LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY Records, 1796-1934 Reels M1-116
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AUSTRALIAN JOINT COPYING PROJECT LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY Records, 1796-1934 Reels M1-116, M608-70 London Missionary Society Livingstone House Carteret Street London SW1 National Library of Australia State Library of New South Wales Filmed: 1955-56, 1966 1 2 CONTENTS LIST Pages Reels M1-116 4 Historical note 7 South Seas journals, 1796-1899 16 Papuan journals, 1871-1901 17 Australian journals, 1800-42 17 Papuan reports, 1883-1906 18 Histories of the South Seas Mission, 1827-78 18 South Seas reports, 1866-1905 20 South Seas letters, 1796-1906 37 Candidates’ references and applications, 1796-1880 38 Miscellaneous manuscripts 38 Australian letters, 1798-1907 43 Papuan letters, 1872-1907 46 Western out-going letters, 1823-1905 53 Contents lists, 1796-1901 Reels M608-70 54 Papuan letters, 1908-19 55 Papuan reports, 1906-19 56 Papua, personal 57 Papua, odds 58 Minutes of meetings of London Missionary Society directors, 1795-1918 61 Minutes of meetings of committees, 1835-1917 63 Southern out-going letters: South Seas, 1905-14 64 Home office letters, 1795-1876 66 Home Office, extras, 1796-1898 67 Candidates’ papers, 1814-95 68 Home Office, personal 68 Home Office, odds 69 Australian letters, 1907-19 70 South Seas letters, 1907-19 73 South Seas reports, 1907-19 75 South Seas, personal 78 South Seas, odds 82 Papers of James E. Newell, 1879-1910 86 Papers of John H. Holmes, 1893-1934 89 Papers of Edwin Pryce Jones, 1900-23 90 South Seas missionary portraits 90 Europe letters, 1799-1845 90 Memoirs and histories 91 South Seas pictures 91 Papuan pictures 3 91 Ultra Ganges letters, 1805-87 93 Ultra Ganges out-going letters, 1822-54 94 Ultra Ganges journals, 1813-41 95 Register of missionaries, 1796-1923 4 HISTORICAL NOTE The Missionary Society was established in London in 1895 by a group of Evangelical Anglican and Nonconformist laymen and ministers. They included George Burder of Coventry, David Bogue of Gosport, John Eyre of London, Matthew Wilks of London, William Roby of Manchester, Thomas Haweis of Northamptonshire, Samuel Greatheed of Newport Pagnell and John Love of Paisley. The name of the society was changed to the London Missionary Society in 1818. It was originally a non- denominational organisation but, following the formation of denominational societies such as the Church Missionary Society and the Methodist Missionary Society, it gradually became closely associated with the Congregational Church. In its first thirty years, the Society sent missionaries to the Pacific, China, India and southern Africa and they remained its principal areas of operation until well into the twentieth century. In 1977 the Society became part of the Council for World Mission. Four days after it was formed, the Missionary Society, on the recommendation of Thomas Haweis, accepted the offer of Captain James Wilson to transport a party of missionaries to Tahiti. The Duff left England in 1796, with 30 missionaries (only four of whom were ordained ministers) and their families. Most of the party landed in Tahiti in March 1797, while a few sailed on to the Friendly Islands (Tonga) and the Marquesas Islands. In September 1798 the Duff left with a second party, but the ship was captured by a French privateer. Another party, including John Davies and Charles Wilson, arrived in Tahiti on the Royal Admiral in 1801. In the next few years nearly all the missionaries left the Society Islands, either settling in New South Wales or returning to England. It was only after 1810, as the chief Pomare II succeeded in overcoming his rivals, that the mission began to make headway, first in Mo’orea (Eimeo) and then in Tahiti. The missionaries allied themselves with district chiefs and consolidated their work as teachers, translators, advisors and traders. By 1844 nearly 60 LMS missionaries had reached the South Seas via Tahiti. Their position, however, was greatly weakened in the 1840s, when French naval officers imposed a protectorate on Queen Pomare IV and imprisoned the British missionary and consul George Pritchard. By 1847 there were only six LMS missionaries left in Tahiti and they were hampered by French regulations and restrictions on Protestant activities. In 1866 the Society ceased work in the Leeward Islands, transferring the mission to the Société des Missions Évangélique de Paris. The Windward Islands, including Tahiti, Huahine and Mo’orea, were transferred in 1880. John Williams, the most famous of the Pacific missionaries, visited the Hervey Islands (later named the Cook Islands) in 1823 and a permanent mission was established at Raratonga in 1828. The Takamoa Theological Institution was set up in 1839. Missionaries such as Aaron Buzacott, George and Wyatt Gill and John J.K. Hutchin laboured in the Cook Islands for many years, but the number of missionaries declined from five in 1895 to two in 1914. It was in Samoa that the LMS missionaries achieved their greatest success. Williams first visited the islands in 1830 and within a few years most of the chiefs and nearly all the population were converted to Christianity. In 1834 Charles Baarf and Aaron Buzacott arrived with the first books printed in Samoan and five years later a printery was set up. The Malua Theological College was opened in 1844, training pastors to work in Samoan villages and eventually in other parts of the 5 Pacific. Samoa remained the centre of the LMS activities in the Pacific until well into the twentieth century. There were 15 missionaries working there in 1905, but the number fell to eight in 1935. The first resident missionary on Savage Island (Niue) was William G. Lawes, who arrived in 1861. His brother Frank Lawes followed him and was in charge of the mission from 1874 until 1910. In the Loyalty Islands Samuel M. Creagh and James Hadfield served from 1856 until 1922. The islands were annexed by France in 1866 and became part of the Territory of New Caledonia, but it was only in 1922 that control of the mission passed to the Paris Mission. The Gilbert Islands became part of the Samoan Mission in 1870 and pastors trained at the Malua Institution served on the islands. The first resident missionary was William Goward, who arrived in 1900 and remained until 1919. Ocean Island and Nauru were brought within the control of the London Missionary Society during World War I. In 1871 two missionaries working in the Loyalty Islands, Samuel Macfarlane and Archibald Murray, sailed to New Guinea. Based at Cape York and later Murray Island, they made numerous voyages to Papua, visiting coastal villages and establishing missions. In 1874 William Lawes established a mission at Port Moresby and in 1877 he was joined by James Chalmers. Together they laid the basis of the Society’s work in Papua. In 1890, at a meeting convened by Sir William McGregor, the LMS missionaries agreed to concentrate on Torres Strait and the southern districts of Papua, while the Australian Board of Missions (Anglican) focussed on the northern coast of Papua. By 1895 there were nine missionaries in Papua, based at Port Moresby, Delena, Jokea, Saguane, Vatorata, Kerepunu, Isuleilei, Kwato and Darnley Island. In addition, more than 50 teachers from the Cook Islands, Loyalty Islands and Samoa were working in Papua. In 1915 the Torres Strait was relinquished to the new Anglican Diocese of Carpentaria. The Society’s Ultra Ganges mission was started following the ban imposed in 1808 on Christian missionaries operating in mainland China. Its principal purpose was to preach to and convert expatriate Chinese. Stations were set up in Java and Amboyna (1814), Malacca (1815), Penang (1819) and Singapore (1819). China was opened up to missionary work in 1843 and in the next few years the Ultra Ganges stations came to an end. The only LMS mission in Australia and New Zealand was short-lived. In 1824 the Society proposed that an Aboriginal mission be established. Governor Brisbane approved, a site was found at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, and Lancelot Threlkeld was appointed the missionary. He was blamed for excessive expenditure and the Society withdrew its support in 1828, although the mission continued under Threlkeld’s leadership until 1841. Sydney was an important base for the LMS missionaries in the Pacific: they nearly all passed through Sydney on their way to the islands, many spent their leave there, and some, such as Rowland Hassall, William P. Crook, James Hayward and Aaron Buzacott, eventually settled there. From 1801 onwards the Anglican minister Samuel Marsden acted as the LMS agent in Australia. Following his death in 1839, a series of Congregational ministers were engaged as the LMS agents: Robert Ross, Aaron Buzacott, James Sunderland, Joseph King and George Williams. Sydney was also the base of the Ship Committee, which fitted out and planned the itineraries of the missionary ship John Williams. (There were seven vessels of that name between 1844 and 1968.) The first LMS Auxiliary was set up in Sydney in 1838 and by 1894 there were five auxiliaries in Australia and four in New Zealand. In addition to raising funds for missions, auxiliaries and congregations supported a number of Australian and New Zealand men and women 6 who, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were selected to work in LMS missions in China and India. The London Missionary Society Archives The archives of the London Missionary Society were deposited in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1973. 7 LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY Reel M1 South Seas journals, 1796-1899 Box 1 1 Thomas Haweis, on board the Duff, Blackwall to Portsmouth, 10 Aug.- 1 Oct. 1796 1A Thomas Godsell, on board the Duff, 21 July 1796-31 July 1798 (typescript) 2 Rowland Hassell, Tahiti, 4 Aug.