Swept into the Abyss: A Family History of Cornish Methodism, Missionary Networks and the British Empire, 1789-1885 by Robert Penner Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Susan Thorne, Supervisor ___________________________ Edward Balleisen ___________________________ Charles Piot ___________________________ Philip Stern ___________________________ John Herd Thompson Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 i v ABSTRACT Swept into the Abyss: A Family History of Cornish Methodism, Missionary Networks and the British Empire, 1789-1885 by Robert Penner Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Susan Thorne, Supervisor ___________________________ Edward Balleisen ___________________________ Charles Piot ___________________________ Philip Stern ___________________________ John Herd Thompson An abstract of a dissertation or thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 Copyright by Robert G. Penner 2012 Abstract On Christmas Day in 1788, on the eve of a year which was to see the entire Atlantic world once more convulsed with revolution and war, a struggling farmer and occasional fisherman from the village of Mousehole in western Cornwall turned his back on the sea. William Carvosso had never found maritime life to his liking, and for some time been looking for an opportunity to, in his words, support himself and his family ‚wholly on the land.‛ So when that opportunity finally did arise Carvosso was quick to move his young family to a rented farm near the inland village of Ponsanooth. With a little capital and zealous stewardship Carvosso began to thrive in his new home. The move, which at first glance seemed to take the family from cosmopolitan littoral to parochial isolation, was actually the first step of an intergenerational journey that saw Carvosso’s children and grandchildren witness convict hangings in Van Diemen’s Land, the Tai-ping Rebellion in Shanghai, Blackfoot and Plains Cree horse raids on the Great Plains, and the trafficking of indentured labor from India to the Caribbean. The vehicle which transported the Carvossos about the globe – and which facilitated their rise as a family from the laboring classes to the lower reaches of respectability and beyond – was the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion and its ancillary Missionary Society. The following dissertation is concerned with the Carvossos’ movements, and the ideology by which they encouraged, made sense of, and justified their imperial adventures. iv To my parents. Thank you. v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Contents ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ viii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Mission History as Provincial History .......................................................................... 2 1.2 Provincial History as Imperial History ......................................................................... 5 1.3 Imperial History as Local History .................................................................................. 9 1.4 Local History as Global History ................................................................................... 11 1.5 A Multi-Racial and Christian Commonwealth .......................................................... 13 1.6 Chapter Outline .............................................................................................................. 17 1.7 Some Brief Comments on Methodism and Methodist Theology ............................ 21 2. The Transfiguration of William Carvosso: Methodism in Cornwall, 1750 to 1820 ....... 29 2.1 West Barbary: Methodism in Cornwall ....................................................................... 35 2.2 Invisible Realities: Theological Categories and the Experience of the Sacred in Cornwall ................................................................................................................................ 54 2.3 The Redruth Putsch: The Industrial Revolution and the Moral Economy of a Cornish Farmer ..................................................................................................................... 73 2.4 The Hound of God: Revivalism, Missions and the Conference Party .................... 85 2.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 117 vi 3. Pious Imperialisms: ‚The Cornish Brethren‛ and Missionary Conflict in New South Wales, 1820 to 1825 ................................................................................................................... 121 3.1 Lawry’s Commonwealth ............................................................................................. 125 3.2 Marsden’s Empire ........................................................................................................ 145 3.3 Missionary Conflict in the Antipodes ........................................................................ 170 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 191 4. An Isthmus between Heaven and Hell: Benjamin Carvosso and the Invention of the Frontier in Van Diemen’s Land, 1825 to 1830 ....................................................................... 194 4.1 The Colonial Situation ................................................................................................. 200 4.2 Evangelical Christianity and the Colonial State ....................................................... 217 5. The Many Faces of Maskepetoon: Robert Rundle and Imperial Ideologies on the Upper Saskatchewan, 1840 to 1848 ......................................................................................... 253 5.1 Rundle in Cornwall ...................................................................................................... 257 5.2 Rundle in Rupert’s Land ............................................................................................. 273 5.3 The Old Northwest ....................................................................................................... 295 5.4 The Many Faces of Maskepetoon ............................................................................... 308 5.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 327 6. The Track to Heaven: Transnational Revivalism, Missionary Networks and Colonial Mobility, 1850 to 1860 ............................................................................................................... 333 6.1 ‚What a calamity is this!‛: The Fly Sheet Scandal and the Problem of Revivalism ............................................................................................................................................... 339 6.2 The Bishops of Botany Bay: Evangelical Networks and Colonial Mobility ......... 360 6.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 388 7. Conclusion: ‚Such a Strange Sight‛ ................................................................................... 395 vii Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 404 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 432 List of Figures Figure 1: Cornwall ...................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 2: The Tasman Sea ........................................................................................................ 122 Figure 3: Rupert’s Land ............................................................................................................ 254 viii A gloomy cloud of infidelity chilled me. There was a pause – all was dark and silent – God seemed inexorable: I was just sinking when a sound broke from the highest heavens on my ear, as if Jesus himself spoke in an audible voice across the gloomy profound, – ‚ARE NOT FIVE SPARROWS SOLD FOR TWO FARTHINGS, AND NOT ONE OF THEM IS FORGOTTED? FEAR NOT, THOU ART OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY SPARROWS!! The effect was electrical. I was in a moment overwhelmed< Oh! The unutterable bliss of that hour! All the clouds, shades, and films of modern Atheism were swept into the abyss of love. All the struggle was sanctified. Benjamin Carvosso, 1854 ix 1. Introduction On Christmas Day in 1788, on the eve of a year which was to see the entire Atlantic world once more convulsed with revolution and war, a struggling farmer and occasional fisherman from the village of Mousehole in western