The navy was linked with the beginning of the Protestant missionary movement, first by setting the context in which it operated and then by facilitating its expansion. In West Africa the navy and the church collaborated against the slave trade. In China by contrast missionary work followed the opening of her ports to trade and western influence by seaborne firepower. Wherever the navy’s reach extended, missionaries from Britain might find themselves the object of attention, to protect their lives or exploit their presence for more secular purposes. Was Christianity served by such an alliance with imperialism?

Setting a context for Protestant overseas missions

The Protestant churches were centuries behind Catholicism in engaging with adherents of different religions: when Moravians with roots in German pietism began preaching in the Caribbean in the 1750s, Protestant missions to foreign lands were pretty well a new phenomenon. Before that time the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had begun a modest ministry to North American Indians in 1710. The English East India Company was always wary of evangelising Hindus and Muslims for fear of offending the indigenous culture. During this period of neglect, Middleton developed a concern for cross-cultural evangelisation: he approved of the Moravian mission when it was the only ministry offered to black slaves, and he counted their leaders, Benjamin La Trobe and his son, amongst his intimate friends. He helped find a living in St Kitts for James Ramsay, who preached to plantation owners on issues of justice and fairness, and also held services for blacks as well as whites in his parish church – beforewriting an apoplexy-inducing pamphlet on how they might be converted to Christianity. Middleton spoke in parliament to support Ramsay against his detractors from the planter interest. From the British West Indies to West Africa and Australia, he encouraged Christian missions: as comptroller he organised shipping for the First Fleet of convicts to Botany Bay in 1787–8, collaborating with Ramsay over details of medical and religious provision, and with help from Wilberforce securing an evangelical clergyman for the venture.