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Church and state in Borneo: the anglican bishopric
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
When James Brooke became rajah of Sarawak in 1841, his enterprise – the acquiring of territorial sovereign rule by a private British citizen– was regarded with doubt and hesitation in official circles in London, and all three white rajahs were always very sensitive about their status. But when James Brooke visited England in 1847-8 there was no doubt about his personal standing as a romantic figure. Moreover, he added to the strength of the British presence in south-east Asia, which was needed to discourage Dutch assertiveness, and so he was lionised, and knighted, and among other things given an honorary doctorate by the university of Oxford. While he was there, about £500 was collected by members of the university, who considered that a mission to Borneo ‘ought to go forth under the superintendence of a Bishop from the very first’. This was sound doctrinal theory, but unlikely to be put into practice then or indeed since. But the idea was there, and the money was funded, and the church in Borneo did not have to wait as long as many places for episcopal ministrations, or for an episcopate of its own. Plans for a mission to Sarawak had already been made, and the first two missionaries sailed with their families at the end of 1847, and landed in Sarawak on 29 June 1848.
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975
References
1 USPG archives, Borneo box 2, E. C. Woollcombe, fellow of Balliol, to T. F. Stooks, secretary of the Borneo church mission, 17 June 1851.
2 For a discussion of the origin of this jurisdiction in the disciplinary policy of Laud, and made more formal by Compton, see Cross, A. L., The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies (London 1902) caps 1, 2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Guildhall library MS 9532A4, London diocesan act book 1842-53, p 130.
4 For the growth and then reduction of the diocese of Calcutta, see Grimes, C. J., Towards an Indian Church (London 1946) pp 53–83 Google Scholar.
5 Bateman, J., The Life of the Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, D.D. (London 1860) 2, p 328 Google Scholar.
6 USPG archives, Borneo box 1, Wilson to McDougall, 21 June 1850; McDougall to Stooks, 12 August 1850.
7 Guildhall library MS 9531/31, Blomfield’s register 1848-56.
8 USPG archives, Borneo box 1, J. Brooke, who was in Singapore on his way to England, to McDougall, 28 January 1851.
9 USPG archives, E/Pre H Borneo and Calcutta, undated and unaddressed paper by McDougall.
10 PRO, copy of patent roll (chancery) 19 Victoria, pt 2 no 4.
11 Printed in The Borneo Chronicle, centenary number (Uxbridge 195s) p 11.
12 On 9 August 1857. Singapore diocesan records, record book 3 (1838-63).
13 On 15 November 1864. Calcutta diocesan register.
14 USPG archives, Borneo - letters received 2, McDougall to E. Hawkins, 23 May 1861.
15 PRO, CO 144/28.
16 USPG archives, Borneo - letters received 2, C. Brooke to McDougall, 24 May 1868.
17 PRO, CO 144/30, Tait to secretary of state for the colonies, 22 February and 30 April and 5 June 1869.
18 PRO, copy of patent roll (chancery) 33 Victoria, pt 1 no 12.
19 PRO, CO 404/5.
20 Ann, Lok Keng, Fifty Years of the Anglican Church in Singapore Island 1909-1959 (Singapore 1963) p 2 Google Scholar. There is an undated copy in the Kuching diocesan register I.
21 L[ambeth] P[alace] L[ibrary], Tait 1880 L 28 Bp of Labuan, C. Brooke to Tait, 26 December 1879.
22 Ibid, Tait 1880 L 28 Bp of Labuan, McDougall to Davidson, 8 January 1880.
23 Ibid, Tait 1880 L 28 Bp of Labuan.
24 Singapore diocesan records, record book 5; royal licence, notarial act, and commission.
25 Kuching diocesan register 1. LPL, Davidson box 1 Labuan 1916.
26 LPL, Tait 1881 Singapore and Labuan, Hose to Tait, 17 May 1881. USPG archives, Borneo - letters received 2, Tait to Hose, 18 May 1881.
27 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, Montgomery to Davidson, undated memorandum.
28 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, Montgomery to Davidson, 5 December 1907.
29 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, C. Brooke to Davidson, 20 February 1908.
30 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, Montgomery to Davidson, 24 February 1908.
31 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, Davidson to Mounsey, 8 January 1909; Mounsey to Davidson, 10 January 1909.
32 Ibid, Davidson 1909 S8 Sarawak, Davidson to C. Brooke, 25 January 1909.
33 Kuching diocesan register 1, A. C. Pearson to Mounsey, 8 August 1910; Mounsey to Pearson, 28 August 1910. LPL, Davidson 1910 L1 Labuan, Mounsey to Davidson, 29 February 1910.
34 LPL, Davidson box 1 Labuan 1916, memorandum by Montgomery, 23 June 1916.
35 Ibid, Davidson box 1 Labuan 1916, C. Brooke to Davidson, 6 July 1916.
36 The papers are in LPL, Davidson box 1 Labuan 1916.
37 Kuching diocesan register 1.
38 Sabah central archives, file 64 church and state.
39 Bishop Chung to the present writer, 6 April 1974.