Baptist Missionary Society

IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0469 BMS
Held at: Angus Library, Regents Park College
Domain: archival
Title: Baptist Missionary Society
Date(s) of contents: 1736-1939
Level of description: Fonds
Extent and medium: c 500 metres of mss in boxes and volumes; 10 map drawers of maps; 32,600 photographic images, both prints and lantern slides.

CONTEXT

Name of creator(s):
Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Zenana Mission
BZM
Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Biblewomen in India, in connection with the Baptist Missionary Society
Serampore Mission

Administrative/Biographical history: The Baptist Missionary Society (BMS; originally known as the Particular Baptist Missionary Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, and since the year 2000 as BMS World Mission) was established in 1792, largely at the instigation of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association. It was the first Protestant society to be founded specifically for the purpose of overseas mission, and its earliest mission was that founded by William Carey (1761-1834), Joshua Marshman (1768-1837) and William Ward (1769-1823) in Serampore, Bengal (now West Bengal, India), in 1793 (the Serampore Mission separated from its parent society in 1827, reuniting in 1837). During the nineteenth century it established missions in the West Indies (Jamaica 1813) and played an active part in the abolition of slavery. Missions were subsequently established in Ceylon (1830), the Cameroons (Fernando Po 1841), Europe (Brittany 1843), China (1845), the Congo (1873). In 1891 the society merged with the General Baptist Missionary Society (founded 1816) to become the Baptist Missionary Society (a title which the 1792 society had used informally for much of the nineteenth century), and the pioneering work continued, with an emphasis in all mission fields on education, translation, publication, social and medical welfare, alongside pastoral and evangelistic work.

An important aspect of the society's work was the establishment of subgroups and auxiliaries. These included the Bible Translation Society, which was formed in 1840 to act as a support to the BMS, and which in 1920 became the Bible Translation and Literature Auxiliary. Another auxiliary of note was the Baptist Zenana Mission (BZM; full title 'Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Biblewomen in India, in connection with the Baptist Missionary Society') which was formed in 1867; its medical mission work passed to the Medical Mission Auxiliary in 1902, and in 1914 the BZM became the Women's Missionary Association (WMA; also known as the Women's Committee) of the BMS but retained its separate committee and funds (its finances were merged with those of the BMS in 1925). The Medical Mission Auxiliary had been formed in 1901 in connection with the BMS and the BZM; it lost its independence in 1925 when it became the Medical Committee of the BMS. The Baptist Girls' Auxiliary was formed in 1903 and continued strongly up to 1953, but by then the Secretariat was reduced to one and so gradually the work merged with the youth work of the Society.

A change in the role of the BMS after 1914 was reflected in the progressive devolution of authority from mission to church, often during times of great political upheaval. In its missionary work in Brazil, commenced in 1953, and more generally in all its work since the 1960s, the BMS adapted to the changing needs of churches in the mission fields in the face of global ecumenical developments, and this was reflected in the society's change of name, in 2000, to BMS World Mission.

See also:
Brian Stanley, The history of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1992 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992).

Custodial history: Due to destruction in 1940 all original provenance of the documents is lost.

Immediate source of acquisition: The archives of the Baptist Missionary Society were deposited with the Angus Library, Regent's Park College, in 1989.

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

Scope and content/abstract: The collection includes:

HOME SERIES
Committee minutes (including General Committee, Sub-Committee reports, Finance Committee and South Asia, China and West Indies Sub-Committees) 1792-1961 (c 283 volumes).
Deputation reports (for all mission fields) c 1850-1950 (c 35 volumes).
Candidates Sub-Committee (minute books, register and candidates' papers) 1861-1962 (c 56 boxes).
Uncatalogued home papers (including prayer letters, nominal papers and miscellaneous material) c 1840-1992 (c 222 boxes).
General home correspondence 1792-1962 (138 boxes).

OVERSEAS MAIN SERIES (for all mission fields, refer to the Committee Minutes series for relevant minutes).

Africa
Cameroons (now Cameroon) and Fernando Po (including correspondence, legal agreements, account books and proclamations by British consuls), 1795-1908 (78 boxes and 1 volume).
Congo and Angola (including correspondence, papers, secretariat material, personal journals, survey and log books, material on various field councils, and the Conseil Protestant du Congo, reports of the Congo Missionary Conference, papers relating to Kinshasa and to the Angola crisis, medical papers and reports, theses, miscellaneous papers), 1877-1974 (129 boxes and 105 volumes).
Sierra Leone (correspondence), 1795-1796 (1 part box).

Australasia (correspondence and papers from Australia and New Zealand) 1868-1930 (1 part box).

Bangladesh (correspondence, reports and papers) 1932-1962 (3 boxes).

Brazil (correspondence of the Reverend Arthur Elder) 1948-1961 (1 file).

Canada (correspondence and reports) 1844-1962 (2 part boxes).

China (correspondence of missionaries and associated papers, papers relating to the Secretariat, associated Mission Treasurers, missionaries' allowances, property matters, medical reports, hospitals, higher education colleges, the Inter-Provincial Council, the Chinese Christian Literature Council, and miscellaneous papers and reports), 1867-1964 (78 boxes).

Europe
France (correspondence and papers) (1 box).
Italy (correspondence, accounts, reports and papers) 1867-1925 (4 boxes).

India
Minutes of the India Missionary Conference, 1888-1920 (6 volumes).
Correspondence (of missionaries, the Secretariat, circular letters and miscellaneous correspondence, personal journals) 1793-1962 (150 boxes and 53 volumes).
Reports and papers (India Report, India Policy Committee papers, reports of the Calcutta Tract and Book Society, Christian Literature in India, log book of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Medical Mission, reports and papers of the Bengal Baptist Union, school reports and minutes, India stations and institutions, and theses) 1812-1959 (10 boxs, 93 volumes and c 70 files).
Serampore Mission (minutes, missionaries' wills, papers, including those of the Serampore College Sub-Committee, and manuscript booklets of notes) 1783-1959 (21 boxes and 3 volumes).

Japan (correspondence) 1878-1901 (1 part box).

South East Asia (correspondence of missionaries: 1 box):
Burma (now Myanmar) 1812.
Java 1814-1816.
Malaya (Malaysia) 1953.
Sumatra 1814-1850.

Sri Lanka (correspondence of missionaries, material relating to the Ceylon Secretariat, minutes of the Colombo Station Committee, reports of the Ceylon Baptist Council, and other miscellaneous material) 1807-1962 (14 boxes and 1 volume).

West Indies (reports, deeds, extracts from letters and theses) 1800-1947 (c 13 boxes, 21 items, 1 volume and one shelf).
Bahamas (correspondence) 1835-1927 (1 box).
British Honduras (now Belize) (correspondence) 1824-1847 (1 box).
Dominican Republic (correspondence) 1878-1891 (1 part box).
Haiti (correspondence and other papers) 1877-1880, 1950-1955 (2 part boxes).
Jamaica (correspondence and uncatalogued papers) 1819-1962 (8 boxes).
Trinidad (correspondence plus a large quantity of reports, journals and pamphlets, many printed) 1867-1956 (2 boxes).

Home Preparation Union (minute book) 1915-1938 (1 volume).

Baptist Zenana Mission (minute books (BZM and WMA), agenda books, reports, papers and Baptist Zenana Movement Papers) 1852-1961 (52 volumes and c 1.5 boxes).

Bible Translation Society (miscellaneous papers and letter book, minutes) 1837-1947 (2 boxes and 6 volumes).

Girls' Auxiliary (minutes, correspondence, paper and history) 1905-1960s (c 2 boxes).

Medical Mission Auxiliary (minutes of committees) 1910-1962 (20 volumes).

Women's Missionary Association (minutes, accounts and agendas) 1915-1961 (17 volumes and 1 part box).

London Baptist Missionary Union (minutes and attendence book) 1913-1962 (10 boxes and 5 volumes).

Photographs (a small selection of which are included in the Mundus Gallery).

System of arrangement: At the time of writing (September 2002), the BMS archive is in the process of being rearranged. Due to destruction in 1940 all original provenance of the documents was lost.

Missionary corrrespondence is arranged by continent/country, and therein alphabetically by name of missionary. Letters to missionaries from the secretaries of the BMS are kept with the appropriate missionaries' papers, but letters or documents prepared by the secretary and sent to recipients other than missionaries are kept in the Home Section even though they may concern a foreign mission field.

Zenana missionary correspondence is included under the country concerned, rather than listed separately.

Home correspondence is arranged roughly chronologically.

ACCESS AND USE

Language: Mostly English, plus many others including Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, Hindi, Latin, Russian and Syriac.

Conditions governing access:

Conditions governing reproduction:
Baptist Missionary Society permission required.
Within the law, at the discretion of the Archivist or the Librarian.

Physical characteristics: Many documents very fragile, therefore consultation of microfilm copy is often preferred.

Finding aids: Printed catalogues of missionary correspondence of missionaries dead or retired before 1914.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material: The collection is supplemented by other Baptist and Baptist Missionary Society material in the Angus Library, such as the Jamaica and Cameroons Missionary Papers, the John Clarke Papers (Acc 148) which consists of a file of correspondence (1841-1847) relating to the London Baptist Mission in Bioko and Cameroon, and the Fenn Papers (D/FEN) which consists of correspondence relating to the abolition of slavery in Jamaica, and the Duncan Papers which relate to BMS work in China in the late nineteenth century.

Copies: Microfilm of archives of the Baptist Missionary Society is available from the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. Available microfilm consists of: minutes of the Society (1792-1914), minutes of Society committees (1793-1914), home office correspondence (1792-1914), and missionary journals and correspondence (1792-1914).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Date(s) of descriptions: September 2002.

INDEX ENTRIES

Subjects

Linguistics

Slavery

Social structure

Translation

Personal names

Carey | William | 1761-1834 | Baptist missionary in India and founder of the Serampore Mission

Clarke | John | 1802-1879 | Baptist missionary in Jamaica and Cameroon

Elder | Arthur | Baptist minister and missionary in Brazil

Knibb | William | 1803-1845| Baptist missionary and anti-slavery campaigner in the West Indies

Marshman | Joshua | 1768-1837 | Baptist missionary in India and member of the Serampore Trio

Phillippo | James | d 1879 | Baptist missionary in the West Indies

Richard | Timothy | 1845-1919 | Baptist missionary in China

Saker | Alfred J S | 1814-1880 | Baptist missionary in Cameroon

Ward | William | 1769-1823 | Baptist missionary in India and member of the Serampore Trio

Wenger | John | 1811-1880| Baptist missionary and translator in India

Corporate names

BMS

BZM

Baptist Missionary Society

Baptist Zenana Mission

Bible Translation Society

Bible Translation and Literature Auxiliary

Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Biblewomen in India, in connection with the Baptist Missionary Society

Medical Mission Auxiliary

Serampore Mission

WMA

Women's Missionary Association

Places

Africa

Americas

Angola

Asia

Australia

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Belize

Bioko

Cameroon

Canada

Caribbean

Central Africa

Central America

China

Congo

Dominican Republic

East Asia

Equatorial Guinea

Europe

France

Haiti

India

Indonesia

Italy

Japan

Java

Kinshasa

Malaysia

Myanmar

New Zealand

North America

Oceania

Serampore

Sierra Leone

South Asia

South East Asia

Southern Africa

Sri Lanka

Sumatra

Trinidad and Tobago

West Africa

West Bengal

Western Europe