an important source for historians interested in the funding and solvency of the CMS in the nineteenth century. They provide details of bills of exchange, missionaries’ salaries, money paid to sick and disabled missionaries and children of missionaries, allowances for each of the mission areas and amounts spent on tradesmans’ bills, outfits and suppliers, books and paper and sundries with a total of expenditure for each month. Details of CMS income are also listed and any deficiencies noted. The Funds Committee concentrates on ideas for raising more money for the Society. The following extract is taken from the minutes of the Committee of Finance, December 8th 1893:

“…. Resolved that expenditure additional to the Estimate for 1894-5, amounting to £1038 (and making with the £5000 possibly required for the Calcutta Girls’ Boarding School etc and £500 for the Japan and Jerusalem Bishops £10,128 appropriated out of the provision of £18,850 for the year), be approved….”

The Correspondence Committee Minutes are a fascinating source including the texts of letters from major figures outside of the CMS to the Society. They also provide a summary of the reports, letters and other items coming before the committee and record the decisions taken. Included are brief summaries of missionary letters and journals from every mission area covered by CMS and names of correspondents are listed.

The following extract is from the minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, July 18 1876:

“ …. The Rev G E Moule having lately returned from Hang-Chow was introduced to the Committee and interesting conversation held with him on the progress of the work in the Chekiang Province….

Read letters from the Rev Dyson Rycroft, the Rev W M Falloon, and the Rev John Bardsley written in May and June 1874 recommending Mr Blackett strongly for the post of Principal of the Islington College then vacant.

Read letter from the Rev H U Weitbrecht dated 1 Fitzwilliam Street Cambridge 24th June 1876 bearing high testimony to Mr Blackett’s qualifications for the work in Bengal.

Read letter from the Honorary Medical Adviser of the Society dated 11 Savile Row July 6th 1876 giving a favourable opinion of Mr Blackett’s physical fitness for work in Calcutta….”

The next is from the minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, October 16 1888:

“…. The Bishop of Sierra Leone in referring to his anxious and difficult charge described the present moment as quite the most important in reference to the development of the Society’s work in Sierra Leone of any since it commenced its labours in that colony. It now remained to be seen whether the claims of Christianity which were at first as readily accepted would be acknowledged in their entirety by this third generation of Sierra Leone Christians. He referred to the permanent importance of the Colony to England, and to the material help which could be afforded by the Society encouraging European clergy to go out for a time to carry on missionary operations side by side with the African clergy without interfering with their pastoral work; by fostering technical and industrial training in connexion with the Society’s education establishments, and by providing locally the best possible education, such as may render unnecessary the visits of African students to England which resulted in putting them out of touch with their own people….”

The extract below is from the minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, December 4 1888:

“…. The Committee had the pleasure of an interview with Mr Graham Wilmot Brooke lately returned from West Africa. Mr Brooke gave a brief but most interesting sketch of his various attempts to reach the tribes of the Soudan in whom he had for years felt a special interest. The Nile route being closed on General Gordon’s withdrawal from the Soudan he had five years explored the Desert route from Algeria for a distance of 200 miles from the coast which owing to the hostility of the Tuwarik found impracticable. The following year he ascended the Senegal for 500 miles without difficulty; the French rendering him every facility. This however also proving impracticable for his purpose. He had next attempted the Congo route ascending the Mabangi River to the second degree of latitude. This route however owing to the difficulty of navigation and the ferocious character of the inhabitants of the Congo basin, which contains some ten millions of habitual cannibals, had to be abandoned as unsuitable at present for reaching the Soudan…. He proposed returning next Spring to the Niger and commencing operations among the Mohammedan Hausas in the neighbourhood of the Confluence of the Querra and Binue Rivers, and was anxious so long as he continued in that neighbourhood while working independently and at his own charges….”

The Special Committee Minutes record meetings called on an ad hoc basis for one-off issues. One of the Special Committees recorded in this part was called to attempt to resolve disagreements between the Bishop of Colombo and his clergy.

The Children’s Home Visiting Sub-Committee Minutes record all important decisions taken regarding the CMS Children’s Home. Reports on age restrictions, maintenance and number of children in the Home are all included.

The Clerical Committee Minutes give a summary of letters received on all manner of CMS business.

The Patronage Committee Minutes provide a list of gentleman patrons.

The Institution Visitors Committee Minutes list letters received from the teachers at the Institution on the progress of the children and their well-being with resolutions taken.

The Indexes to the Committee Minutes for 1875-1907 contain an index to names and subjects arranged chronologically rather then strictly alphabetically.

These minutes and indexes will be invaluable for anyone trying to understand the working of the CMS, its scope and success both at home and in the Mission Field.

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