CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section VI: Missions to India

Part 3: India General, 1811-1815 and South India Mission, 1815-1884

Part 4: South India Mission, 1834-1880

Introduction to Part 3

Part 3 contains the papers for India General, 1811-1815 and begins the coverage of the South India material, including:

• Early Correspondence, 1815-1820
• Individual Letter Books, 1851-1884
• Letter Books, 1820-1884
• Mission Books, 1820-1834
• India General Early Correspondence, 1811-1815

The Early Correspondence for India General, 1811-1815, contains incoming and outgoing correspondence between the CMS secretaries and the missionaries, agents and government officials in the field. The variety of material featured is excellent including letters from Rev David Corrie describing the teaching of Abdul Masih, a native catechist with journals written by Abdul Masih himself, and letters from Rev C T E Rhenius and Rev J C Schnarre describing their arrival in the mission and their experiences. There is also much information regarding the schools set up by CMS, with material on teacher salaries and a list of English and Tamil Free Schools with names of the masters and the number of scholars. The proceedings of the CMS Committee in Calcutta are also included.

Early Correspondence, South India, 1815-1820

The Early Correspondence for South India, 1815-1820, is organized in the same fashion as the papers for India General. It contains incoming and outgoing correspondence between the Secretaries and the missionaries, agents and government officials based at the stations. These interesting and informative papers include:

• Journals by the reader Christian Madras, Rev B Bailey, Rev C T E Rhenius, Rev B Schmid, Rev and Mrs T Norton
• Minutes of the Corresponding Committee with a list of donations and subscriptions
• An account of receipts and payments of the Madras Corresponding Committee
• A letter from Rev J C Schnarre, dated 1817, to Rev M Thompson detailing his journey into the countryside to visit the Free Schools
• A report by Rev C T E Rhenius on the Madras schools, October-December 1818
• Plans for a Protestant Mission College in Madras
• List of English and Tamil Free Schools established by Rev Dr John, including names of masters and scholars
• Correspondence from missionaries such as Rev D Schmid, Rev M Thompson, Rec C T E Rhenius, Rev T Norton

Individual Letter Books for South India, 1851-1884

The Individual Letter Books consist of personal letters written by the Secretary in London to the missionaries (a full index of names is included in each volume for easy reference). There are letters relating to the financial matters of individual missions, and papers discussing the support of female schools in Madras by ladies in England. Much is made of the setting up of the Native Church Council, 1865-1866, plus the development of the native church and the relationship of native agents and CMS European staff, 1865.

Letter Books for South India, 1820-1884

The Letter Books contain copies of outgoing correspondence from the Secretary in London to missionaries and others. A full index of names is given. The majority of the material focuses on instructions from the Secretary in London to missionaries such as A B Duckham, Rev P Fjellstedt, Rev W J Woodcock, Rev B Bailey, Rev J H Gray, Rev T Norton, Rev F and Mrs Rogers and Rev Stephen Hobbs. There are also letters on general mission business from the Secretary to members of the mission staff. Other items include:

• A draft of a trust deed of the Trinity Chapel, Black Town, Madras
• A list of artefacts to be sent to the English royal children by the Christians in Tinnevelly, 1850
  a circular letter to missionaries in the Travancore mission discussing the persecution of converts, 1855
• Regulations for CMS schoolmasters
• A printed circular re the new itinerant system in North Tinnevelly
• A letter describing a scheme for the establishment, maintenance and improvement of mission libraries in India, 1870
• A copy of a letter from Miss M A Scott Moncrieff, Edinburgh re the famine orphans at Bangalore, 1878
• A letter discussing the possibility of encouraging educated young native Christians to take part in direct Christian work, 1884
• Interesting and descriptive letters regarding the Indian Mutiny, 1857-1858.

Mission Books for South India, 1820-1834

The Original Papers were copied into Mission Books so that a legible copy was available for the committee’s use. The letters and journals from 1820 to November 1836 are copied out in full. Journals are not copied after November 1836, nor reports after 1838. Annual Letters for 1875 onwards are copied out in the backs of the volumes. An index of names and some subjects is given. Included in this part are letters to and from missionaries and bishops, missionary journals giving interesting and detailed information on missionary work and the customs and life of the local people), diaries of the catechist, the reader and the seminarists and reports on a range of educational and cultural issues. Topics covered in the reports include:

• Schools - reports on the Madras mission school, on the Tranquebar schools, the schools at Palamcottah and Tinnevelly and the English Mission School at Allepie, a plan of education at the Syrian College of Cotym, the Grammar School and Female School at Cottayam
• Missions - report on the native department of the Madras mission, on the Native Female Institution at Palamcottah, reports on the Pulicat, Madras and Mayaveram missions
• Financial items include annual expenses of the missions, of the Female School at Pulicat, the eight schools of the Tranquebar Territory, the Tinnevelly schools and the Male and Female Seminary at Palamcottah.

EXTRACTS

Reel 46 Letter from Rev J C Schnarre to Rev M Thompson, 1817:

“Having returned from my second travel into the Country in order to visit our Free Schools, I hasten to give you some account of them. It was in the beginning of February when I went out the first time, as I have already mentioned to you in one of my former letters. The first place I came to was Careical, where we have a School of 163 children, all Heathen except a few Roman Catholic, and instructed by two Heathen Schoolmasters. In the examination I was fully satisfied with them; for all the Classes, except the two last, were able to write in the sand what they had learnt by heart and what they were reading in their books. This School has, some time ago, suffered much by the Roman Catholic there; for some of them desired to send their children to our School, but the Priests as well as some others of their Congregation were entirely against it, and thus, a kind of controversy arose among themselves, by which the Heathen who send their children to our School, suffered also; but at present all are quiet.

Leaving Careical, I came to Tirunallara, where we have a School of 50 Heathen Children, instructed by a Heathen Schoolmaster and an Assistant. With this school I was not so well pleased as with the former; because I found here some want of exercise and diligence….

From this place I came to Tirumaleirasenpattanam, a large and populous Town, where an ancient King dug as many Tanks as there are days in a year and washed himself every day of the year in another Tank. – In this place we have a School of 65 Children all Heathen, and also instructed by a Heathen Schoolmaster….”

Reel 50 Letter from Rev M Thompson to Rev C Church re problems with German missionaries Rev C T E Rhenius and Rev B Schmid, London, Oct 3 1820:

“The misbehaviour of these two Gentlemen (Messrs Rhenius & Schmid) has given the greatest uneasiness to our friends here. They have marked with the liveliest concern, not only what the Committee have written of them, but, more particularly, what they themselves have written – the principles they avow and the spirit they shew, so repugnant to the simplicity and integrity of the true Christian, to the Gospel of Christ, to the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Their opinions are perfectly unanimous, and their determination firm to enforce whatever your Committee may have decreed upon them. At the same time, however, they acknowledge the worth of them both, in many respects, regard them sincerely, and will be happy to retain them in the service of the Society, if they should, happily, be brought to see their error, correct their spirit and conform themselves to the wishes of their truest friends….On the morning of the day I left Madras, they having called to see me at Mr Strachan’s we had a long conversation together on all the subjects of difference between them and the Committee….”

Reel 59 Letter from Mrs Norton to the Secretary in London, written at Allepie Mission House, Travancore, Nov 10 1819:

“Accept my sincere thanks for your kindness in sending me out the things I required, and attending to our united wishes respecting the money matters. We feel very grateful for the kind attention you manifested in ordering Mrs Norton’s to be given to her in the manner you did: it is just what we wished, but did not like to add, to your other many engagements, an additional one on our account.

We are still moving on, but slowly; yet it is a mercy to be able to go on at all. We have met with some discouragements with our Schools of late; but we now hope the people are beginning to lose their fears, and the Children are coming back again. We have just the same number of orphans I mentioned in my last.

You say in the last we had the pleasure to receive from you, that you were fearful they would take up too much of Mrs Norton’s time. I am happy to say that, with the assistance of my head boy… I can manage their whole concerns; such as Food and Raiment, etc, etc….

Poor little dears, it is with difficulty that I can get them to do any thing like work. I often think how diverted my good friends in England would be if they could take a peep at me of an Evening, when the Sun is gone down, with my little tribe around me, plucking up the weeds in the cane ground; for if I was not to work and give them to see that I thought it no disgrace to do so, they would not pluck a weed, such is the pride of their little minds. They are very willing to learn to read, and it is very pleasing to hear them repeat the Responses in the service at Church.

The Church attracts the attention of the Natives very much. The Moormen are very much struck with the Commandments, particularly the second; observing that it is quite unlike the Roman Catholics who worship Images, but your Church, forbids it we see….”

Reel 59 Rev B Schmid’s Journal, Sept 1818:

“…the Friends in Perambore, seeing the impractibility of establishing a Native Bible Association amongst themselves for the present, held today a Meeting to consult about the establishment of a School in the Camp, for Sepoys, of different Religions, who were desirous to learn to read; which School should be placed under our Superintendance: - with the intention, by these means, finally to unite their acquaintances more closely, and to convince them, by experience, of the usefulness, necessity, and harmlessness, of a Bible Association amongst them….”

Reel 60 Journal of Rev C T E Rhenius, Oct, Nov and Dec 1821:

“…. A heathen from a neighbouring village, accompanied by two others, came this afternoon claiming a boy as his property who was just sitting and learning his catechism. The man said, that the boy was his slave, and that he had already sold him to another person, and that therefore he must have him back. Upon enquiry I found that this boy is the nephew of our waterwoman; his mother was the slave of that man, and is dead, but his father is a freeman and alive; he came to this place a month ago, left his son with the waterwoman and went into the country on business. She has since that time kept him to school, and made him attend our evening instruction: the boy shows willingness to learn, and wept when he heard that a man had come to fetch him, and would not go. I conversed with the claimant, whose right to that boy did not seem clear to me, particularly as his father was alive. I showed him the wickedness of buying and selling mankind….”

Reel 62 Letter from Rev B Schmid to Mrs Strachan regarding the Native Female Institution at Palamcottah, 1825:

“As soon as we arrived at Palamcottah, we directed our attention to the object of Native Female Education, and neglected no opportunity to admonish the Natives, especially the Native Christians, to care for the education of their daughters, which had the effect that two of our Central School boys requested me, with the consent of their parents, to give them Tamul Alphabets and spelling cards, in order to teach their sisters to read….”

Reel 65 Journal of Rev P P Schaffter, January to July 1829:

“April 26, 1829 This morning at half past 4, I set off from Pulicat to visit some of our Schools at seven miles distance, our Seminarists running after my Palanquin: before 6 o’clock I arrived at Thatta Moonshe School: we found our Children together in the School house 33 in number: I examined them upon all the subjects which they had learned while under Mr Kindlinger. By my examination it appeared to me that much pains had been taken with this School. Many of the Children were reading the New Testament very well, and a still greater number repeated their catechisms fluently. I catechised them and then addressed some heathen who had come into the school to see the examination. Before 10 I arrived at Peramboodoo School and examined it, but did not find it in so good a state as the one above mentioned. It’s being farther from Pulicat may account for it….”

Reel 67 Journal of Rev C T E Rhenius, October to December 1831:

“Oct 1 1831 Catechist Jacob of Nurwenkotei was brought in this morning on a cot with wounds in his head and stripes on his back, others of the Congregation also have been wounded. One severely in his head; the headman has been treated worse than all, having a deep wound in his head, his arm broken, and other wounds in his body; he is still in the village, and it is said that he will not survive. Our people had been fishing in the river, and were returning home, when their enemies the Brahmins of a neighbouring village which they had to pass, waylaid them, with Maravers and others, and fell upon them with Clubs etc. Poor Jacob, who accompanied our people, got also his share. In all, 8 persons have been thus maltreated; because they will not submit to the spoliations and oppression of the Brahmins, but endeavour to get their rights by lawful means. I sent the wounded people to the Magistrate, but the Peons would not let them into the Compound and they were brought back. Afterwards rain poured down and nothing further could be done; I got therefore their wounds dressed in the evening. This is a tremendous shock which these people and the whole Congregation have been called upon to sustain….”

Reel 68 Journal of Rev J J Muller, July to September 1833:

“July 12 1833 This afternoon we left the place and arrived after a tedious ride about 7PM in Dohnavore. We were all very fatigued, and retired consequently soon to rest.

July 13 1833 This morning I left Dohnavore to see our School in Calcand, about 4 miles N W from D. I put up in a small choultry near the village. This a very large place and is peopled by heathen, Roman Catholics, and Mahomedans. I was informed that more than 100 families of Brahmins are residing here. They have a very large and nice Pagoda. Near to the place where I stayed, was a small grove, wherein a large idol resides. I was a little curious to inspect the place closer, but was not allowed to do so. I would not use force, and returned. Before I came to the choultry I visited the School room, which is a pretty nice one. The Schoolmaster and some boys accompanied me from thence to the choultry. A short time after I arrived there, one of the School boys asked permission to introduce a Brahmin boy to me, who he said was very rich, having many hundreds of houses etc. The Brahmin boy, about 15 years of age, had a very serious look and seemed anxious to make my acquaintance….”

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