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Voluntary Absolutism: British Missionary Societies in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Hinchliff*
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford

Extract

In 1818 Dr John Philip was sent out to supervise the London Missionary Society stations at the Cape of Good Hope. His first letter to the Society’s headquarters is dated from Liverpool on 5 December of that year and contains the statement, ‘We have been at sea for seventeen days and are still in the Mersey River.’ Philip went on to ask for various items, including - significantly perhaps - a barometer! And there was time for the barometer to reach him before he left the Mersey: it was a further five days before the winds changed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1986

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References

1 London University School of Oriental and African Studies, LMS Incoming Correspondence South Africa Box 7 Folder 5 Jacket C.

2 Oliver, R., The Missionary Factor in East Africa 2 ed (London 1965) pp. 50-66 and 74.Google Scholar

3 Hinchliff, P., ‘The Blantyre Scandal: Scottish Missionaries and Colonialism’, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 46 (1984) pp. 2938.Google Scholar

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5 Rhodes House Oxford, USPG Archives C/IND/Gen 4: Watson to Archbishop Manners Sutton, December 1817. As from May 1985 the USPG archives are being transferred to Rhodes House. The references given here are to the classi fication used before the transfer but will enable documents to be found without difficulty in the new location.

6 Nemer, L., Anglican and Roman Catholic Attitudes on Missions: An Historical Study of two English Missionary Societies in the late Nineteenth Century (1865-1885), Studia Instituti Missiologici Societatis Verbi Divini 29, (St Augustin 1981).Google Scholar

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8 See e.g. CMS Archives CA1/E1, No 21; now transferred to Selly Oak College, Birmingham.

9 LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 5 Folder 1 Jacket F and Folders 2 and 3: letters from G. Thorn and J. Campbell.

10 E.g. London University School of Oriental and African Studies, MMS Archives Correspondence - South Africa: Cape Box 6 File 1829-34: B. Shaw, 31 August 1830 which implies this kind of ignorance.

11 Hewat, E.G.K., Vision and Achievement (London 1960) pp. 89.Google Scholar

12 MMS Archives C - South Africa General Box 1 File 1819 and File 1820.

13 Hinchliff, P. ed, The Journal of John Ayliff (Cape Town 1971) p. 55.Google Scholar

14 LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 13 Folder 1 Jacket D and Box 14 Folder i Jacket B: T. Edwards, 6 November 1832 and 28 March 1834.

15 LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 18 Folder 3 Jacket C.

16 LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 18 Folder 4 Jacket B.

17 Missionary Conference of the Anglican Communion, Official Report (London 1894) p. 54.

18 Walls, A.F., ‘“The Best Thinking of the Best Heathen”: Humane Learning and the Missionary MovementSCH 17 (1981) pp. 341 and 351-352.Google Scholar

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25 E.g. LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 6 Folder 2 Jacket E: report to the Society from G. Thorn dated 23 December 1814.

26 National Library of Scotland Ace. 7548 - D.i.

27 Journal of John Ayliff pp. 11 and 105: for a succinct description of the range of publications produced by CMS in the second half of the century, see Nemer pp. 65-67.

28 Journal of John Ayliff p. 6.

29 E.g. LMS Archives Incoming South Africa Box 9 Folder 1 Jacket B: J. Melvill 28 May 1823.

30 Nemer pp. 46-48.

31 Nemer pp. 44-46.

32 CMS Archives: G3/A5/P3.

33 Warren, M. ed To Apply the Gospel: Selections from the writings of Henry Venn (Grand Rapids 1971) pp. 25-26, 51-52, 74-78 Google Scholar: Yates, T.E., Venn and the Victorian Bishops Abroad (London and Uppsala 1978) pp. 1617.Google Scholar

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35 Norman, E.R., Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere: the Churches in Latin America and South Africa (Oxford 1981) p. 109 and cf p. 191 Google Scholar (where ‘fiendly’ is presumably a misprint for ‘friendly’).

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39 The other two were a draft bill which had been agreed by the House of Lords but rejected by the Commons in 1853, and the constitution of the American church; see Hinchliff, P., The One-Sided Reciprocity (London 1966) pp. 184185.Google Scholar

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