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Globalising British Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: The Imperial Anglican Emigrant Chaplaincy 1846– c . 1910

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03086534.2014.941158

1743-9329

Rowan Strong,

Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment

AbstractThis article argues for the importance of religion in mass emigration from Britain in the nineteenth century. It does so by examining the origins and development of the Anglican emigrant chaplaincy developed from the 1840s to nurture the spiritual welfare of British emigrants departing for the British settler colonies over the rest of the nineteenth century. Developed over succeeding decades by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the chaplaincy expanded into a global network. By the 1880s it incorporated chaplains at British ports of embarkation and colonial ones of disembarkation, chaplains travelling on ships with emigrants and matrons supervising parties of single women. Although principally concerned with caring for Anglican emigrants, the chaplains regarded it as their business, as clergy of the national church, to provide ministry to a wide variety of emigrants, including Nonconformists, Germans and Jews. The article argues for the significance of the Anglican emigrant chaplaincy as an international network enabling the expansion of British Christianity and the export of social capital in the form of religious connectivity throughout the settler colonies of the British Empire. Notes1 Thomas Childs to unnamed, St Mary's Devonport, 20 May 1848, USPG, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 12, Letters from Revd T. C. Childs, Chaplain to Emigrants Devonport 1848–50, Rhodes House Library (hereafter RHL).2 The chaplain's name is spelt variously in the SPG and SPCK records, but the most frequent usage is ‘Welsh’ (rather than ‘Welch’), which is, accordingly, used here.3 J. W. Welsh, Quarterly Report ending 12 Nov. 1854, 11, emigrant chaplains, C/emigrants/1, File 1 Chaplain to the emigrants, Rev J. W. Welsh, Liverpool, Quarterly reports, 1854–58, USPG records, RHL.4 The Douay version was an authorised English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, first published as a complete Bible in 1610.5 J. W. Welsh, Quarterly Report ending 12 Nov. 1854, 14–17, emigrant chaplains, C/emigrants/1, File 1 Chaplain to the emigrants, Rev J. W. Welsh, Liverpool, Quarterly reports, 1854–58, USPG records, RHL.6 Report of Welsh for quarter ended Aug. 1853, SPCK Monthly Report Nov. 1853, 8–9, Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL). SPCK MS B2/1853; SPCK monthly report, July 1905, 424; SPCK MS B2/1904–05, CUL.7 Ladies Emigration Committee, 29 Oct. 1909, 138, 25 Feb. 1910, 140, SPCK MS A19/1 1897–1911, CUL.8 Gemery, ‘Markets for Migrants’.9 Souden, ‘English Indentured Servants’.10 Anderson, ‘Convicts and Coolies’.11 Gothard, Blue China.12 Jones, ‘The Background to Emigration’.13 Morgan, Visible Saints; Anderson, ‘Migrants and Motives’.14 Bauer, Under the Southern Cross; Leske, For Faith and Freedom.15 Among a plethora of modern studies, see Bouma, Many Religions, All Australian; Warner, Gatherings in Diaspora; Haddad, Smith and Esposito, Religion and Immigration.16 See, for example, Gothard, Blue China; Roberts and Simmons, ‘British Chemists Abroad 1887–1971’; Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor; Bolton, ‘The Idea of a Colonial Gentry’.17 Richards, Britannia's Children.18 Erickson, ‘Emigration from the British Isles’.19 Prescod, Good Food, Bright Fires & Civility, 141–47.20 Baines, Migration in a Mature Economy, 29.21 Harper, ‘British Migration and the Peopling of the Empire’.22 Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, 337–44.23 Magee and Thompson, Empire and Globalisation.24 Aspinwall, ‘Scots and Irish Clergy’; Kells, ‘Religion and the Irish Migrant’; MacDonagh, ‘The Irish Catholic Clergy and Emigration’; Sloan, ‘Religious Affiliation and the Immigrant Experience’.25 Meredith, ‘Irish Episcopalians’.26 Malchow, ‘The Church and Emigration’.27 Howells, ‘“On Account of their Disreputable Characters”’.28 Carey, God's Empire, 23.29 Ibid., 39.30 Ibid., 308.31 Ibid., 309.32 James Belich notes that New Zealand church attendance, first measured in 1874, was just under 40 per cent of the population over the age of 15. Though there is some question about the inclusion of children below this age, he somewhat arbitrarily rounds the statistic off at 25 per cent of the white (Pakeha) population. By confining his discussion to regular church attendance as a measure of religious commitment, and thereby reducing Anglican adherence by half from 42.5 per cent of Pakeha to the 28.8 per cent who were church attenders, Belich anachronistically declines to accept the self-description of many Anglicans (and, by implication, other colonists who were so-called ‘nominal’ adherents of other denominations) of the period who maintained a voluntary nominated connection with their church. Belich, Making Peoples, 417. Colonists' religion is also ignored in standard histories of Australia such as the relevant volume of the Oxford History of Australia by Jan Kociumbas aside from some scattered references to church building and denominational involvement in education.33 Clark, A History of Australia, vol. 1, 105–06. See also Aveling, ‘Western Australian Society’; Hogan, The Sectarian Strand.34 Harper, Emigration from North-East Scotland, 18 n. 35.35 Baines, Migration in a Mature Economy, 2–3, 47–48; Harper and Constantine Migration and Empire, 1–2.36 Baines, Migration in a Mature Economy, 61.37 Donnelly Jr, ‘Excess Mortality and Emigration’, 353.38 Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, 25.39 Harper, ‘British Migration and the Peopling of the Empire’, 79.40 Harper and Constantine. Migration and Empire, 3.41 Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the SPG, vol. 1, 150.42 SPCK Standing Committee minutes, 30 Sept. 1833, 3, SPCK MS A5/7 1833–46, CUL; 7 April 1836, 7, 6 June 1846, 49, SPCK MS A5/8 1836–38, CUL.43 SPCK Annual Reports 1836, 51–52, SPCK MS B2/1836, CUL.44 Ibid.45 ‘Henry Scougall (1650–1678)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.prospero.murdoch.edu.au (accessed 19 November 2012).46 The complete 1859 list was: TableDownload CSVDisplay TableThe Following Works have been placed on the supplemental Catalogue during the year: TableDownload CSVDisplay TableSPCK Annual Report 1851, 137, 241–2, SPCK MS B1/1859, CUL.47 SPCK monthly report July 1897, 457, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, CUL.48 Childs to Sec. SPG, St Mary's Devonport, 20 May 1848, Letters from Revd T. C. Childs, Chaplain to Emigrants Devonport 1848–50, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 12, USPG, RHL.49 Childs to Sec. SPG, Account of emigrant ship ‘Aboukir’ for South Australia, by chaplain on board—no name no date, partial, 5–12, C/EMIGRANTS/1, file 8, 5–12, USPG, RHL. The report is definitely by Childs as extracts of the same report are given under his name in the Monthly Report of the SPCK for March 1848, 5, SPCK MS B1/1848, CUL.50 Childs, report April 1848, 7, SPCK Monthly Reports, SPCK MS B2/1848, CUL.51 Childs report 1848, St Mary's Devonport 1 June 1850, Letters from Revd T. C. Childs, Chaplain to Emigrants Devonport 1848–50, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 12, USPG, SPG Archives.52 Childs to Bp of Cape Town, 11 Dec. 1849, SPCK Monthly Reports Dec 1849, 7, SPCK MS B2/1849, CUL.53 Childs to Bp of Cape Town, 11 Dec. 1849, SPCK Monthly Reports Dec 1849, 7, SPCK MS B2/1849, CUL.54 ‘Account of emigrant ship—S. Aboukir for S. Australia, by chaplain on board’, 5–12, 8, C/EMIGRANTS/1, file 8, USPG, RHL. There is no name given for the author, no date, and it is a partial transcription. In fact this is by Thomas Childs, written in 1848 as a visitor to the ship in his capacity as emigrant chaplain at the port, as the extract quoted from this report in the SPG Annual Report for 1848 makes clear.55 Childs to Bp of Cape Town, 11 Dec. 1849, SPCK Monthly Reports Dec. 1849, SPCK MS B2/1849, CUL.56 Charlwood, The Long Farewell, 121–24; Swaisland, Servants and Gentlewomen, 77; Thompson, Imperial Britain, 145.57 Childs to Sec. SPG, Account of emigrant ship ‘Aboukir’ for South Australia, by chaplain on board—no name no date, partial, 12, C/EMIGRANTS/1, file 8, 5–12, USPG, RHL.58 Childs to Sec. SPG, St Mary's Devonport, 24 Feb. 1849, Letters from Revd T. C. Childs, Chaplain to Emigrants Devonport 1848-50, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 12, USPG, RHL.59 SPCK Standing Committee minutes, 5 Nov. 1849, 335. SPCK MS A5/12 1846–49, CUL.60 Prescod, Good Food, Bright Fires & Civility, 142–43.61 Colonial Office to Emigration Commissioners, 30 April 1849, Colonial Land and Emigration Commission, Colonial Office (hereafter CO) 384/85, 143–45, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).62 Ninth Annual Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 6.63 Colonial Land and Emigration Office to Thomas Merivale, 16 Feb. 1853, Colonial Land and Emigration Commission, CO 384/90, 91–97, TNA.64 Ibid.65 Colonial Secretary to CLEC, 23 March 1853, Colonial Land and Emigration Commission, CO 384/90, 101–02, TNA.66 SPCK Standing Committee minutes, 30 Oct. 1848, 232, 31 Dec. 1849, 352, SPCK MS A5/12 1846–49 and 14/1853–57, CUL.67 SPCK Standing Committee, 25 April 1853, 4; 4 Oct 1863, 170, SPCK MS A5/14/1853–57, CUL68 SPCK Annual Report 1877, 94, SPCK MS B1/1877, CUL.69 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 17 April 1884, 38, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.70 Speeches Delivered at a Meeting; Proceedings at a Meeting.71 ‘Emigrants’ Spiritual Aid Fund’, SPG Annual Report 1849, ccxxi–ccxxiii.72 ‘Emigrants’, SPG Annual Report 1852, cxxii.73 ‘Emigrants Spiritual Aid Fund’, SPG Annual Report 1853, lxxxii.74 Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the SPG, vol. 2, 820.75 Howells, ‘“On Account of their Disreputable Characters”’, 587–605.76 Childs to unnamed, St Mary's Devonport 1 June 1850, Letters from Revd T. C. Childs, Chaplain to Emigrants Devonport 1848–50, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 12, USPG, RHL.77 Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, 203.78 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 15 Feb. 1886, 70, SPCK MS B2/1882–83, CUL.79 SPCK monthly report July 1897, 457, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, CUL.80 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 27 Dec. 1889, 5–9, SPCK MS A18/2 1890–95, CUL.81 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 27 April 1904, 181, 183, SPCK MS A18/4 1900–10, CUL.82 Undated single sheet leaflet listing government officers in Britain, Canada, Australian colonies and New Zealand and clergymen in England and the colonies willing to meet emigrant ships. The leaflet is undated but it gives a Plymouth printer at the end, and is headed by a statement from Childs stating that it is important for emigrants to possess a copy. It seems likely it was intended to be given to Anglican clergymen as it gave the names and addresses of clergy in English and colonial ports to whom emigrants could be commended by letter. The leaflet can be dated after May 1849 because it lists Welsh as chaplain at Liverpool, and he was appointed at that time.83 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 15 Feb. 1886, 70–71, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.84 SPCK monthly report, May 1883, 17, SPCK MS B2/1882–83, CUL.85 SPCK monthly report July 1897, 457, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, 457, CUL.86 Allan K Davidson, ‘Abraham, Charles John’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1a2/1 (accessed 19 November 2012).87 Report of the Emigrants Spiritual Aid Fund, SPG Annual Report 1849, ccxxiii.88 SPCK Emigration Committee, 18 May 1886, 87, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.89 For example, the Archbishop of Cape Town in 1858, SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 30 April 1898, 177, SPCK MS A18/3 1896–1900, CUL.90 Boddy, By Ocean, Prairie and Peak, 7–8.91 SPCK monthly report July 1897, 457, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, CUL.92 Hammerton, Emigrant Gentlewomen, 92.93 Judith Iltis, ‘Chisholm, Caroline (1808–1877)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chisholm-caroline-1894, (accessed 20 November 2012).94 Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, 192; Swaisland, Servants and Gentlewomen, 19.95 Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, 192–93.96 Ibid., 194.97 The records of the BLFES, investigated by the author in 2012 when they were housed at the Women's Library in the London Metropolitan University, have not preserved any extant matrons’ reports. Neither did those of the British Women's Emigration Association, the Female Middle Class Emigration Society or the Girls Friendly Society, all kept in the same location.98 Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, 193.99 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 22 Feb. 1886, 63, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.100 Ibid.101 Hammerton, Emigrant Gentlewomen, 150–51.102 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 15 Feb. 1886, 66, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.103 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 11 March 1886, 82, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.104 SPCK Emigration Committee minutes, 15 Feb. 1886, 66, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.105 SPCK Emigration Committee, 17 March 1897, 102, SPCK MS A18/1 1882–89, CUL.106 SPCK Emigration Committee, 27 Feb. 1896, 5–7, SPCK MS A18/3 1896–1900, CUL.107 SPCK Ladies Emigration Committee, SPCK MS A19/1 1897–1911, CUL.108 ‘Report of Ladies’ Meeting’, 27 April 1897, 100–04, SPCK Emigration Committee, SPCK MS A18/3 1896–1900, CUL.109 SPCK Emigration Committee, 28 Oct. 1897, 126, SPCK MS A18/3 1896–1900, CUL.110 SPCK Ladies Emigration Committee, 17 Feb. 1898, 12–13, SPCK MS A19/1 1897–1911, CUL.111 Welsh, quarterly report to SPCK, March 1859, 30, SPCK Monthly reports, SPCK MS B2/1859, CUL.112 Prescod, Good Food, Bright Fires & Civility, ix–x, 49, 82, 85–88.113 Schäfer and Clark, ‘Emigrants and Immigrants, Mission Work among’, 119–20.114 The captain of the emigrant ship Charlotte Jane reported such visits before his ship sailed in June 1848. Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, Ninth General Report, London, 1849, Appendix no. 6, 38, CO 384/84, TNA.115 The Revd P. Browne to Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 19 May 1852, CO 386/1848–73, 246–48, TNA.116 Fischer-Tiné, ‘Global Civil Society and the Forces of Empire’, 29–67, 36.117 Ibid., 39.118 Ibid., 42119 Booth, Emigration and the Salvation Army, 22–23.120 Sandall, History of the Salvation Army, vol. 3, 155–58.121 Shepperson, British Emigration to North America, 135.122 Sonne, Saints on the Seas, 27–28.123 Ibid., 30–33.124 Ibid., 138.125 Ibid., 69126 Ibid., 31.127 Ibid., 69, 137.128 Magee and Thompson, Empire and Globalisation, 16.129 Ibid., 47.130 Ibid., 49.131 Snell, Parish and Belonging, 168, 363–64.132 Ibid., 366.133 Ibid., 398–405.134 The 1844 Leeds Vicarage Act subdivided the single parish of Leeds, with its population of over 150,000 into smaller parishes, with the support and financial assistance of the vicar, Walter Hook. Snell, Parish and Belonging, 390–91.135 Ibid., 414–21.136 Ibid., 440–41.137 Ambler. Churches, Chapels, 179.138 Smith, Religion in Industrial Society, 239–42.139 Ambler, Churches, Chapels, 185.140 Ibid., 186–88. The churching of women was the traditional Anglican prayerbook service for women after the birth of a child.141 Ibid., 188.142 Ibid., 201.143 Norman, Church and Society in England 1770–1970, 145–46. Chadwick, The Victorian Church, 302–07.144 Snell, Parish and Belonging, 444–45.145 Ibid., ch. 3.146 Ibid., 501.147 There were some small areas that were legally and ecclesiastically extra-parochial for a variety of legal and customary reasons.148 William J Welsh report 12 Feb. 1854, 7, C/EMIGRANTS/1/file 2, USPG, RHL.149 Welsh report 1864, partial, 10–11, c/emigrants/1, file 3, USPG, RHL.150 SPCK Monthly Report, July 1898, 479, SPCK MS B2/1897–98, CUL.151 SPCK Monthly Reports, July 1904, 427, SPCK.MS B2/1903–04, CUL.152 SPCK Monthly Reports, July 1906, 481, SPCK MS B2/1905–06, CUL.153 Harper and Constantine, Migration and Empire, 230, 226.154 Swaisland, Servants and Gentlewomen, 24.155 SPCK monthly report, July 1897, 462, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, CUL.156 SPCK monthly report, July 1912, 221, SPCK MS B2/1896–97, CUL.157 Mackenzie, Propaganda and Empire, 2.158 Webster, Debate on the Rise of the British Empire, 73.159 Strong, Anglicanism and the British Empire, ch. 4.