YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

^etveH^

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

*

THE DAY MISSIONS LIBRARY

"GLORIOUS LIBERTY

"GLORIOUS LIBERTY"

THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS'
WORK OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST
MISSION

COMPILED FROM UNPUBLISHED MSS.
BY JAMAICA BAPTIST MINISTERS AND
OTHER SOURCES ON BEHALF OF THE
EXECUTIVE OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST
UNION BY LEONARD TUCKER, M.A.,
FORMERLY TUTOR AT THE CALABAR
(BAPTIST) COLLEGE, KINGSTON, JAMAICA

LONDON
THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY
19, FLTRNIVAL STREET
1914

CONTENTS CHAPTER I
Jamaica before 1814 - - 1
CHAPTER IIJ
Baptist Mission Work in Jamaica under the English
Baptist Missionary Society - - 11
CHAPTER III
The Story of the Self-supporting Baptist Churches - 42
CHAPTER IV
The Jamaica Baptist Union - - - - 106
CHAPTER V
The Educational Work of the Jamaica Baptist Mission 117
CHAPTER VI
Missionary Work of the Jamaica Baptist Mission 142
Conclusion - 159
List of Missionaries and Pastors during the Century 163
Books on Jamaica Consulted and Referred to 167

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE
Beautiful Jamaica : A North Coast Scene - Frontispiece
A Family Group - "
Old Jamaica - - n
Young Jamaica - - n
Rev. William Knibb .... - 21
Rev. Thomas Burchell - - - - 21
Falmouth Baptist Chapel - 37
Replica of the Cameo (Pleading Slave) modelled by
William Hackwood about 1770 for Josiah Wedgwood,
F.R.S.  37
Commemorative Tablet in Falmouth Baptist Chapel 37
Giant Cactus of Jamaica ... - 43
Among the Sugar-Canes - - 43
Minister and Church Workers - - - S3
Building a Chapel by Free Labour - 53
Typical Peasant Homes - - - - 65
A Country Road ..... 65
Veteran Friends of the Jamaica Baptist Mission:
Dr. Joseph Angus ------ 77
Rev. J. J. Fuller .... 77
Dr. Underhill - .... 77
Rev. J. Kingdon - 93
Rev. W. Pratt, M.A. ... . g3
Rev. T. L. Webster
Cyclone Wreckage :
Mount Carey Mission House
Shortwood Church (Outside View) - - -99
Shortwood Church (the Interior) - . 99

93 99

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
TO FACE PAGE
Rev. W. Head - - 102
The Late Mr. T. B. Stephenson 102
Rev. Philip Williams - 102
Earthquake Wreckage : East Queen Street Baptist
Chapel after the Earthquake of January, 1907 103
Westwood Girls' School 121
A Group of Three Presidents :
The Late Rev. D. J. East 125
Rev. A. James, B.A. - - 125
Rev. E. E. Price, B.A., B.D. 125
Calabar College - - 133
The Late Rev. E. J. Hewett 143
Rev. Ellis Fray - - - 143
Mons. L'Herrison - - - IS'
Rev. T. Gordon Somers - - 151
The Late Rev. W. M. Webb - - 151
Map of Jamaica - - 1

MAPZOF JAMAICA.

GLORIOUS Liberty-

chapter i
INTRODUCTION

The West Indies is the name given to the semicircle of
tropical islands in the western inlet of the Atlantic Ocean,
between the continents of North and South America.
The origin of the name is uncertain. The traveller Joseph
Acosta, in his " Natural and Moral History of the East and
West Indies," 1604, says that in view of the wonderful objects
and still more wonderful travellers' tales brought back to
Europe by the first explorers of India, then known as the
East Indies, the word " Indies " became used as a general
name for any strange new country. Thus these western
islands were called West Indies. But the term is more
probably due to a mistake of Christopher Columbus, who, on
first sighting San Salvador and Jamaica, thought that they
were the borders of Further India, not knowing of the
6,000 miles of Pacific Ocean lying between. But whatever
its origin, the title is a misnomer. The sun rises over
Calcutta ten hours before it shines on Blue Mountain Peak,
and not less widely separated are the two Indies in the
nationality of their peoples and the history of their contact
with the white men of Northern Europe.
All the West Indies lie within the tropical zone. Most
of them have the same general formation : a central ridge
or cluster of volcanic mountains, strips of plain along

2 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
shore of later date— the work of tiny coral insects, stretches
of coral reef a mile or so from the mainland, and sea-water
intensely blue, kept clean and clear by the westward sweep
of the great Gulf Stream.
All the usual products of the tropics — bamboo, banana,
sugar-cane, coffee, orange, palm, and yam — grow there pro
fusely. There are few wild beasts.
Of many of the islands the political story may be thus
summed up: Inhabited first, as far as we know, by Red
Indian or kindred aborigines ; seized by a European power ;
repeopled by white settlers and negro slaves and a coloured
population of mixed race, to whom have since been added
Hebrew merchants, Hindoo labourers, Chinese shopkeepers,
and Syrian pedlars. II
Jamaica is in the centre of this island system, and physi
cally and socially may be called typical of the whole. Says
Mr. J. M. Phillippo, an honoured Baptist pioneer : " In the
midst of the Caribbean Sea, only a few days' sail from the
vast continent of South America and the Confederated States
of the Mexican Union (1843) on the one hand, and Cuba,
Puerto Rico, San Domingo, on the other, Jamaica is in
the very centre of a population estimated at twenty millions
of human beings."
The Spaniards took Jamaica in 1494. The English took
it from them in 1655. Adventurers and pirates of many
nationalities made Port Royal on the Palisadoes, off
Kingston, their rendezvous and storehouse until, in 1692,
a great earthquake carried the Spanish gold to the bottom
of the sea, together with the drinking-saloons and other
haunts of evil in which it was chiefly spent.
While cotton-growing was the first industry of the slave-
worked plantations in America, sugar-cane cultivation early
became the chief trade in Jamaica, together with the manu-

INTRODUCTION 3
facture of rum, and the principal characters on the sugar
estate, owner, attorney, overseer, book-keeper, headman,
field-hand, figure conspicuously in the drama of early
Jamaica history.
The history of the slave traffic can be studied with advan
tage in the story of Jamaica, because it was here that the
British slavery reached its greatest strength, made its fiercest
struggle, met its final doom.
English ships brought the kidnapped Africans chiefly from
the West Coast and Congo mouth to the island markets, and
an old diagram in the library of the Baptist Mission House,
London, shows the four-foot space between decks where the
" black ivory " was stowed for the voyage.
The slaves on landing were sold in open market to the
slave-owners or their agents. Old books give the impression
that usually a whole family, or at least the mother with the
children, were purchased together, but this was not com
pulsory. On the estate negroes speaking the same dialect were kept
apart to prevent any planned revolt. For speaking to their
white masters, the slaves seem to have been left to pick up
the necessary English phrases as well as they could. Hence
that broad Creole patois, now only heard among the linger
ing " old-time somebodies." Hence also such surviving
African terms as "tata" (grandfather), "massoo" (lift up),
and "nyam" (eat).
There was a belief among the earlier slaves that after death
their spirits, or ghosts, would migrate back to Africa, and
many an exiled negro closed his eyes in the glad hope of this
return to the Fatherland. How many of their free-born and
enlightened descendants, Christian men and women, have
our missionaries seen closing their eyes in death in the sure
and certain hope of a far better home !
Of the wrongs involved in slavery let these three be men
tioned, taken from different spheres of life. First, the
absence of legal standing as a citizen. For any offence, real

4 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
or fancied, a slave might be stretched on the ground and
flogged with a cowhide lash. In the case of women this
involved cruel and degrading exposure, and against such
usage the slave had no right of appeal. Said an old ex-slave
to the writer : " If your mudder being flogged and Busha see
you looking round, your turn come next." And a missionary's
letter of that period mentions a headman, who knew "where
to hit so as to give the sharpest pain without disabling from
work." Secondly, the disregard of woman's chastity and of the
natural ties of family life.
Of the former cruel sin no illustration shall be given. As
the Apostle says : " It is a shame to speak of" these things.
Of the latter let this suffice. An advertisement of the sale
of slaves, preserved in England, says each lot is offered
separately, but the auctioneer is prepared to " break a lot "
(that is, sell mother and children separately) if he gets a
sufficient offer.
Thirdly, the non-provision — to put it very mildly — of any
kind of moral or religious training for the slave population.
This last fact will be fully exemplified in the story of the
early days of our Jamaica Baptist Mission.
I shall say no more here of these evil things. No civilized
man of to-day would attempt to justify them or dare to
recommend their return, but it is well that our young Baptist
people should remember that such things were. Ah ! could
the green cane-fields stretching inland from Montego Bay
say what they used to see, or the old market-place at Black
River or at Falmouth tell the story of a day's sale, or cave
or dungeon at Brownstown reveal its secrets !
And if these things are not now, and have not been for
eighty years, let our youth remeinber that it was not the
march of civilization nor more enlightened legislation, but
the power of religion, the Hand of Jesus working through
His missionary servants, that broke the fetters and let the
oppressed go free. It is the same Hand, not education or

INTRODUCTION 5
property or political rights, that can give freedom from those
worse forms of bondage— slavery to laziness, or to lying,
or to lust — that still enthrall so many of our people and
prevent their upward progress.
It will be well, too, if " this generation," as they read this
mere summary of the old bad days, shall learn the lesson
that this or the like of it is what human life sinks to in any
land, in any age, in which men reject revealed religion and
make gain their god. The Rubber Concessions of Belgian
Congo and the hemp-fields of modern Mexico, tell the same
sad tale as Jamaica in the days of slavery. It is righteous
ness, and that alone, that really exalts any people.

Ill
It was Oliver Cromwell who made Jamaica an English
Colony, and some of the first white settlers in the island
were Puritans or Quakers, God-fearing men, who tried,
according to their lights, to deal justly with their slaves and
even to care for their souls. Mr. George Fox, in his counsels
to his followers on the West Indian plantations, bids them
endeavour to train up their negroes in the fear of God;
" both them that were bought and them that were born in
their families, and to cause the overseers to deal mildly and
gently with them." These good men saw nothing wrong in
slavery, or perhaps had never heard its Tightness challenged.
Seeking earnestly to do spiritual good to those whom ignor-
antly they were wronging, they must be reckoned among
Jamaica's early Christian workers, although in reading their
story one is reminded of the protest of an American slave,
whose pious owner was haranguing him during a flogging :
" Massa, if oonoo* preachee, preachee; an' if oonoo beattee,
beatee, but no preachee and beattee too."
The first organized effort to evangelize the Jamaica negro
* You.

6 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
was made by Moravian missionaries, who came at the invita
tion of certain owners in 1754. With them also slavery was
the chief obstacle to success. Here is a first-hand descrip
tion of what they found :
" Every morning, with the first dawn of day, the shell was
blown to call the slaves to their work, and everyone was
expected to appear immediately and join his party. Each
gang walked off to the field under the direction of the driver,
armed with a long whip. The children, from six to twelve
years of age, were under the care of an elderly negress,
armed with a rod. This infant gang proceeded to the
pastures to clean them, or to do any work suited to their
strength. The gangs toiled all day in the sun ; their covering
at that time being only a cloth tied round their loins. There
was no remission of work except in the middle of the day to
take their meals. Late in the evening, after the setting of
the sun, they returned to their homes ; but, not unfrequently,
to resume labour by the light of the moon. The work was
examined by the overseer. If he was dissatisfied with it, the
labourer, whether man or woman, was laid on the ground
and flogged. Before the whip descended the third time, the
person was covered with blood. Not an evening passed
without hearing the crack of the whip and the shrieks of the
victims. The missionary's first message in such scenes was
supplications, written to the overseer for mercy to those who,
on their knees, with uplifted hands begged for pity and
intercession." " Day after day," says the Moravian narra
tive, "they witnessed the same toil and the same scenes
until Sunday, when the slaves went to the market to bring
home a supply for the week, or to their provision grounds to
labour for their own support. When, or at what time," asks
the Moravian record, "could a missionary labour among
these people ?"
Before long, moreover, slavery itself attacked the mis
sionaries. As no free labourers could be got to work the
provision grounds and pastures of the mission settlement,

INTRODUCTION 7
the Moravian Brethren found themselves obliged to buy
slaves and become owners, and this involved flogging the
disobedient and chasing runaways, as was done on the
estates. The story of this sore burden and perplexity is
frankly told in the admirable volume, published in 1904,
which commemorates the one hundred and fiftieth anni
versary of the Moravian Mission in Jamaica.
The Wesleyan Mission began work here in 1789 with
the advent of Dr. Coke, whose voluminous work, " History
of the West Indies," is characteristic of his energy as a
pioneer missionary in many other fields besides Jamaica.
He says of the spiritual condition of the island : " The form
of godliness was hardly visible, and its power, except in a
few solitary instances, totally unknown." Dr. Coke was
soon followed by other Wesleyans, whose early story is
pathetically like ours in its record of all too frequent death
and bereavement. A little later brethren of this Mission
stood side by side with our Knibb and Burchell during the
perilous days of the slave revolt, 1832. To-day among the
Free Churches the Wesleyan comes next to the Baptist in
number of members, scholars, etc.
As early as 1696 the English Government directed the
Island Government to legislate that all slave owners should
instruct their negroes and have them baptized "when fit
for it," and this implies the presence of Government rectors
and chaplains. But in 1796, just a century later, a member
of Parliament who had lived in Jamaica declared before the
House : " The people are cannibals, and instead of listening
to a missionary, they would certainly eat him." Notwith
standing this supposed peril, it was decreed, in 1797, that
in consideration of additional stipend, the clergy of Jamaica
be made compellable to instruct all such free persons of
colour and such slaves as may be willing to be baptized.
In 1816, however, when the clergy were asked to report to
the Colonial Secretary concerning their work among the
slaves, one wrote : " To bring them to a knowledge of the

8 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
Christian religion is undoubtedly a good design, yet I believe
the difficulties are insurmountable." The difficulties that
this clergyman referred to include the appointed Sunday
market trade, of the character of which another report says :
" Every bad passion of the human heart might be there seen
in operation."
How much the work of the Episcopal Church in Jamaica
has expanded since emancipation, and since that later
emancipation whereby as a Church of Christ it ceased to
be under State patronage and control, it is not for these
pages to record in detail.
Both branches of the Presbyterian Church, the Estab
lished and the Secessional, began work in Jamaica in the
later slave days.

IV
Before coming to those whom we can recognize as the
first Baptist workers in Jamaica, there is a class of religious
teachers among the slaves of whom mention should be made,
and the more so because of their practising baptism.
The kidnapped Africans that were landed on our island
brought with them their ancestral beliefs — idolatry, Moham
medanism, ghost-worship — which were their poor substi
tutes for the true religion. But at the time of the American
War with England several Royalist planters came to
Jamaica from the Southern States, bringing negroes who
had some smattering of Christian worship. These black
men set themselves up as leaders among the Jamaican
slaves, and established what we now call Fanaticism in
its worst and wildest forms. They met at night, sang
doggerel songs in place of hymns, and worked themselves
up into religious hysteria and convulsions, which were
regarded as a sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Such old-time practices as sending a candidate into the
Bush to " have a dream " before he could be regarded as

INTRODUCTION 9
a fit subject for baptism, may have come over with these
misguided teachers ; and much of the so-called worship of
the wilder Revivalists of to-day is likely to have had the
some origin. It cannot be too clearly stated that our
Baptist Mission in Jamaica gives no recognition to such
practices. Animal excitement is no evidence of conversion,
and cannot possibly be the work of that Holy Spirit whose
blessed indwelling manifests itself in righteousness, peace,
and calm and hallowed joy.
It seems a forecast of the direction of Baptist Mission
effort in Jamaica that the first Baptist workers there were
men of African descent. George Lisle (or Liele), a black
man, was brought here from America, in 1783, by his white
owner, who eventually set him free. Lisle had already been
called to the work of a preacher by a Church in Virginia,
of which, like his master, he was a member.
Shocked at the general godlessness of the people of
Kingston, he preached on the race-course, then hired a
room, then organized a Church. And, in 1793, he became
pastor at the first Baptist Chapel built in Jamaica, which
was called from its position the Windward Road Chapel.
Better known in Baptist story is Moses Baker, a coloured
man, and by trade a barber. He, too, came south from the
American settlements, driven out with many others on the
evacuation of New York. He described himself at this time
as " much given to drink and many other bad habits."
A good old black man led him out of darkness into light,
and thus prepared him for the truly great work the heavenly
Master had for him to do.
Mr. J. L. Winn, owner of Adelphi estate, a godly man
of the Quaker sect, came to Kingston in 1786, to find a
Christian teacher for his slaves. Led of God, he found
Moses Baker.
Years later, describing the Church he had formed on
Mr. Winn's estate (afterwards Mr. Vaughan's), Baker said :
" We are of the Baptist persuasion because we believe it

io " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
agreeable to the Scriptures. We hold to be baptized in a
river or place where there is much water." And of Church
discipline he says : " If a brother become a swearer, a forni
cator, or covetous, we hold that he should be put away from
us." The farewell address of Pastor Baker, when he finally
gave up the ministry, contained the prayerful wish " that
the poor might be rich in faith, and the rich abound in
good works."
Other early Baptists were Messrs. Gibbs, Robinson, and
Swiegel, the last-named of whom formed a second Baptist
Church in Kingston. " Parson " Kellick was another good
and able native minister; he was alive in 1864, when his
sphere was visited by a Baptist deputation.
And now before tracing the commencement of the Baptist
Missionary Society's work in Jamaica, let us stand for a
moment, as it were, with bowed heads, by the graves of
Lisle and Baker and their brethren, and thank God for the
blessed truths so plainly testified to by their lives.
That of a truth God is no respector of persons : He fills
with His Spirit the slave and the free man, the son of Ham
with the child of Japheth ; that men are not born Christians,
or made so by national descent, Act of Parliament, or Church
ceremony, but by being born again of the Spirit into newness
of life ; and that men of any nation or class, who sincerely
desire to do the will of God, can ascertain it by the direct
study of His word : no priest or Prayer-Book or catechism
is necessary to set forth its meaning. Is it not because of
the recognition of these primal truths that Baptist Missions
have in every land appealed to the down-trodden and the
outcast ? " The common people heard Him gladly," was
the record of our Master's earthly ministry, and just in pro
portion as we tread in His footsteps, wholly free from colour-
and caste-prejudices, will that record be repeated in our
efforts to proclaim His Gospel.

A FAMILY GROUP.

OLD JAMAICA.

CHAPTER II
BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA UNDER THE ENGLISH
BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY
I
" I have waited several years for some one to send," wrote
Dr. Ryland, the Head of Bristol College, in 1813. His
interest in Jamaica as a mission field had been roused by the
pleading letters of Moses Baker; and that year the good
Doctor had the joy of seeing Mr. John Rowe, one of his own
students, sent out by the Baptist Missionary Society as their
first accredited worker in the West Indies.
Mr. and Mrs. Rowe landed from the sailing ship at
Montego Bay, February 23, 1814, thus making that year
and day the actual date of the commencement of Baptist
mission work in Jamaica.
Mr. Rowe went first to Adelphi to visit Moses Baker, who
was then, like his great namesake in Scripture story, a
veteran in God's service. Thence he went downhill to
Falmouth, where he was to be stationed.
At that period the right to preach was obtained by Govern
ment licence, and the changes of law connected with that
right form a grim comment on State interference with reli
gious work and worship. A very early Act decreed that
slaves should receive instruction from none but clergy of the
Established Church, and then only if the slave-owners
wished it. Another law practically annulled that right for a
period of seven years (1806-14). Another law imposed a
heavy fine on Dissenting ministers for every slave found in
their congregations. 11

12 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Mr. Rowe could at first preach only in his own house. A
magistrate's licence was obtained, but soon after suspended
till August, 1816, and alas ! before that date the preacher's
lips were silenced by death. Mr. Rowe was the first of a
pathetic procession of European workers, who were so soon
cut off by fever and other tropical diseases, that their average
length of service was only three years. Part of this loss was
due, no doubt, to a permanent factor, the hot climate ; part
to overwork, exhausting saddle journeys, and mistaken ideas
on clothing, diet, and personal hygiene. Most of the ministers
of to-day, for example, refrain entirely from alcohol, and to
day the average life of the white minister is by no means a
short one.
Next came Mr. Compere, who, on obtaining his licence,
formed a Baptist Church in Kingston in 1816. Next year,
however, through the failure of his health, he and Mrs.
Compere had to leave Jamaica.
The same year (1817) came Mr. and Mrs. Coultart, who
took charge of the work in Kingston, and opened a day-
school. A year later Mrs. Coultart died, and her husband in
shattered health went to England, determined, however, to
come back, God willing, with gifts from friends at home for
his Jamaica work.
Mr. Coultart's place was taken by Mr. Kitching, whose
span of service is thus summed up : Arrived September, 1818 ;
died December, 1819. Such is the bare outward record, but
the inner record, the good done in that short life, is inde
pendent of time-limits.
In i8ig came Mr. and Mrs. Godden, who opened work in
Spanish Town. Mrs. Godden died that October, and four
years later he had to retire in broken health.
Thus amid pain and bereavement, hopes destroyed, and
lives cut short, the Jamaica Baptist Mission, like every enter
prise which the Divine Master owns as His, began its work.
Did not He suffer and die that His work might be done ?
And we, who look back upon these early labourers from the

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 13
end of the century of our mission work, and are reaping now
the fruit of their service, may reverently recognize therein
the truth of that saying : " Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit."
In January, 1822, East Queen Street Chapel, Kingston, was
opened ; the same year Mr. Tinson came out with his wife,
and, failing to obtain a licence to preach in Manchioneal,
settled in Kingston, forming a Baptist Church in Hanover
Street, which dates from 1826. In 1823 Mr. Thomas Knibb
came out to be Master of Coultart School, in Kingston.
Next year he died, and his wife passed away in England the
following year.
1823 saw also the arrival of notable reinforcements from
England : Messrs. Burchell, Phillippo, and Phillips. The last
named opened work at Annotto Bay, on the north coast, and
gathered many converts; but a year later Mr. and Mrs.
Phillips both died in the space of two days.
Mr. Phillippo took charge of the work at Spanish Town.
The Custos hindered him by refusing a preaching licence
until he could produce a certificate (something like our
modern passport) bearing the seal of the Lord Mayor of
London. This came at last, and Mr. Phillippo commenced
the ministry which has left his name fragrant in the
spiritual history of Spanish Town and throughout the island.
There have been few more gifted, acceptable, and suc
cessful preachers in our Jamaica pastorate than James
Mursell Phillippo; and the Editor warmly recommends
Mr. Phillippo's "Jamaica Past and Present" (1842), and
Dr. Underbill's " Life of J. M. Phillippo" (1881), to all who
desire a clear idea of the work of the early Baptist mis
sionaries sent out by the Home Society.
Mr. BurchelPs name and history are so bound up with the
story of emancipation that I will simply mention here his
taking charge of the work at Crooked Spring on the estate of
Mr. Vaughan, the employer and friend of Moses Baker, and

14 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
his commencing his larger task when, on February 29, 1824,
he formed a Church of twelve members at Montego Bay.
In 1826 Mr. Burchell visited England to recruit and to
collect, leaving his Jamaica pastorates under the charge of a
new missionary, Mr. Mann. On his return Mr. Mann took
charge of Falmouth in 1827, Dut died early in 1830, having
in the meantime assisted Mr. Burchell in founding or develop
ing Baptist Churches at the following places : Montego Bay,
Mount Carey, Shortwood, Bethel Town, Gurney's Mount,
Fletcher's Grove, Watford Hill, Lucea, Crooked Spring,
Falmouth, Rio Bueno, Stewart Town, and Fuller's Field.
And now before recording what comes next, the arrival of
William Knibb, let us inquire what need there was for the
Baptist Missionary Society, which began work in Bengal, to
extend it to Jamaica, and whether it was justified in incurring
all that expenditure of money, and sacrifice of lives far more
precious, which our story thus far has recounted. In answer,
let us examine the testimony of a few eye-witnesses, dating
from about 1800, as to the moral and religious condition of
the Island community when our work began, and the exist
ing provision for religious teaching.
The vice of drunkenness pervaded all ranks, their carousals
being usually accompanied by gambling and all the evils
which follow in its train.
Among the wealthy drunken quarrels happened between
intimate friends and usually ended in a duel, a species of
crime resorted to on the most trifling occasion. There were
very few who did not shorten their lives by intemperance and
violence. Concubinage was almost universal, embracing
nine-tenths of the male inhabitants. The name of a family
man was held in derision. The most shameless adultery was
everywhere prevalent. Groups of white and mulatto chil
dren, offspring of the same father, were frequently brought
up under the same roof. The practice of profane swearing
was unblushingly prevalent. There was a general disregard
of the Sabbath ; the overseers on the estates met together on

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 15
that day to dine at each other's houses and to spend the
evening in amusement. To the slave the Sabbath was at
once the weekly market-day and a social holiday. Thousands
flocked to the public market in the town, where dancing,
yelling, wrestling, fighting, and gambling went on in every
direction. The streets and lanes about the town presented
such scenes of riot and wickedness that a decent person
dared hardly walk out even at noonday. In the evening
every road was crowded with negroes returning from market
with salt, provisions, and groceries, and drunkenness and
riot pervaded the scene.
Is this condition of the Jamaica community a thing to
wonder at ? Wherever a great social evil is recognized and
practised and made the basis of business and legislation,
there general moral degradation is certain to be found.
Again, where the strong part of a community treats the rest
as if they had no souls, the strong part itself tends inevitably
to become spiritually dead. The flower cannot bloom when
the worm is in the bud, nor the health and strength be good
when the fever germ is working in the blood. The wages of
sin is always spiritual death.
As to the provision for religious teaching, a historian
writing in 1807 says : " Surely there never was a greater
inconsistency than a profession of religion here. In some
of the parishes, larger than English shires, there is no
church ; in others there is no priest. In a town which con
tains between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants there is but one
church ; and here when you enter you usually see the curate,
the clerk, the sexton, one or two magistrates, about a dozen
gentlemen, and twice that number of ladies. In fact, as
to the white inhabitants, Christianity is so contrary in its
spirit, doctrines, and injunctions, to their conduct, pre
judices, and interests, that it is not surprising if it is secretly
despised and openly neglected." " In the towns," says the
same record, " many of the stores are open on Sunday, and
business is transacted as usual. The only difference is that

16 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
the clerks and negroes generally have the day to themselves,
the former spending it in amusement, the latter in idleness
and debauchery." "Many of the white colonists," says
another author, " have rarely been in a place of worship
in their lives."
Surely, with such conditions prevailing in Jamaica, there
was abundant reason for some evangelical society that pro
claimed Christ crucified as the Saviour of sinners and the
Restorer of man to sonship with his Creator, to enter in
and get to work ; and Rowe, Coultart, and Phillippo, open
ing chapels, founding schools, visiting planters' houses
and the barracks of the slaves, were as truly engaged in
missionary work as Carey, Marshman, and Ward in the
heart of heathen India.
William Knibb arrived in Jamaica on February 12, 1825.
He was then twenty-two years of age. Born in Kettering,
he had entered business life at Fuller's Printing Works,
Bristol, in 1816. It was at Broadmead Church that he
found his Saviour, and was baptized in 1822. Already he
had desires for missionary service, and, when informed of
his brother Thomas's death, he said : " Then if the Society
will accept me, I will go and take his place," thus, all
unconsciously, setting himself apart for a unique task and
an immortal fame. The year after his arrival in Jamaica —
1826 — a Church was formed at Port Royal, where preaching
had for some time been carried on, and of this Church
William Knibb became the pastor, until, in 1829, he moved
west to take charge of the station at Savanna-la-Mar.
Before tracing his story farther, let us note the arrival
of other workers — Mr. Flood, who took charge df Annotto
Bay, but resided higher up the hills at Mount Charles, and
Mr. Baylis, who came to Spanish Town to assist Mr.
Phillippo. The same year — 1827 — saw the arrival of Mr.
Joseph Burton, who was stationed temporarily at Kingston,
but, on Mr. Coultart's return, went north to Port Maria,
where he founded a Church and built a chapel. By far the

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 17
most notable ministerial change of this period took place
in 1830, when, on the death of Mr. Mann at Falmouth,
William Knibb was invited to come from Savanna-la-Mar
and become the pastor. So well was he already known and
beloved that, on his name being proposed, the whole large
assembly of nearly 900 members rose to their feet, held up
their hands in assent, and " burst into tears of gratitude and
joy." Other arrivals of this period were Messrs. Nichols, Cant-
low, and John Clarke. Mr. Nichols took charge of the
Churches at St. Ann's Bay and Ocho Rios, Mr. Cantlow
settled at Salter's Hill, and Mr. Clarke at Port Royal,
adding to his ministerial labours the charge of a school
connected with the Mission in Kingston.

II
Mission Work and Church Life among the Slaves
All records of missionary enterprise in the West Indies
before Emancipation agree as to the tremendous dis
advantage to Christian work caused by slavery. We have
seen that, in general, a slave congregation could not be
gathered without first a magistrate's licence, and, secondly,
the express permission of the slave-owner. This licence,
issued at the option of magistrates who were mostly owners
of estates, practically gave the professional enemies of mis
sionary work legal power to forbid it. The story of the
checks, hindrances, insults, and humiliations inflicted on
godly men, who sought only the good of all, is very painful
reading. Again, the necessity for getting the permission
of the owner of several hundred slaves before the gangs
could be visited on the estate, or even be permitted in off-
hours to attend a Mission service, frequently resulted in
preventing thousands of the sons of Africa from hearing the

i if

18 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Gospel at all. "Yes, you may visit my slaves," said a
certain owner, " and may teach them the Commandments.
But," he added, as the missionary turned away, glad of thus
much of an opportunity to proclaim Bible truth, " remember
there are only two commandments for slaves. One is
' Thou shalt not steal,' and the other, ' Love massa
One wonders which of these injunctions the poor slaves
would find it the most difficult to keep. Probably the
last. Sunday market, again, was a tremendous hindrance to
religious service among the enslaved blacks. This institu
tion seems to have arisen from the very necessity of the
black population to use the only off-time they got for supply
ing their personal needs. Part of the time was employed
in working their own little provision grounds — where these
existed — and part of the time in market business and inter
course. Many were the innocent devices whereby mis
sionaries contrived to deliver their message, and, in spite
of all restrictions, to have religious intercourse with their
black brethren. Old-time people at Montego Bay told the
writer that when, under an unjust and oppressive law, the
congregations were forbidden for a time to meet in the first
Baptist church, the missionary paced to and fro on the
white sand by the sea-side at the time when the slaves were
off duty, and skilfully gathering little groups of his members
about him, never enough to draw attention, he would give
to each group in turn a five minutes' sermonette — some
message of invitation and comfort from the good Book which
they could think of and talk of together afterwards. A
quaint old song, or hymn, which one of the older brethren,
now passed away, assured me was actually sung at some
of the class-house meetings long after freedom, runs thus :
" Me take de night go ca' dem,
Me take de night go ca' dem,
Me take de night go ca' dem,
An' shake dem by de shou'der."

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 19
This verse, he explained, was a reminiscence of those
long-past Sunday evenings, when the godly slaves who had
heard their missionary's message delivered as he walked,
" for fear of the enemy," got together in the silence of the
night to compare notes and to encourage each other to stand
firm for God.
A venerable officer of the same Church, who died some
years ago at the ascertained age of 108, told me that the first
time he heard the Bible read was in this wise. A Sunday
afternoon service for the white people was being conducted
in a small Episcopal building by an island curate. The
deacon, then a young slave lad on an estate where no
instruction was ever allowed, got three other Coromantee*
youths to join him, and together they crept through the tall
guinea-grass that occupied one side of the church premises
and concealed themselves beneath the open window. In
the clear quiet air they heard distinctly the exhortation,
"Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us," and
some of the prayers and collects of Evening Service. How
vividly the scene exemplifies the then condition of Jamaica,
and especially the wrong and outrage inflicted on the slave !
Christ, in whose Name and honour that service was held,
came not for one race only, but for the whole human
world ; but through the evil influence of slavery the few
whites had the Gospel preached to them, while the many
blacks were shut out, or listened only by stealth, and in
danger of the cow-hide lash if they were caught.
The limits of space prevent other reminiscences, save one
which illustrates the height of simple heroism to which the
power of the Gospel, despite all these disadvantages, was able
to lift the soul of the slave. The instance I give is taken and
condensed from the work of one of our earlier missionaries,
"Missionary Reminiscences," by Rev. P. H. Cornford. In a
time of insurrection some godless slave-owners determined
to use the opportunity of martial law to stamp out, by death
* Ah African tribe.

20 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
if necessary, a slaves' prayer-meeting held in a hamlet not
far from Black River. For this purpose the meeting was
suddenly raided by armed men. It happened that the class
leader, Moses Hall, was absent, his place being taken by
a younger man named David. David was seized, and with
out any trouble, condemned and hanged, and the raiders
even managed to get permission to take his head and carry
it back to the hamlet as a warning to the members of the
meeting. In the middle of the hamlet the head of the
murdered man was set up upon a pole, and as the men, women,
and children of the hamlet gathered awestruck round it,
they were fiercely warned to expect the same fate if they
were caught assembling for prayer. Into their midst came, as
usual, Moses Hall, the class leader. He was seized, dragged
forward and made to stand against the pole where all could
see him. " Now, Moses Hall," said the leader of the raiding
gang, "whose head is that?" "David's, Massa." "Do
you know why he is up there?" "Yes, Massa, for praying,
sir." " Mark you, then, we'll stop your religious nonsense.
No more of your prayer-meetings. If we catch you at it we
shall serve you as we have served David."
There was a pause while the class leader considered the
situation, all his class members watching him in silent
perplexity and suspense. Then, suddenly raising his clasped
hands, he kneeled down upon the earth, just beneath the
martyr's head, and said solemnly, " Let us pray." Im
mediately the whole circle knelt in prayer, and before
the masters could recover their surprise the voice of the poor
slave rose clearly over the scene praying that God would
" bless all the massa buckra* and make them to know the
Lord Jesus Christ, that their souls might be saved at last."
The masters listened dumb-struck, and when the prayer was
ended they turned away; nor did they ever more attempt
to stay the progress of that work of God.
* White men.

REV. WILLIAM KNIBB.

REV. THOMAS BURCHELL.

BAPTIST EMANCIPATORS.

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 21

III
The story of the slave revolt of 1831-32 has a conspicuous
place in all early missionary annals of work in Jamaica.
And rightly so, for the whole future of Christian work
in that island has been determined by the result. The
most complete and vivid account is that which was drawn
up by the Baptist missionaries themselves soon after the
close of the revolt, and published under the title "A
Narrative of Recent Events connected with the Baptist
Mission in this Island." Summarized the facts are briefly
these. For many years in the homeland, under the influence
of the religious revival of the eighteenth century, godly men
of standing and influence, in Parliament and outside, had
been steadily working for the abolition of slavery from the
British Empire. Many of these friends were of the Quaker
Church, which was the first section of the Church of Christ
to denounce slavery as morally indefensible.
In 1807 the first blow was struck when a law was passed
forbidding British subjects to engage in the slave traffic, and
thereby preventing the importation of fresh slaves. In 1831
Sir Fowell Buxton brought up a motion for the abolition
of the existing slavery in British colonies, which roused the
wildest indignation among the slave-owners in Jamaica.
The talk at the Great House table of a sugar-plantation
has traditionally been unrestrained; and at that period,
what with the contempt of the owner for his human chattels,
and the perpetual influence of that wine-cup which lets out
secrets, the angry companies of planters paid little heed to
the presence of the black servants moving in and out of the
room, and silently taking in all that they could understand
of the planters' talk. Copies of the island newspapers filled
with the same violent language were secretly studied by
slaves and house servants who could read ; and so the idea

22 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
got abroad and spread throughout the slave population that
freedom had been given, or was just going to be given, by
the King and Parliament at home, but that the free-papers
were being kept back by the slave-owners. Under the
influence of these ideas, a slave named Samuel Sharp, a
member and officer at the Baptist Church at Montego Bay,
determined to organize, not a revolt, but a kind of strike, of
slaves. After the Christmas holiday they were all to refuse
to get to work again unless they were paid for their labour.
This is all that Sam Sharp had planned : he trusted that
the absolute cessation of work and the impossibility of the
few whites compelling 400,000 black people to work against
their will would bring about the production of the sup
pressed free-papers, and the abolition of slavery. All the
missionaries in the west part of the island, where Sam
Sharp lived, did their utmost to undeceive the people as to
the supposed granting of freedom. Knibb at Salter's Hill,
near Montego Bay, spoke so strongly about this mistaken
notion and the duty of Christian slaves to be obedient to
their masters, that the people, in their disappointment and
anger, actually accused him of having taken a bribe to hush
this matter up.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Sam Sharp's strike-party got
beyond his control and, misled by the counsels of violent men,
determined to set themselves free and avenge some of their
wrongs by open revolt. Getting word of this plot, our
missionaries spared no pains in entreating their Baptist
Church members to keep free from it, and to a large extent
they were successful, many of our Baptist class leaders risk
ing their standing with their people, and even their very
lives, to prevent the revolt spreading, and some of them even
taking an active part with the island Government in its sup
pression. All this, however, did not prevent a slavery party — estate
owners, magistrates, militia and their dependents — from suc
cessfully propagating a delusion more mischievous than that

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 23
of the slaves, that the missionaries themselves had caused,
and were secretly encouraging, the revolt. The burning of
plantation houses, followed by the assembling of armed slaves
in the bush, began on Tuesday night, December 27, 1831, and
on Saturday, the 31st, the last day of the year, Martial Law
was proclaimed and the island population, black and white,
was put under military rule. After Sunday service at Fal
mouth Mr. Knibb, with Messrs. Nichols, Abbott, and White-
horne, received orders to enrol themselves for military service ;
and night witnessed the strange sight of two Baptist mis
sionaries, one of them the pastor of the Church in that town,
pacing tp and fro on " sentry-go " at Falmouth guard-house.
On Tuesday, Knibb and his comrades were arrested on
suspicion, taken in open canoe twenty miles to Montego Bay,
and there, after being marched about publicly under arrest,
were confined in the Court House, which was used as
military headquarters.
It must have seemed like a complete triumph to the slavery
party to see the hated Knibb sworn at by a white soldier
with fixed bayonet for asking permission to lie down, and
openly jeered at as an infernal Baptist parson ; yet had they
known it, the blow they were dealing would fall, not on the
missionary enterprise, but on slavery itself. Each shameless
indignity inflicted on God's servants could become to the
conscience of the English people an argument for doing
away altogether with an institution which could degrade
white colonists into behaviour so fiendish. In fact, over
each episode of this revolt might be written the testimony of
the first disciples of the Christ when similarly persecuted —
the things done by the enemy " have turned out rather for
the furtherance of the Gospel." Before midnight the
missionary company were rescued from the Court House,
with its fiendish atmosphere, by the good-will of Messrs.
Roby and Manderson, and the next day were released on
bail. Mr. and Mrs. Burchell, returning from England, reached

24 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Falmouth January 7. He was arrested on board on the
same suspicion that had caused the arrest of Mr. Knibb,
and was transferred on board a man-of-war, while all his
papers were taken away for examination by the Custos, and
on February 10 he was, like them, released from detention ;
but so intense was the hostility of the planters' company to
him on shore that arrangements were made for his taking
passage on an American ship, and for the present quitting
the island ; but on the nth, police officers came on board to
re-arrest Burchell, and carry him ashore to answer the charges
made against him by Samuel Stennett, a free coloured
man, who had been induced to bear false witness against
him. We have pictured William Knibb before the brutal crew
of the guard-house ; let us picture Thomas Burchell kneeling
on the cabin floor before going on shore to what seemed a
certain death, and calmly asking that Psalms xci. and xlvi.
should be read aloud to calm the distress of Mrs. Burchell
and his missionary comrades. The scene on landing he thus
describes : " The most ferocious and savage spirit was
manifested by some of what are called the respectable white
inhabitants. Some cried out, ' Have his blood !' others,
' Shoot him !' others, ' Hang him !' But as they attempted to
approach several coloured persons surrounded me and dared
them to touch me. Had it not been for this I am fully
persuaded I should have been barbarously murdered by my
countrymen, by enlightened respectable Christian Britons."
On the same day a magistrate's order was procured forbidding
Mr. Burchell to leave the island, and he and Mr. Gardener,
the missionary at Savanna-la-Mar, were committed for trial
at the ensuing Assize Court. " But prayer was made con
tinually for them by the Church."
On March 12 the Assize Court met at Montego Bay ; but
before that date the only witness against Mr. Burchell,
Samuel Stennett, confessed that his evidence taken down in
writing was a perjury ; that he had been bribed to say what

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 25
he knew was untrue. A petition was sent to the Governor
by the missionaries in custody claiming their release, but
by some unknown means, whatever reply was sent it did not
reach them, and they remained in jail till they were tried in
open court. The charge against Mr. Burchell was neces
sarily withdrawn and he was set free, but so savage a mob
was gathered by his enemies, pledged to seize him, cover
him with tar and feathers, and (it was said) burn him alive,
that the missionary was smuggled on board a ship and finally,
on the earnest entreaty of the Chief Justice, the Attorney-
General, and other officials, he consented to leave Jamaica
for America. This was against the counsels of some of his
colleagues, but the reasons he gave — to prevent bloodshed
and increased danger for his missionary brethren then await
ing trial — are entirely to his credit. Any fair-minded and
intelligent reader of this story will feel how pitiable was the
state of the island when an innocent missionary, acquitted in
open court, had to leave the land because he could not be
protected from the violence of godless and lawless men.
On March 19, Messrs. Knibb and Gardener were brought
up for trial, charged with helping to cause the revolt. Mr.
Panton, a Christian lawyer, undertook their defence, and at
very short notice gathered three hundred witnesses, includ
ing many slaves, who came from thirty or even forty miles
round to testify for their pastor. A full report of the trial is
given in " A Brief Narrative." Two witnesses only were^called
for the prosecution, and their testimonies, like that of those
who long ago witnessed against the Christ, did not agree. Mr.
Gardener was forthwith acquitted, and Mr. Knibb not even
brought up for trial. Satisfactory as this result was, it was
a grievous disappointment to the missionaries themselves,
who were thus deprived of the opportunity of facing and
refuting the multitude of slanderous charges their enemies had
brought against them. Soon after the trial the assembled
missionaries left Montego Bay, went round by sea to Kings
ton and thence to Spanish Town, where united meetings were

26 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
held to thank God for past deliverance and to take measures
for the future.
We have now to mention one of the most extraordinary
Associations ever formed by civilized men in a Christian
land, the Colonial Church Union. This was formed at St.
Ann's Bay, January 26, 1832, during the time of Martial
Law. Its general object was to combat the influence of
the British Anti-Slavery Society. Among the resolutions
drawn up at an early meeting are the following :
To present a general petition to the Legislature for the
expulsion of all sectarian missionaries.
To prevent the dissemination of any religious doctrines at
variance with those of the English and Scotch Churches.
To exhibit in their true light the arts which had been used
to bring ruin and devastation on Jamaica by publishing an
authentic account of the late rebellion.
In furtherance of these measures the following manifesto
was posted up : " Inhabitants of Jamaica, your danger is
great. If you have discovered the source of your disease,
lose not a moment in expelling the poison from your veins.
Rally round your Church and Kirk before it is too late, and
defend yourselves from all who attack them ; the preserva
tion of your wives, your children, your property, your very
lives demands it. A Colonial Church Union is all you want
to unite the friends of the Colony in the defence, which must
then succeed."
Mr. Nichols of St. Ann's Bay records a curious attempt
of the section of the Union in that town to carry out its
purpose. A paper was read to an assembly of the local
militia inviting them to join in a proposal for sending every
dissenting preacher out of the island. The white members
of the company, mostly dissolute men, gladly agreed; so
did most of the coloured and the black, but these, as
appeared later, being unable to understand the terms used
in the paper, thought it had to do with the re-arrangement
concerning their pay.

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 27
But the most notable performance of this dastardly Union
was the destruction of the Nonconformist places of worship
throughout the island.
The first to perish was the fine chapel at Salter's Hill,
eight miles from Montego Bay, which was attacked by a
party of the St. James's militia. Next came Falmouth,
which was destroyed by the St. Ann's Regiment, headed by
a magistrate. The large chapel at Montego Bay, capable of
seating 2,000 people, followed, with Rio Bueno, Browns-
town and Lucea, as well as the chapel at Savanna-la-Mar,
on the south coast ; and, on February 10, the turn came
for St. Ann's Bay Chapel. The account of this attack may
be given as a sample of all. At ten at night, just when
Mr. and Mrs. Nichols were retiring, there came a violent
knocking at the chapel door. After a few blows the door
gave way, when a number of people entered, and immediately
began to dash to pieces the windows and pews. Every
window but one was smashed, and the broken bits of the
pews were hurled out into the yard. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols,
with their little children, were in a room only separated from
the chapel by a thin partition. Mr. Nichols shouted for
help, and a resident who was a magistrate fetched out men
from the main guard, before whom the rioters dispersed. It
is mentioned as a curious circumstance that, though the
soldiers who quelled the disturbance had their guns with
them, not one of these was loaded, nor had they brought
any cartridges. Mr. Nichols took his family to Spanish
Town for safety, and two days later the whole Mission
premises of the Baptists at St. Ann's Bay, together with the
Wesleyan Chapel, were destroyed in open daylight, and the
materials stolen by the mob. The next day a general
meeting was held of the Colonial Church Union, when
resolutions were passed binding the members to support and
protect the chapel-breakers.
The writer has before him an authentic list of the men
who did this work — magistrates, officials, officers, planters ;

28 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
men who to-day would be expected to be leaders in all
measures for the progress of the island, but who at that time
gloried in what they had done, and were greeted by the
plaudits of a large proportion of their fellows. Shall that list
be quoted here in the centenary volume of the work those
men tried to destroy ? Would any of their descendants
count it an honour to see the family name in such a connec
tion ? No, let us rather thank God, with full hearts, for the
changed Jamaica of to-day ; and in place of the list let the
following incident be recorded to His glory.
Some years back one of these men lay dying. The dis
senting minister of the district, knowing that the Episcopal
clergyman was away, called at the Great House, and was
admitted to the bedside. After introductory conversation,
" Shall I pray with you ?" he said. " Please do," said the
chapel-breaker, and his eyes filled with tears. It is necessary
that the ill-deeds of the enemies of missionary work should
be recorded in this volume, but let no word of bitterness or
revenge be written. " Love your enemies," said the Master,
" and do good to them that despitefully use you and perse
cute you ;" and let our reply be ever what His was as they
nailed Him to the Cross, " Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do."
The total value of Baptist property destroyed by the
agents of the Colonial Church Union, assisted by the riff-raff
of colonial towns, is given at £14,000 ; but, says Mr. Clark,
in " The Voice of Jubilee," " It must not be forgotten that
other Christian Missions greatly suffered. A large number
of Wesleyan chapels were destroyed and their ministers
imprisoned and ill-treated. One of the Moravian mis
sionaries was treated with great cruelty by a body of militia
before he was acquitted by a court-martial. An attempt
was made to set fire to one of the Presbyterian places of
worship. The Evangelical clergy of the Established Church
were the objects of suspicion, abuse, and calumny."
For months after the cessation of martial law a kind of

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 29
backwash of persecution disturbed the lives and damped
the efforts of Jamaica missionaries of all sections who cared
for the blacks. Thus, on February 7, a Commodore of the
British Royal Navy wrote, in a public letter, of "the un
natural rebellion of the deluded negroes, raised in a great
measure by the fanatical teaching and preaching of the
sect called Baptists," and no retractation could be obtained
for this slander. On April 8 a brutal attempt was made
to tar and feather Mr. Bleby, an eminent Wesleyan mis
sionary, and even to set him on fire in the presence of his
wife and child, who were also roughly handled, and the
young coloured men who rescued him were threatened with
an action for assault. A little later a memorial to the new
Governor, the Earl of Mulgrave, complains that slave-
owning magistrates were hindering missionary work by
refusing or cancelling preaching licences. Thus, at Montego
Bay Mr. Blood, at Savanna-la-Mar Mr. Kingdon, at Morant
Bay Mr. Burton, accredited Baptist missionaries, were for
bidden to preach.
Before the close of that year, however, the firm, impartial
rule of the Earl of Mulgrave put a stop to this petty per
secution ; and, indeed, these efforts of the enemies of free
dom were what Mr. Bleby himself calls them, " the death-
struggles of slavery." Every wrongful act against a mis
sionary only strengthened the argument, so soon to be set
forth with thrilling effect before the Imperial Parliament
and the British public, that slavery itself must cease.

IV
The Half-way House of Freedom
At a united meeting at Spanish Town, 1832, the Baptist
brethren decided to send William Knibb to England to
describe the sufferings of their people and to plead their
oause. Knibb landed in June, and the story of his anti-

30 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
slavery campaign, in which in August he was joined by Mr.
Burchell, is a wonderful evidence of the force of simple
truth when brought home to the heart and conscience of
a Christian nation. He greeted the pilot off the English
coast with, "Well, pilot, what news?" "The Reform Bill
is passed!" "Then, God helping me, I will have slavery
down !" Soon after he was standing on the platform at
Spafields Chapel at the Annual Meeting of the Baptist
Missionary Society. He thrilled the audience with the
story of the destruction of the chapels, and inveighed against
slavery as a social system so strongly that the secretary
nervously pulled his coat. A moment's pause. Shall the
full truth be courageously spoken or cautiously suppressed ?
Courage has it ! " Whatever be the consequence," he ex
claims, " I will speak ; nor will I desist till slavery, the
greatest of curses, is removed !" A murmur like a rising
storm sweeps the building, an earnest of that moral tempest
which would presently sweep the institution of slavery
out of the Empire. He appeared before Parliamen
tary Committees, describing at first hand to Lords and
Commons what slavery really meant; and in the autumn
of that year, joined by his Barnabas — Burchell — held
Emancipation meetings from end to end of the British
Isles. The first-fruits of that mission appeared in May, 1833,
when an Abolition Bill was proposed, which is aptly de
scribed as a half-way house to freedom. Slavery was to
cease on August 1, 1834, but in order to prepare the
emancipated negroes for freedom, they were to undergo a
six years' apprenticeship, during which, like other appren
tices, they were bound by law to remain with their masters,
and could be captured and brought back if they ran away.
Sunday market was abolished, and the apprentices could
attend whatever religious service they chose. Slave-owners
were to receive compensation for loss of ownership up to
a total of £20,000,000.

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 31
Such was the Apprenticeship System, as it is called in
Colonial history, and it may be said at once that it turned
out a ghastly failure. As worked by unprincipled masters
and slave-owning magistrates, it was simply slavery under
a thin disguise. The apprentices were called by the shell-
blow and driven to work just as before, and for the slightest
offence, or for none at all, they were sentenced by magis
trates and sent to the workhouse, the dungeon, the tread
mill, and the whipping-post. When the two noble Quakers,
Sturge and Harvey, travelled through Jamaica to examine
at first hand the working of what was supposed in England
to be equivalent to freedom, they found that the floggings
were as numerous and as cruel, and, in the case of female
slaves, as shameful as in the old days.
One young apprentice, named James Williams, they
bought off and took home with them because of the clearness
and vividness with which he was able to describe, from his
own experience, the practical working of the system. In
the summary of their report which was laid before the
Parliamentary Commission, Sturge and Harvey said that
the terms of the Act were violated by the planters with
the connivance, and even active participation, of the
Executive Government; and that apprenticeship, as thus
worked, threatened, if not the ruin of the island or the
disorganization of the community, a most serious perma
nent depreciation of property.
The last section of the report, though not dealing directly
with apprenticeship, may be added here because of the
testimony it gives of cultured and impartial observers to
the value of missionary work in Jamaica : "A few years ago
the negroes were heathen and benighted, now they are to
a great extent enlightened and Christian. The Sabbath,
once desecrated, is now devoted to public prayer and
thanksgiving. A few years ago education was unknown;
now it is making progress under many disadvantages, and
waits but for freedom to become soon more generally dif-

32 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
fused than in our own country. The success of missionary
labours among the servile population has been general and
striking, and we earnestly commend those benefactors of the
human race to the more earnest prayers, to the deeper
sympathies, and to the yet more liberal support, of British
Christians." To complete this section of the story, a Government
Commission, visiting the estates, confirmed the finding of
the Quakers. Several high-minded owners of properties set
free their apprentices. Meetings were again held in all
parts of England, and petitions sent up to Parliament as in
1833 and 1834, and it was finally agreed upon by the
Imperial Government and the Legislative Councils of
British West Indian Islands that on August 1, 1838, com
plete and unconditional freedom should be given to the
slaves. V
The Story of the Churches from Martial Law
to Emancipation
It is easy to imagine how terrible a set-back to our Baptist
Mission in Jamaica was inflicted by the slave revolt and the
reign of Martial Law that followed it. The same kind of
check was experienced in China in the time of the Boxer
rising, and much earlier in India, during the Indian Mutiny.
The peculiar danger, however, to our Mission work in the
events of 1831-32, came from the fact that almost all our
Church members belonged to that slave community, part of
which had revolted, and also from the desperate effort of the
slavery party, who were politically the ruling class, to make
missionary work responsible for the revolt. A few old "tatas"
and " grannies " still linger on the north coast, who saw the
chapels burnt down, and hid in the bush from the soldiers.
One of our Baptist deacons, then a powerful and spirited
Coromantee, would certainly have been shot had he been

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 33
caught, although he had had nothing to do with causing the
rebellion, and underneath the platform of a north side chapel
there long lay the bones of another Baptist deacon, who
suffered death under Martial Law.
Evidence showed, however, that while some Baptist negroes
took part in the revolt, and others, it may be, were forced into
it, a very large proportion stood clear, and that this was due
directly to the personal influence of Baptist missionaries.
When the destruction of all these houses of prayer was
made known in England, money for rebuilding was secured
from two different sources. First, Parliament voted £5,510
to clear off the debts that had existed on the chapels de
stroyed. Then Mr. Buxton, one of that little group of godly
M.P.'s to whom the West Indies stand largely indebted,
secured a grant of £6,195, being half the value of the
property destroyed, on condition that the Society raised the
other half. Before Knibb and Burchell left England in the
autumn of 1834, tney na-d received from God's people not
£6,000, but £13,000.
Cheered by these gifts, the Churches in the apprenticeship
days, despite the cruelties and even horrors perpetrated upon
their members, grew and flourished. On the north coast, at
St. Ann's Bay, Ocho Rios, Annotto Bay, Port Maria, and
Oracabessa; on the south coast, at Kingston, Port Royal,
and Yallahs ; inland at Jericho, Mount Charles, and Browns-
town, there was prosperity and joy, and none less, we hardly
need to be told, at the Churches of the pastors just returned
from England — Knibb's at Falmouth, and Burchell's at
Montego Bay.
Another encouraging fact was the splendid gift of the
British and Foreign Bible Society of New Testaments, and
parts of the Old, to all freed slaves, or rather, apprentices, who
would learn to use them. The writer used to visit an old
Church member who, to the day of his death, kept the Bible
Society's gift book wrapped in a blue handkerchief under his
pillow. Many a time has he undone the 'kerchief and
3

34 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
read from the time-worn volume that message from heaven,
which was meant as glad tidings to all peoples. Another gift
was of tracts and reading-books from the Religious Tract
Society. Early in 1835 was heard from station to station
the sound of saw and hammer, and the glad voices of the
negro members assisting their pastors by money gifts and
free labour to build again the walls that were burned with
fire; and from 1835 to 1838 there were no happier gatherings
held in the fair Land of Springs, than when the people in
holiday dress gathered from miles round, with all the neigh
bouring ministers who could attend, for the solemn reopening
of some restored house of prayer. Only those who have
been present at similar services can realize the whole-hearted
enthusiastic delight with which our Jamaica Church members,
to whom the chapel is the centre of civilization, social life,
help, comfort, and hope, enter into the functions of a restora
tion, or reopening service. To see that sight is to perceive
in some measure what the Gospel has really done for the
once kidnapped and enslaved children of Africa.
Several names should be recorded here of missionaries
arriving from England. First, Francis Gardener, who reached
Jamaica October, 1830. Three months later, without the
slightest fault on his part, he was tried on a trumped-up
charge of instigating the slave rebellion. Mr. Gardener went
to Kingston in 1832, and was pastor of East Queen Street
Chapel till May, 1838, when he died of yellow fever.
Walter Dendy came to Jamaica in the sailing ship Garland
Grove, the same that brought Mr. and Mrs. Burchell back
during the time of Martial Law. Mr. Dendy landed at
Montego Bay, while the Burchells went on to Falmouth. In
March, 1833, this missionary was imprisoned for preaching
to slaves, but was released some weeks later, as a result of
the decision of the Lord Chief Justice respecting the mean
ing and scope of the Toleration Act. After taking Mr. Knibb's
place at Falmouth for a time,' Mr. Dendy entered on his main
period of service as pastor of Salter's Hill Chapel, on the north

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 35
coast. A fine new building, valued at £4,000, had been burnt
down by the militia during Martial Law. Mr. Dendy opened
the present building in 1836, and Maldon Chapel in 1838. In
1842 the work at Salter's Hill was disturbed by a fierce out
break of fanaticism, taking the form of religious hysteria.
In 1867 Mr. Dendy took over, on behalf of the Church, a
valuable property presented by two Baptist missionaries —
Messrs. G. R. and H. E. Henderson — for the formation of a
settlement. The Dendy Trust, which has for many years
past made an annual grant for the Baptist work in Jamaica,
was bequeathed by W. S. Dendy, Esq., a son of the pastor.
John Clark, of Devonshire Church, London, reached
Jamaica in 1835, and went to St. Ann's to assist Mr. Coultart.
His memory is bound up with the story of the chapels at
Brownstown, Bethany, Clarksonville, Sturge Town, and
Stepney, some of which have now so long been served by the
Rev. G. E. Henderson, M.A. The Memorials of the Jamaica
Baptist Mission, written while Mr. Clark was alive, says:
" His labours have been very great and his pecuniary trials
from chapel erection very heavy." In all the above-men
tioned districts Mr. Clark's name is held in grateful remem
brance. Samuel Oughton came to Jamaica in July, 1836. For a
time he worked among the north side Churches — Lucea,
Green Island, Fletcher's Grove, Gurney's Mount — but his
chief work was at East Queen Street Chapel, which he
enlarged in 1840. There was sore trouble over these premises
in 1857 in consequence of a spurious bequeathment of them
to unworthy characters. This bequest being declared null
by the Jamaica Court, an angry mob gathered at the chapel,
and had to be dispersed by the military. Two descendants
of Samuel Oughton, Thomas Oughton, and his son, Bancroft
Oughton, became distinguished lawyers at the Jamaica Court,
and were all their lives the warm friends and helpers of
Christian work in the island.

36 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
VI
Emancipation
We have seen how the half-way house proved no resting-
place. The apprentices, according to the first proposition,
were to have a twelve years' preparation for freedom. This
was shortened to six, but the whole system proved so ghastly
a failure that four years later it was given up in favour of
unconditional freedom. Ever since that time — August i,
1838 — throughout the whole of the British Dominions, slavery
as a social institution has been entirely illegal. Not only so,
but the condition is not recognized by the British Govern
ment in the case of other nations. No runaway slave, say
from Turkey or Persia, reaching a British dominion, can be
handed back to his owner. We do not recognize anyone's
right to own him. On the high seas also, slaves may not be
carried in British ships, and a captured slave cargo is carried
to some suitable land and there set free. The moral battle
whereby this absolute prohibition of slavery was finally won
was fought out in the British West Indies. Since then it
has been won in America, though at a terrible cost of blood
and tears.
The evening of July 31, 1838, in Jamaica, was a time like
that of the Exodus from Egypt, never to be forgotten. At
all the largest centres of our mission — Spanish Town,
Savanna-la-Mar, Brownstown, Falmouth, Montego Bay —
special evening services were held resembling watch-night
services. As the hour of midnight approached the crowded
audience bowed in prayer, and after it had struck, rose up to
praise and thank God. The scene at Falmouth, where William
Knibb presided, is vividly described in his letters to Dr.
Hoby : " The monster is dying," he said as the clock began
to strike ; and after the last stroke : " The monster is dead ;
the negro is free." The scene that followed this declaration,

FALMOUTH BAPTIST CHAPEL.

REPLICA OF THE CAMEO (PLEADING SLAVF.)
MODELLED BY WILLIAM HACKWOOD ABOUT
1770 FOR JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, F.R.S.

COMMEMORATIVE TABLET IN
FALMOUTH BAPTIST CHAPEL.

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 37
both here and at the other chapels, words can but feebly
describe. The old-time folk who were present as children,
or as growing boys and girls, weep when they tell of it ; and
what must have been the joy of the missionaries, through
whose toil and courage this good deed had been done, none but
they can ever know. The climax with William Knibb seems
to have been when negro mothers held up to him their little
children and blessed him for setting them free.
Here and there among our stations visitors to Jamaica are
shown a " Liberty Tree." This is generally a cocoanut palm,
as at Brownstown, and should you count the notches or
rings on the trunk, which mark the annual growth, the
number would be that of the years from August, 1838, to the
present time. These trees were planted on August 1, mostly
in the chapel yard, and underneath them lie buried a driver's
whip, a neck-chain, handcuffs and like symbols of slavery.
The first day of freedom was spent in religious services,
chiefly of praise and thanksgiving ; the second, in giving a
good time to the young. August 1 has ever since been a
public holiday in Jamaica, but as the scourge and curse from
which the people were that day delivered moves ever farther
into the dim past, the thanksgiving for freedom becomes less
conspicuous ; and young Church members, inquirers, and
Endeavourers, whose ancestors shouted and wept for joy,
show an inclination to banish that remembrance altogether.
This is much to be regretted. Just as Jehovah, through His
servant Moses, urged upon the people of Israel not to forget
the deliverance from Egypt, so it becomes all the Christian
Churches of Jamaica, especially where the bulk of members
are of African descent, not to forget the great thing God did
for them when He let the oppressed go free.
It had been predicted by the slavery party that freedom
would be followed immediately by riot and debauchery. As
far as the emancipated people were concerned, this prophecy
proved hopelessly false ; there was not a single case of dis
order. On the other hand, some of the rougher of the

38 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
planting community, tried in vain to verify that prediction
by creating disorder. First it was announced that an effigy
of Mr. Knibb was to be burnt in front of his chapel, and this
was quickly exaggerated into the rumour that Knibb himself
was going to be hanged. Church members flocked into the
town armed to protect their pastor, and it needed Knibb him
self to hush the excitement and send them home. Again, on
August 15, it was mischievously announced that Massa Knibb
had been shot. Again the roads into Falmouth became
packed by angry and weeping crowds. It needed much toil
and trouble to get the rumour contradicted. The third
attempt was the publication in a local paper of a false
account of these Baptist gatherings. Mr. Knibb was repre
sented as having got together an armed mob against public
law and order. The confident assurance of these lying
articles gave at first some uneasiness to the Committee in
England, who were not accustomed, as the Jamaica brethren
were, to the unscrupulousness that at that time, and too
often since, marked a certain anti-Christian section of the
West Indian Press.

VII
After Emancipation
When the Quaker visitors, Messrs. Sturge and Harvey,
traversed Jamaica in 1837 to observe the actual working of
the apprenticeship system, they found on some estates an
action in progress that threatened serious trouble. The
slaves had been housed by their owners; the apprentices,
being technically free, and in receipt of wages, could not
legally claim to be thus provided for, and yet had for the
most part nowhere else to live in but the old slave cottages
or barracks. Some of the planters took advantage of this
circumstance to try to reduce the black labourers to practical
slavery, by obliging them to accept their own conditions in

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 39
regard to housing and rent. Sturge and Harvey strongly
deprecated this, and it was one of the arguments that they
used in favour of complete emancipation.
After freedom came, a like device was tried by those
planters who wished to show that Emancipation was un
workable. We read that after August 1 multitudes of negro
labourers loitered about, not knowing what wages to ask
or to accept, and probably not understanding the tenure of
their cottages. Attempts were made by the slave party of
estate owners — first, to offer no other rate of wages than six
pence a day ; secondly, to oust from the estate cottages all
who would not agree to these terms, and, by leaving them
homeless and starving, either to reduce them to abject
dependence, which would practically be a return of slavery,
or to provoke them into some such rebellion as would oblige
the Government to withdraw the Emancipation Act.
Happily for both parties, and for the whole industrial and
moral future of Jamaica, there was a third party to be
reckoned with, namely the missionaries. And among these
were men of practical ability and wide experience, not book
worms or pedants, but men of action. Such were in the
Baptist community — Phillippo, Dendy, Clark, Burchell, and
Knibb. Naturally enough the puzzled labourers turned to
" Ministers " for advice, and were immediately counselled,
not to accept the sixpence a day, but only what might
be reckoned the real market value of their labour. Happily,
there was a standard for this to appeal to which had been
set up by the planters themselves. From August, 1834, an
apprentice negro had been allowed to buy his liberty by
paying down the estimated value of his labour up to the date
when Emancipation was due. It was easy enough to reckon,
from the values paid down, which had to be approved by the
special magistrates, who were the Government agents or
protectors of apprentices, the worth of a day's labour, as
estimated by the owner of the estate where the apprentice

40 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
served. These records being examined, it was found that on
the estates round Falmouth, for example, a strong man's
day's labour was worth is. 8d. if he was housed free of
rent, and 2s. 6d. if he had to pay rent. One may picture
the dismay of the 6d. a day coalition, when thus faced
with their own previous estimates of the value of negro
labour. The housing and rent problem was even more difficult of
just solution. The freed negroes were threatened with
either paying an exorbitant rent or being ejected homeless
into the bush. Knibb mentions a labourer who was charged
8s. 6d. a week rent out of ios. to ios. 6d. weekly wages;
in other cases the planter's attorney was demanding a
separate rent for each member of the household. As Knibb
quaintly put it in a public speech : " Not only must Mister
Jackson pay rent, but Missis Jackson, Harry Jackson,
Tom Jackson, Buxton Jackson, Wilberforce Jackson, and
Sir Lionel Smith Jackson " — a humorous reference to the
people's habit of naming their children after their bene
factors. On this matter the missionaries counselled their
members to take a firm stand: to refuse exhorbitant rent,
and if cottages near at hand could not be obtained, to leave
the estate and carry their labour elsewhere. Further, to
make dependence on any one owner, or combination of
owners, quite unnecessary, Phillippo, Clark, Knibb, and
their brethren, purchased land on a large scale and let it
out again, or sold it, in plots of three or more acres, to
families that seemed industrious and trustworthy. This
was the beginning of those free villages among the mountains
of Jamaica, where to-day will be found the peasant pro
prietors of the land. Creditable homesteads stand there,
each in its small plantation; and the average intelligence,
industry, and integrity of the dwellers, are higher than what
are found in the homes on the estates. Looking back in the
light of the more than seventy years that have passed since
then, it is not difficult to perceive that these measures saved

BAPTIST WORK IN JAMAICA 41
the situation in Jamaica, and that, not only for the emanci
pated black labourers, but also for the white owner, and for
tradesmen and merchants who were dependent on the
prosperity of both. Emancipation was saved from wreckage,
and the main industries of Jamaica from ruin by the skill
and care with which God's servants, guided of Him, steered
the community from the old conditions into the new. It is
true that for a time the output of sugar and rum, then the
staple industries of the island, became less ; but this was not
due to the want of labour, except where the planter drove it
away by impossible conditions. It is true that a clamour
was raised to the effect that the free labourer did not work
so well as the slave did under the lash, but this was again
and again disproved by test cases, and by the figures and
statistics of trade returns. It is true that the old type of
planter, having failed to re-enslave the emancipated black,
tried to do without him by importing labourers from other
lands. The first experiments of this kind, however, proved
expensive failures. Gradually, but steadily, the better-
managed sugar estates settled down to the employment
of black labourers, who gave their toil freely in exchange
for sufficient wages, and took cottages on or off the estate
according to their own judgment upon the rent demanded.

CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF THE SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST
CHURCHES
I. The Declaration of Independence.
II. Special Features of Jamaica Baptist Church.
(i) The Functions of the Pastor.
(2) Plural Pastorates.
(3) The Class-House System.
(4) The Ticket System.
(5) Church Discipline.
(6) Candidates and Baptism.
(7) " Supper " Sunday and " So-so " Sunday.
(8) Anniversary Services.
III. The Test of Criticism.
IV. Historical Events and Periods in the Story
of the Churches from Independence to
Jubilee.
(1) The Baptist Missionary Society Jubilee, 1842.
(2) The Straits of Success and Visit of First Depu
tation, 1846.
(3) Hard Times and Visit of Second Deputation,
1859.
(4) The Great Revival, 1861.
(5) Jubilee of the Jamaica Mission, 1864.
V. Historical Events from Jubilee to Centenary.
(1) Revolt in St. Thomas in the East.
(2) Consolidation and Extension.
(3) Calm and Storm. 42

GIANT CACTUS OF JAMAICA.

AMONG THE SUGAR-CANES.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 43
(4) Baptist Missionary Society Centenary and visit of
Third Deputation.
(5) Emigration of Jamaicans.
(6) The Cyclone of 1903.
(7) The Great Earthquake of 1907.
(8) The Cyclone of 1912.
(9) Visit of Fourth Deputation.

The Declaration of Independence
The year 1842 was extremely memorable in the history
of Baptist work in Jamaica. It witnessed the celebration
of the Jubilee of the Home Society, which was nowhere
kept with greater enthusiasm than in the land where
Baptists had been used of God to break the fetters of the
slave. It witnessed the founding of Calabar College for
the training of ministers and teachers. It witnessed the
commencement of missionary work on the part of Jamaica
Baptists in lands less favoured. It also witnessed the
voluntary surrender on the part of the Jamaica Churches
of support from England except for college work and in
times of emergency, and this step has permanently de
termined the character and scope of their work as a Christian
agency. Up to that time, 1842, the Mission in Jamaica had been
part of the work of the English Baptist Missionary Society.
Whatever monies were needed by it were voted annually
on the approval of the Committee, and, whilst from the very
first the pioneer missionaries spared expense wherever they
could, and thankfully gathered support from converts and
well-wishers in the island, and by the private subrcriptions
from friends at home, they had the right to present their
claim and receive what the Mission required from the
general revenue of the Society that sent them out. Thus, for
the financial year 1841-42, out of an income of less than
£17,000, the Home Society voted more than £4,000 as the

44 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
grant to Jamaica. It is, however, a recognized part of the
policy of any society whose purpose is to preach the Gospel
and make disciples in heathen lands, that as soon as the
success of a Mission makes it possible, that Mission shall
begin to bear its own burden and so release the money of
the subscribers at home for carrying the Gospel further afield.
In India — the oldest Mission of the Baptist Missionary
Society — this was for a long time almost impossible. Hindoo
converts lost all their worldly means of support on breaking
caste and accepting Christ, and had to be supported by the
Mission at first instead of contributing to its cost ; but in
more recent Missions — in China and in Congo land, where
the convert does not necessarily become homeless and work-
less, suffering the loss of all things for his Saviour's sake —
the newly formed Churches have readily and speedily under
taken the support of God's work in their midst, and at
their own cost have tried to extend it among their heathen
countrymen. But while this has been from the first the Missionary
Society's policy — and careful secretaries and wary members
of finance committees never failed to remind the Jamaica
brethren of it when receiving glowing reports from them
of the increasing membership of the Churches and their
enthusiasm for God's work — Jamaica was the first of foreign
Baptist Missions to sign away the right of support from
home, and undertake henceforth to bear the full burden
of the ordinary cost of the word ; nor has any other Mission
of the Baptist Missionary Society since done the same.
It was on August i, 1842, the fourth anniversary of
Emancipation Day, that the brethren at their annual meet
ing held in Kingston decided thus to emancipate the Home
Society. No more drafts were to be expected in aid of the
Jamaica Baptist Mission. It was, however, stipulated that
all outstanding accounts for Jdebts incurred before that date
were to be ascertained and forwarded to the Committee at
home. It is right to record that this resolution was not

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 45
unanimous. The brethren of the Eastern Union, as it was
then called — that is, of the Churches in the east of Jamaica —
opposed the measure, being led in this by Mr. J. M. Phil
lippo. The Western brethren, however, including the pastors
of the largest Churches, composed of members who had
known the worst of slavery and were most enthusiastic over
the gift of freedom, headed by leaders such as Burchell and
Knibb, supported, and finally carried the proposal.
Whatever doubts may be entertained as to the expediency
of this course, there can be but one opinion as to the nobility
of the main object put forward by William Knibb and his
party for giving up support from home, and that was, to
enable the Society in England to begin missionary work in
Western Africa. In this purpose the European missionary
and the negro Church officer were equally Christly in spirit.
Both recognized that a heavy burden was being taken up by
the Jamaica Churches, and both were willing that it should
be so, in hope of the Gospel of God's grace being taken to
the pagan African and the blessing of deliverance to the
African slave. It must have been an inspiring sight, as it
was certainly a most creditable one, to see a packed con
gregation of negro Baptists newly brought to Christ, and but
yesterday, as it were, released from slavery, responding with
hearts and faces aglow to Knibb's appeal that help should be
sent to dark Africa, their Fatherland. Before the subject
was broached to the Home Committee, before full free
dom came in Jamaica, meetings of this kind were held,
and negro worshippers gave their offerings, and poured out
their souls in prayer that Africa might be enlightened and
set free.
With this as the main object for assuming independence,
it is evident that opposition must have seemed an ungracious
task. Even Mr. Phillippo, its strongest opponent, and who
twenty-five years later openly deplored some of its results,
wrote thus at the time the decision was made : " The conse
quence to me will be a suspension of much of my chapel

46 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
building and a diminution of my schools ; yet so glorious in
all respects would be its results if carried into effect, that I
not only cordially approved the resolution, but publicly
expressed the honour I felt in being chairman at the
meeting." Expedient or otherwise, this resolution of August i, 1842,
has determined the policy of the Home Society in regard to
Jamaica work ever since. From time to time help has been
secured to build or to rebuild chapels and manses, and
grants have been made occasionally to pay the passage of
new workers from England; and, according to agreement,
the salaries of the college tutors and a proportion of the
upkeep of the institution have been voted as an annual
grant, but from the date mentioned the support of the
ministry, the upkeep of the buildings, and the incidental ex
penses of public worship, have been borne by each Church
without assistance from England, for these seventy-two
years. Whether this method has made for the spiritual
good of the members and the public usefulness of the Church
is a point on which competent opinions may differ ; but the
fact remains, and it is surely to the credit of our Jamaica
Churches that it is so. II
Special Features of Jamaica Baptist Church Life
The religious principles of a Baptist Church are mainly
the same the world over. The Church is a company of
believers admitted into membership on the ground of show
ing an intelligent grasp of revealed truth and evidence of
conversion. The Bible, and that alone, is the declared
authoritative Will of God and the sanction of all Church
rules. Baptism by immersion is the divinely appointed out
ward sign of an inward spiritual grace. By baptism a man
confesses repentance towards God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every true Church has Christ as its one

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 47
Supreme Head, under whom it is served by pastor and
officers, elected by the members.
It is inevitable, however, that while in a community of
one nationality, living in a long-civilized land, such as
England, Church life founded on these principles should
move on normal lines, it would take a different form in a
land like Jamaica, where the first pastors were missionaries
from Europe, trained and cultured, and the bulk of the
members slaves or ex-slaves. It is of great interest, and
perhaps necessary in a record of Christian work in Jamaica,
to note down, as the writer can from practical experience,
some of the special features of Jamaica Church life.
(1) The Functions of the Pastor. — In England these are
mainly religious ; the pastor preaches, gives addresses, con
ducts Church business, visits the sick, and supervises sympa
thetically the Sunday-school and all other sections of the
work of the Church. In Jamaica, especially in the earlier
years of the Mission, but largely also to-day, a pastor's
duties are much more varied. Much more depends on his
personal supervision and management. In most cases he
has practical charge of the church premises, which will be
kept in order or otherwise, as he does, or does not, look after
them. He does the work of magistrate and solicitor in
settling disputes about property among the members, of
physician and even surgeon in aiding the people with their
sick folk, of domestic adviser in the disagreements that
trouble family life, of government agent in the management
of day-schools, and in the work of parochial and government
boards. Well for him if in youth he has learnt the use of his hands
and gained some bodily strength and robustness ; in an
accident to the buggy or the harness, to horse or mule, there
will often be no one else to depend on but himself for setting
' things right. In the employment of labour also, say, for
building a dry-stone wall, cutting down trees or cleaning a
pasture, it is a great advantage if early business experience

48 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
or natural adaptability has taught him the management of
men. This feature of pastoral life in Jamaica is not men
tioned by way of complaint or as ground for pity; the
variety of the pastor's functions gives a wide scope for
extended usefulness.
(2) Plural Pastorates. — In England, for the most part, a
Baptist Minister is pastor of one Church ; in Jamaica he has
many. Very few Jamaica ministers, except in large towns,
preach Sunday after Sunday to the same congregation.
Most spend every second Sunday at some other chapel in
the circuit, some at a different chapel each Sunday of the
month. Two causes make this inevitable: first, the com
parative fewness of accredited ministers ; second, the inability
in most cases of any one Church to support a pastor of its
own. In the days of the early missionaries the circuits were
immense. The minister who preached at Montego Bay on
the first Sunday in the month was due at Savanna-la-Mar,
nearly thirty miles off, for the second Sunday. Abbott,
Coultart, Dendy, Mann, had frequent journeys of from forty
to sixty miles on horseback, in order to visit stations actually
under their charge, one result being that a great deal of the
waking life of a Jamaica pastor was spent, like that of a
commercial traveller, " on the road." The obvious disad
vantage of this has been greatly lessened by the supply of
well-trained native pastors since the establishment of our
Calabar College. It is earnestly to be hoped that as the
Churches individually grow stronger, socially and spiritually,
it may be increasingly possible to lessen the circuit and
appoint more pastors.
(3) The Class-House System. — Journeying in a mountainous
island subject to flood-rains, landslips, and swollen rivers,
is sometimes quite impracticable. A night of rain may
make it impossible for most of the members to get to the
chapel service. At the same time, the size of the circuit
prevents the minister from individual intercourse with the
members such as he and they would like to have. The

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 49
Fathers of the Mission, therefore, devised the plan, which
perhaps they borrowed from the Wesleyans, of having a
small class-house set up in each hamlet where Church
members lived, and appointing in charge of it some intelli
gent and trustworthy member as Class-leader. The class-
house is practically a chapel-of-ease for its district. Here
service is held on Sundays when the members are not
expected at the main chapel ; here is held the weekly prayer-
meeting, and here at any time the leader can call the class
members together for special business. Under good and
godly leaders (for very much depends on that) the work at
these class-houses has been of great value to the Baptist
Churches of the island.
(4) The Ticket System. — In England, among the voluntary
Churches, a minister's salary is gathered by pew rent, sub
scriptions, or collections. In Jamaica it is gathered by
means of members' tickets, while the chapel collections go
to meet current expenses of public worship, and the com
munion money is usually assigned to the poor fund. These
tickets are given out yearly to all members of good standing,
and are a kind of credential for full membership. On these
tickets is marked month by month the member's subscrip
tion. In some Churches a kind of average rate is usual, so
much per month from a male member, so much from a
female; in others, the amount is agreed upon when the
membership begins. In no case is it a matter of compul
sion, although if a member who is able to subscribe per
sistently neglects to do so, he is rightly called to account
for it before the Church, who may decide that the member
ship shall cease.
(5) Church Discipline. — A Baptist Church is not composed
of Christians who have reached perfection, but of converts
whose desire is to grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord. Faults and failings are as frequent as they were
among the first disciples : John and James want to be first
in the kingdom, and the others quarrel with them over it ;
4

50 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Satan tempts Peter, and he denies his Lord. Hence Church
discipline — the investigation of charges of misconduct, the
public reprimand, perhaps the exclusion from membership —
forms an important part, and often a very difficult one, in
the life of the Churches. Being free and voluntary, each
Church has large liberty in the exercise of discipline; but
with the Bible as the common Church manual and law book,
creditable Baptist Churches in Jamaica are as one in the
following general lines : For gross sin, such as fornication,
a convicted member is excluded from membership, and his
name removed from the roll ; so also for proven dishonesty,
such as stealing, for deliberate falsehood, for cruelty to
family or neighbours, for profane language, and for chronic
covetousness. Broadly, the " Thou shalt nots " of the Old
Testament, interpreted by the "But I say unto you" of
Christ, are the basis of the discipline of our Churches.
Much has been done by means of consultation to insure
uniformity of discipline in minor matters, but on main issues
this has long been the practice.
It is only right to mention that there are many Churches
' practising baptism which are not in touch with those recog
nized by the Jamaica Baptist Union, and where discipline
on the matters mentioned above is very different from ours.
Among residents not well acquainted with our Baptist
Mission, its history and its character, these independent
Baptist communities are often unfairly regarded as being
one with ours.
One matter of discipline may be mentioned which hardly
ever comes up in England, although 300 years ago it was
common enough. African witchcraft, known by its Egyptian
name, "Obeah," is sadly prevalent in the West Indies, and
from time to time members of our Churches are reported to
be practising it. The attitude of our Churches towards this
false and evil thing is that of entire severance and prohibi
tion. Any Church member seeking the aid of an Obeah
man to recover stolen property, to protect his provision

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 51
ground from thieves, to cure sickness by casting out the
supposed evil spirit, or to punish an enemy by putting a
ghost upon him, is liable to exclusion from membership,
just as if he had broken one of the express commandments
of Scripture.
(6) Candidates and Baptism. — The preparation and testing
of candidates in Jamaica is the same in principle as what
is practised in England. A candidate offers himself volun
tarily and is accepted on the ground of evidence that he has
accepted Christ and been accepted of Him. To get evidence
of this some months' interval takes place, during which the
candidate attends class, and is set to learn the way of God
more perfectly. This interval may extend to a year or two
years — the earlier missionaries made it three or four — until
minister and Church officers are satisfied that the applicant
is a fit subject for baptism. In the hands of a careful, pains
taking pastor the candidates' class is one of the most valuable
Christianizing agencies of the Church.
The baptism service, as previously stated, is a sign of grace
received, not a method of imparting it. No candidate is
allowed to believe that he is either saved by baptism or
cannot be saved without it, but that it is the Master's
appointed way for confessing Him before men, and, like
every act of obedience to His commands, is followed with
His blessing.
The ceremony itself as practised among our Churches is
as simple as when the eunuch went down into the water
and was baptized by Philip, or when our Lord Himself
fulfilled all righteousness by being baptized of John in
Jordan. While baptistries are being increasingly used, the
warm climate makes it possible to have the services generally
held in the open air, the candidates being baptized in the
river or the sea.
For the most part the spectators, whether our own mem
bers, members of other Churches, or outsiders, treat the
service with reverence, and not infrequently impressions for

52 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
good are made which appear long afterward to the glory
of God. Many a pastor finds in the open-air baptism
service a welcome opportunity of preaching the Gospel to
non-believers who do not hear him at any other time.
(7) Anniversary Services. — Church life in Jamaica is happily
free from the peculiar disadvantage which British Churches
are under of being overloaded with engagements. Sunday
is in general a full and busy day, but the week nights are
not all taken up with meetings and other functions. At some
stations, indeed, by reason of the distances at which the
members live, it is almost impossible to get them in any
numbers to a week-night meeting. Hence the crowding of
Church functions of all kinds into the hours of the Lord's
Day ; hence also the importance and popularity of the
Church's anniversary services. The Sunday-school anniver
sary, and still more the missionary anniversary, are amongst
the chief events of the Baptist member's annual round.
Where, as in country parts, the missionary meeting can
be held during the day, beginning, say, at eleven o'clock, and
ending between, say, three and four o'clock, some hundreds
gather together to give the whole day to the festivity. And
it is a matter of wonder to the busy European how they can
sit still so long and listen to so many speeches. The evening
meeting, held in town, and necessarily shorter, differs little
from those in England. The good of these annual gatherings
is not limited to the information given or the interest aroused
upon the special topic. The free social intercourse with
fellow-members from other districts ; the relief and change
from the narrow, monotonous round of cottage, provision
ground, and market; the turning of the mind from the
things of self to the wider world, and the larger issues and
— let us hope — the realization of life's higher responsibilities,
of the fellowship of the Gospel and of the unseen Master's
presence amongst His Churches — these are some of the
many benefits that our members gain from the anniversary
services of our Baptist Churches.

MINISTER AND CHURCH WORKERS.

BUILDING A CHAPEL BY FREE LABOUR.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 53
III
The Test of Criticism
No good work in this world shows signs of prosperity
without sooner or later, by the appointment of Providence,
passing through the fire of criticism. In the Homeland
such enterprises as Dr. Barnardo's Homes and General
Booth's Salvation Army have each in turn bad to stand the
test of answering in public the worst that their enemies
could say about them. Similarly our various foreign Missions,
such as the Indian Mission after the visitation of its stations
by a certain member of Parliament, have had to undergo
hostile scrutiny and keen cross-examination.
In Jamaica, in slavery days, this was almost the permanent
environment of our early Mission stations. Day by day
at the chapel, at the manse, on the road, and among the
gangs, enemies were watching for any circumstance what
ever, however trivial, that could be used as a weapon against
the dreaded and detested work. But, coming from avowed
enemies, whose obvious interest was to quash the Mission
enterprise if they possibly could, gross exaggerations and
outrageous libels of slave-owning critics were taken for what
they were worth by the supporters of the Society at home.
Soon after freedom, however, criticism arose from another i
and unexpectecTquarter. Agents of other societies, religious
men and brother workers, reported in England that the i
work of our Baptist Mission was not sound. The charges j
were mainly these : that candidates were baptized who were
not really converts, nor had had proper preparation; that
ministers' salaries were secured by the sale of membership
tickets, which were superstitiously regarded by the negro
purchasers as passports to heaven ; that men of immoral
character were appointed as deacons and class leaders
because of their local influence or worldly means; that
members in the country districts were left to the despotic

54 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
rule of incapable and unjust class leaders. One critic
actually reported that rum-drinking was prevalent between
the services and on anniversary days, officers and members
actually taking the bottles with them into church.
The payment of monthly subscriptions by Baptist members
was a favourite point of attack in the slavery days. A law
was actually passed by the House of Assembly forbidding
anyone to take money from slaves for the support of sectarian
Missions, under the penalty of a heavy fine, and it operated
to cripple our work until, like many another law against
sectarians, it was disallowed by the Imperial Government.
The attack by workers of other denominations greatly
distressed the Home Committee, with whom the Jamaica
Mission, that slew slavery, had been for more than a decade
their most conspicuous evidence of the success of the
Society's work, and the most popular ground of appeal
in asking for public support. Grave and urgent letters were
sent to the Jamaica brethren, and it was largely in answer
to these that, in 1842, ten years after his great anti-slavery
campaign, William Knibb was sent home to meet the
Committee. The speech he delivered on these charges,
reported in full in Hinton's " Memoir of Knibb," is a
masterpiece of reasoning, eloquence, and personal modesty.
He disproved by personal testimony the evil practices, and
repeatedly challenged his critics to give specific instances
with names and dates so that the point of fact could be
examined on the spot — a challenge that was never met. A
minor charge, so often made since that it might almost be
called chronic, was that the missionaries lived luxuriously
and spent money needlessly on themselves. " Let those
that say this," he said, " come out to Jamaica and spend a
year at a Baptist manse assisting the missionary in his
work." The same reply could be made to-day of any
one of our spheres in respect of which such a criticism
is made.
The finding of the Home Committee in regard to all these

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 55
charges will fitly close this section. "We have been
rejoiced on all occasions to find that these accusations
cannot be substantiated. The unsolicited testimony of men
of unimpeachable judgment and impartiality — we refer to
the published works of Messrs. Gurney, Sturge, and Candler;
the well-attested results of your own Church discipline, as
apparent in the annual return of the Association ; and the
maxim of Divine authority, that a tree is to be known by its
fruits — have concurred with our specific inquiries to satisfy
us of the general falsehood of the charges which have been
brought against you." IV
Historical Events and Periods in the Story of the
Churches from Independence to Jubilee
Should the visitor to Jamaica ask any old-time negro
his age, he will be likely to receive some such answer as the
following : " Me no sabby, Massa, but when Free come me
was a big growing boy ;" or, " In time of Cholera me was
already married;" or, " a Martial Law, me was a father with
two pickney." That is to say, the Jamaica peasant's life
span is measured in his thoughts, not by years or decades of
years, but by notable events.
Just similarly, Church life in Jamaica is measured out in
the thoughts of the people by those events — natural, political,
and religious — that determined its character and course.
The first four of these have been described in earlier
chapters, namely : The Slave Revolt, 1831-32 ; Apprentice
ship, from 1834; Emancipation, 1838; the Commencement
of Self-support, 1842.
Those that will be dealt with in this section may be thus
summarized :
(1) The Baptist Missionary Society Jubilee, 1842.
(2) The Straits of Success and Visit of the First Deputa
tion, 1846.

56 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
(3) Hard Times and Visit of Second Deputation, 1859.
(4) The Great Revival, 1861.
(5) Jubilee of the Jamaica Mission, 1864.
To these must be added three events originating within
the Mission which will form the subject of separate chapters,
namely : The Mission to Africa and formation of the Jamaica
Baptist Missionary Society; the corporate union of the
Churches into the Jamaica Baptist Union ; the establishment
of Calabar College, and development of other forms of
educational work under the management of Baptist
missionaries. (1) The Baptist Missionary Society Jubilee, 1842. — Not in
England itself was greater enthusiasm aroused over the fifty
years' existence and service of the Baptist Missionary Society
than was felt in Jamaica by a Baptist community, most of
whom owed their release from slavery to the courage and
perseverance of Baptist missionaries. The chief meeting
was held at Kettering, near the north coast — a place named
after that Kettering in England where the English Society
was formed. William Knibb, after attending the jubilee
in England, reached the other Kettering in Jamaica
August 4, and was asked to undertake the preparation for
the Jamaica celebration due October 5 and 6. With the
help of kindly plantation -owners and attorneys, who supplied
timber and carriage, and the eager co-operation of Baptist
colleagues, and especially of his own people, he was able to
put up a booth, or temporary meeting-house, 200 feet long
and 150 feet broad, where, in the course of the day, many
thousands were accommodated. Similar meetings were
held at Spanish Town and other centres. In Mr. Knibb's
account of the behaviour of the people, he says: "We
needed not a single policeman. We lost not a single fork
or spoon, though the house was like an open tavern for
four days; though the meeting was full four hours long
not more than three of the immense mass left their seats.
I wish distinctly to record the great kindness I received

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 57
from the managers of neighbouring estates. The ordinance
of the Lord's Supper closed the Jubilee Meeting, when
many of the missionary band took the communion with
about four thousand of the children of Ethiopia. Several
of the people had walked nearly fifty miles to be present."
An interesting note of Mr. Knibb's to Mr. Sturge, says:
" At our meeting at Kettering, at the request of my brethren,
I addressed the deacons and leaders of the assembled
Churches on the necessity of promoting the cultivation of the
soil, and I have reason for believing that good has been the
result." This happy association of jubilation with practical
advice, in itself truly Scriptural, has long been one of the
strong points, wherever it has been found, in the Jamaica
ministry. (2) The Straits of Success and Visit of First Deputation. —
Freed from the curse of slavery, and able to assume the
management and support of their own work, it was to have
been hoped that the Baptist Churches of Jamaica would,
in 1842, have entered upon a period of spiritual prosperity
and happiness; but this was not to be. England having
decided to admit the sugar from foreign slave plantations on
the same terms with sugar from the West Indies, there
began at once a disastrous decline in what was then Jamaica's
chief industry. Sugar estates on every hand were abandoned.
Work became scarce, and to recoup the revenue heavy taxes
were laid on the people, and much of the money thus
obtained was used for importing foreign labour and for
increasing the revenue of the Established Church. As in all
times of non-employment and great poverty, crime greatly
increased, especially that of stealing from provision grounds,
and summonses for petty debts supplied evidence that
numbers of the peasantry were in a condition little removed
from starvation.
The effect on Churches that had to find their own support
may easily be guessed. Building and other debts mounted
up to a total of £17,000. Pastors' salaries lessened until no

58 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
less than ten European workers felt obliged to leave the
island and seek support elsewhere, while others died through
the stress and anxiety of the times. With only ragged
clothing, Church members, out of very respect for the House
of God, stayed away from service, and the work declined on
every hand. Thus it came about that at the united meetings
at Kettering, 1844, only two years after the Jubilee re
joicings, the harassed leaders appointed Mr. Knibb and
Mr. Abbott as a deputation to seek help from the English
Committee. Mr. Abbott being unable to go, Mr. Knibb undertook the
mission. The speech that he made at Norwich in pleading
this cause contains so good a summary of the work done by
the Jamaica Mission up to that time, 1845, that a few
quotations may be fittingly made at this point : " In the
year 1842, when it was resolved that whatever might be
the personal sacrifice each Jamaica Church should support
its own pastor, we were £12,000 in debt. From circum
stances that I cannot now detail that debt has increased
to £18,000. Remember, however, that during the last few
years we have built thirty-five chapels, sixteen school-
houses, twenty-four manses, and that we have now in
Jamaica forty-seven chapels and thirty manses erected
in healthy places, and that the average of missionary life,
which was only three years, has risen to seven. The total
cost of all our buildings has been £157,000, of which sum we
have succeeded with much difficulty and much diligence on
the part of the people in paying off £139,000, leaving the
debt above mentioned. At the time of our meeting this
year merchants were pressing on every hand, newspapers
were announcing that Baptist ministers could not meet their
engagements ; the bank that had lent money at 10 to 12 per
cent, interest was demanding immediate payment. The
chapel in which I preach is free from debt, and I am here to
help our brethren to pay their debts.
" Their difficulties arise from the very extension of the

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 59
Gospel for which you pray. Had slavery not been abolished
we should not have wanted chapels, for the slave could
come only once in a month, or at best once in two weeks,
and he had to work on one Sunday to get food to eat
for the next. There have been erected in this part of
Jamaica alone in ten years chapels to accommodate 8,000
people." In response to this appeal the Society voted at once
£6,000 towards relieving the Jamaica brethren from their
more pressing necessities. " In the distribution of this sum,"
says a manuscript account of the transaction, " care was
taken that nothing should be done to interfere with the
independence of the Churches."
In 1846, in consequence of the account of distress among
the Churches, the Home Society decided to send a depu
tation to Jamaica, and were fortunate in getting Dr. Angus
and the Rev. C. M. Birrell to undertake this mission. Sir
Morton Peto, one of the treasurers, generously gave £2,000,
to be drawn upon for deputation expenses. These brethren
were commissioned to inquire into the distress prevailing in
Jamaica, its actual extent, and its. probable cause or causes,
and especially the working of the new principle of self-
support. A little time before their arrival at a general
meeting at Mount Carey, November, 1845, earnest efforts
had been made both to draw the existing Churches together
into helpful corporate union, and also to safeguard the
denomination from the hasty multiplication of Baptist
chapels that were likely to need assistance, and from the
intrusion into the ministry of unworthy and incapable men.
One of the resolutions is as follows : " But while we heartily
disown any intention to abridge the right of the Churches
to select their own pastors, we deem it advisable that no
minister in the membership of this Union shall be at liberty
to offer the pastoral office to anyone until he has consulted
with the Committee of four brethren elected for this
purpose."

60 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Another resolution provides " That the Committee take
cognisance of the supply of destitute Churches, and of all
matters affecting the welfare of the Mission."
The next is "That the decisions of the Committee be
laid before the General Committee for confirmation or
otherwise." Lastly, " That the expenses of the Committee be met by
the Union."
From these minutes it is evident that the Baptist denom
ination in Jamaica had become a responsible organized
Union, authorized to guide, if not to control, to some extent
the independent Churches that were included in its mem
bership. The story of this Baptist Union will be told
separately in a later chapter of this volume.
The deputation, after full and patient inquiry, decided
that, though the principles of independence and self-support,
assumed at a time when the Churches were heavily in debt
and the whole island passing through a time of financial
depression had operated to deprive the Churches of all claim
to support from home at a time when they needed it, they,
the deputation, were unable to recommend the resumption
of support from home. They considered that in circum
stances and membership the Jamaica Churches were stronger
than many of the contributing Churches in England. While,
therefore, the Home Society was not likely to refuse aid in
cases of great and unforeseen emergency, and would assist
brethren having proper credentials to collect by way of
special appeal, no such aid would be undertaken as would
interfere with the real independence of the Churches. It
may here be added that on this matter no subsequent
deputation from England has come to any other deci
sion. The years 1845-46 were saddened for the Jamaica
Churches by the deaths of William Knibb and Thomas
Burchell. It must not be supposed from the frequent
mention of the names of these two brethren, that they alone

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 61
did the whole glorious work of liberating the slaves, and
gathering the converted freed men into Christian Churches
and Christian Unions. There were others just as earnest
and working just as hard, such as Clarke, Dendy, and
Phillippo. Others, moreover, will soon be mentioned to
whom the good work of our Mission and its solid success
stand as deeply indebted as to any of the earlier pioneers.
But it so came about under the ordainment of Providence
that those two workers, Burchell and Knibb, became pro
minent in the forward movement of the Baptist Mission,
and stood most conspicuous before the public eye both in
Jamaica and in the Homeland. Knibb's fine personality,
immense energy, warlike courage, and gifts as a speaker,
singled him out to represent that noble band that put an
end to British slavery ; and Burchell's organizing ability, as
shown in Jamaica in the founding of free villages and the
formation of Churches, as well as hisassociation with Knibb,
like Barnabas with Paul, in advocating the cause of freedom
on English platforms, have given him a like historical
prominence in our denominational history, as well as the
general religious history of the people of Jamaica.
(3) Hard Times and Visit of Second Deputation. — The manu
script chronicle already referred to — a valuable record drawn
up by two honoured brethren recently passed away, and of
which the editor is gladly making large use in this section
of the history — records as follows : " From February, 1846,
to December, 1852, we have found no records of the Baptist
Union, nor is it possible to say what meetings were held."
It would seem as if the death of the two great leaders, Knibb
and Burchell, the retiring from the service of other brethren
because of the failure of the self-supporting Churches to
supply the needs of themselves and their families, together
with the prevailing poverty of the peasant, and the refusal
of the House of Assembly to make any laws except for the
relief of the planting class, to which most of the members
belonged — it would seem as if these things combined dis-

62 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
couraged the brethren from holding united public assemblies.
Each minister or Church was too hard pressed in maintaining
the Church's existence to be able to turn aside and spend
days in united consultation. We know, however, from the
glimpses we get of individual efforts, as well as from the
results appearing in later records, that there was much quiet
heroism at work out of sight during those dark days. In
isolated spheres, ministers with almost no salaries, doing all
the repairs to house, harness, and children's shoes with
their own hands, were holding service regularly from church
to church, training the leaders and teachers, and preparing the
inquirers for baptism. Meanwhile the minister's wife made
clothes for herself and her children from almost nothing,
and professing not to be hungry that there might be more
yam and banana for the children, was holding her Girls'
Bible-class regularly, listening with cheerful patience to the
long-worded petitions and complaints of female members,
and using her scanty stock of medicines and household
necessaries for the relief of the sick and suffering." Class-
leaders, too, were standing loyally by their district classes,
persuading the members to come to prayer and forget their
poverty, and resist the temptation to steal from their neigh
bours' grounds. Negro members, too, who loved Church
and pastor, were making shift to attend service in spite of
threadbare garments, and quietly putting aside, in spite of
hunger, the yam or coco-root or bread fruit, to carry it at
dusk to the mission-house, for the minister and his family,
or, as they expressed it, " De minister an' de missis an' fe
dem fambly."
Such things have been again and again in the story of
our Jamaica Churches. They do not find a place in any
earthly report, but in the heavenly record of Him who has
said, " Whoso giveth a cup of cold water in the name of a
disciple, he shall in nowise lose his reward."
" Men know Thee, heed Thee, praise Thee not :
The Master praises ; what are men ?"

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 63
" It never rains but it pours," says an old proverb, and
certain it is that in the providence of God, both in man's
life and in the life of a community, there come times when
sorrows are multiplied. In 1850 the distress from com
mercial depression, unfair laws, and unsupported ministry,
was deepened by a serious outbreak of cholera, which
" swept over the land, sparing neither sex nor age." In the
first three months twenty thousand died, and before the
plague left one-tenth of the whole population of Jamaica had
been swept away. In the country parts field work almost
ceased, and in the towns there was terror and depression.
At such seasons, however, it is a common experience that the
wicked bow before the just. Whatever may be the beliefs
or disbeliefs of individual people or classes, however they
may have mocked at religion and tried to hinder the work
of God, in widespread public disaster the bulk of the people
will turn to the godly amongst them for counsel and for
comfort. It might almost be said that public adversity is
the Church's opportunity. It has certainly been the turning-
point towards success in spheres of foreign missionary
service. Thus the awful famine in China in 1876-77
turned the people's intense hostility to Timothy Richard
and his colleagues into warm and grateful esteem. In the
cholera epidemic the missionaries of all societies threw them
selves fearlessly into the work of succouring the sick, com
forting the dying, befriending the widow and the fatherless ;
and, as in all such work for the ever-watchful Master, they
did not fail of their reward. This will be seen later.
At the Baptist Annual Meeting at Mount Carey in
Jauuary, 1853, it was found that out of forty-seven Churches
in the Union twenty^nine had not sent delegates, and out
of twenty-five pastors ten were absent. The following
resolution on this matter was passed: "That we exceedingly
regret the absence of so many of our brethren — the pastors
and delegates — and whilst we deeply sympathize with those
whose peculiar circumstances have prevented their atten-

64 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
dance, we would affectionately commend to the attention
of the pastors and Churches in the Union the importance of
making such arrangements as will prevent the recurrence
of a circumstance to be deeply deplored, and that a copy of
this resolution, with an affectionate letter from the Secretary,
be sent to every absent member of the Union."
Up to this date, 1853, there had been two Unions — one
for the east of the island and one for the west. At the
Falmouth meeting, February, 1854, these two were united
under the title "Jamaica Baptist Union," which continues
unto this day. At the Montego Bay meeting, 1856, the
Churches numbered forty-eight ; the pastors, twenty-five ; the
members, seventeen thousand three hundred and ninety-two.
The annual presentation of such statistics has continued
uninterrupted from 1852 to the present time.
The story of our day-schools belongs to the chapter on
educational work, but it may be mentioned here that the
proposal of the Government at this time to make grants to
these schools, turning them from denominational Mission
schools into schools under State patronage and control,
was the subject of the following resolution : " That this
meeting, deeming it unscriptural and injurious to the
Churches of Christ that they should receive support or
endowment from the State, feel it to be their duty to
recommend their fellow Christians in general professing
Nonconformist principles, and the members of their own
body in particular, to decline pecuniary aid from the Legis
lature, either in the form of grants for building chapels or
stipends for ministers or schoolmasters." It was not until
1866, when the State Church in Jamaica had been dises
tablished and disendowed, the House of Assembly abolished,
and Crown Government put in its place, that grants for
schools were accepted by the Baptist ministers. Meanwhile,
however, the following timely resolution was passed in
regard to the Sunday-schools attached to our Churches:
" That this meeting earnestly commends our Sabbath-schools

TYPICAL PEASANT HOMES.

A COUNTRY ROAD.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 65
to the Churches in the Union as most important in their
object, very special in their claims, and increasingly success
ful in their operations, and expresses its earnest hope that
on the part of both Churches and pastors, the beloved
brethren and others who are engaged in conducting them,
will meet with much sympathy, countenance, and co-opera
tion." Not long after this a Sunday-school Society was
formed as one of the recognized institutions of the Baptist
Union, and this Society, under the able leadership of the
Rev. William Head, has long been a valuable agency in our
midst. In 1857, m yiew of the continued distress and depression,
social and spiritual, lying upon the island, crippling pastoral
effort and preventing all real progress, two important steps
were taken. One was to appoint a Committee to consider
the best plan to promote a revival of religion in the Churches ;
the other was to request the Home Committee to send a
deputation to Jamaica. The story of the Great Revival
will be given in the next section, but, in view of that wonder
ful answer from heaven to the longing of God's people, it
seems well to quote the recommendations of the Revival
Committee. They were : (a) The pastor to hold special Church
meetings of the members to consider the spiritual state of
the Church, the members to be invited to give suggestions
and exhortations. (b) Ministers to invite neighbouring
ministers to co-operate by holding similar meetings each in
his own church or churches, (c) While Church meetings
were held to revive the piety and zeal of professing Christians,
congregational meetings should be gathered for awakening
the careless and the wicked, (d) Pastor, leaders, and members
to organize house-to-house visitation in each district of the
sphere. (0) The minister to preach a special course of ser
mons with a view to religious revival, hold Bible instruction
classes, and have certain days set apart for united prayer.
The request for a deputation was the outcome of a letter
from ten European brethren in Jamaica, who felt unwilling S

66 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
to continue their work under the existing conditions. In
1859, at the beginning of the cold season, Dr. Underhill, one
of the secretaries of the Home Society, and the Rev. J. T.
Brown, well known as " Brown of Northampton," came to
Jamaica and spent five months inspecting the Churches.
It was this personal contact with Jamaica work which
made Dr. Underhill a warm friend and helper of the
brethren all the rest of his life, and equipped him to be
their representative and helper six years after his visit
during the dreadful episode of the Morant Bay Tragedy.
(See his book with this title.)
Their prolonged visitation seems to have produced the
impression on the deputation that things were not as dark
as they had been represented to be. In spite of serious lets
and hindrances ministers and members had done more than
had been supposed. This view was probably urged by the
visiting brethren in order to restore heart and confidence in
the hard-pressed and discouraged toilers in the Jamaica
field ; but those who have watched from the field itself the
coming and going of deputations from home and have read
their reports, will agree with an experienced worker who
exclaimed : " How hard it is to get a deputation to see the
dark side of what he looks at!" It is not to be implied from
this remark that the fault is with the deputation. He may
perchance have readier eyes for the rosy side of things, but
after all he can but see what the brethren on the spot
choose to show him; and these brethren, without any
dishonest intention, are inevitably inclined to put forward
whatever is pleasant and encouraging in the work of their
spheres. All unconsciously they seek for the approval of
the deputation instead of enabling him to see "things as
they are." Dr. Underhill and Mr. Brown gave useful advice
upon the matters submitted to them ; but at the meeting at
Montego Bay, above referred to, the statistics were far from
encouraging, and the brethren took the wisest course possible
when they unanimously decided to set apart a complete

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 67
week for invoking the outpouring of that Holy Spirit which
alone can make souls live, grow in grace, and bring forth
much fruit.
(4) The Great Revival, 1861. — The old-time people of the
Churches who remember that period have thrilling tales to
tell of what they call " Revival," and from all accounts the
event is aptly called a landmark, and one of the most im
portant in the story of the Jamaica Baptist Mission.
One of the best accounts of it is found in Dr. Underbill's
"Life of Mr. Phillippo." The following narrative is drawn
. partly from that source, partly from the manuscript
chronicle referred to previously, and partly from the remi
niscences of the dear old leaders and members who saw it all.
The first visible effect of a Heaven-sent spiritual influence
was seen at a Moravian place of worship. From the south
coast the movement spread like a wave to the central
parishes, to Spanish Town and Savanna-la-Mar on the
south, and from Montego Bay to St. Ann's Bay on the north,
and finally right through the land. The spiritual signs were
an intense conviction of sin and a desire for salvation on
the part of thousands who had lived contentedly without
religion, the return of numbers of backsliders anxious to be
restored, confessions of default and inconsistency on the
part of Church members of good standing, and an earnest
craving for more holiness and truer peace with God, followed
by an intensity of joy and thankfulness when forgiveness was
realized, faith imparted and strength received to live hence
forth a new and better life. The outward signs — those that
the world could see — were equally real and interesting.
Chapels that had been partly empty on the Lord's Day were
now crowded. The weeknight prayer- meeting found the
seats all full; in some places meetings were held night by
night, and even in the early morning before the people went
to work. In their outward behaviour a visible change came
over the people ; men became sober, and rum shops had to be
closed because their trade was gone, or, better still, the dealer

68 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
himself had been converted. Old debts were honourably
cleared off, long-standing feuds were healed up. And in
place of the scanty, tardy contributions that could not sup
port the minister or keep the chapel in repair, the revived
members offered willingly unto God and to His work such as
they had to give. The Church statistics at the following
meeting showed a net increase to the Baptist Church of
4,422, bringing up the total membership to 20,026, while the
inquirers numbered 6,058. Another most welcome sign was
the building of new chapels, the enlarging of old, and the
complete repairing and restoration of the many church
buildings that were time-worn and dilapidated.
What this mighty change meant to the worn spirits of
faithful workers who, while walking in darkness and seeing
no light upon their way, had yet trusted in God and stayed
themselves upon the Lord, it would be impossible for us to
say. The resolution passed at the annual meeting at
St. Ann's Bay in February, 1861, in some measure records
this : " That this meeting, having heard with feelings of
unfeigned thankfulness and joy, both from the report of the
Churches and the statements of the Delegates to this Board,
that a great and glorious work is now in progress in the
Churches and congregations connected with this Union,
would recognize therein a gracious answer of God to the
many prayers of God's people for a revival of His work, and
while it deeply regrets that in some instances there has arisen
much superstition and extravagance, it confidently believes
that if there be in connection with this movement affectionate
watchfulness and effort on the part of pastors and officers
of the Churches, with continued earnest prayer for the bless
ing of the Great Head, these evils will pass away, and
the present awakening will redound to the glory of God,
the greater permanent prosperity of the Churches and
congregations, and the salvation of many thousands of
souls. " That this Union recommends that the last week in the

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 69
month of April be set apart by the Churches for special
thanksgiving for the present religious awakening, and for
prayer on behalf of the newly awakened and backsliders who
profess to repent of their past sins, and who have resolved
to return to the service of God."
It is a fact to which all history bears witness, that there is
no movement for good among the sons of men but has its
attendant evil, and spiritual movements do not escape this
law. The Gospel is a savour of life unto life, but also of
death unto death ; and in every great revival of which we
have record there has come a time when the powers of evil
have laid hold of it and wrested the movement to wrong
purposes. It is no cause for surprise, therefore, if this
happened in the course of the Revival in Jamaica. After a
time the strong agitation of spirit took as it were an animal
form and became mere nervous excitement, developing in
many cases into that religious hysteria which so much
troubles still the less cultured of the people. Instead of bow
ing reverently in prayer to make confession of sin and ask
the grace of forgiveness, the inquirers, or those who thought
themselves such, waved their arms about, threw themselves
down in the aisles and rolled about in a senseless frenzy
regardless of order and even of decency. An old Church
leader, one of those staunch and stalwart fathers of native
birth, who are the true pillars of our Jamaica Churches,
witnessing this wild rush and degraded grovelling when a
chapel was opened for service in the height of the Revival,
planted himself in mid-aisle to check the frenzied tide, and
with uplifted hands of protest exclaimed, "Bredren, dis is no
more de work of God, but of de Devil." He was right, that
good old man. At that place, as at some others, what had
begun in good had been turned aside by the powers of dark
ness and made a means of evil.
Let not, however, the critic reason, as critics of revivals
are so fond of doing, that the whole movement was un-
spiritual and morally useless; as has been recorded above,

70 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
thousands of bad men and women become good, thousands
of professing disciples of Jesus gave up un-Christly ways and
followed the Master more closely; and the social life of
hamlet and town — indeed, of the whole community — received
a cleansing and an uplift which could only come from the
Giver of all good and perfect gifts. In the Churches, too,
the evil of the Revival was comparatively transient : real
converts regained their self-control and learnt the way of
God more perfectly, whilst the mere fanatics, whose excite
ment had no spiritual reality behind it, were severed from
the Church and went to their own people.
To our Jamaica Ministers1 and Deacons' Boards on whom
the responsibilities of small attendances and scanty funds
had been pressing with a crushing weight, the Revival
brought a great net balance of good. Thus Montego Bay's
second Church enlarged its sanctuary to seat three hundred
more worshippers, and Watford Hill two hundred and fifty ;
and the pressing demand for more pastors, together with
a reasonable prospect of their being supported by the
Churches, brought welcome additions to the ministerial
staff. Two distinct Church movements may be traced to the
influence of this Revival. One was a marked increase of
independent action on the part of the Church or Churches
under individual ministry. It had been the custom, as we
have seen, for the brethren to consult together in regard to
the appointment and transference of pastors, the formation
of new Churches, the building of new chapels. But under
the glad embarrassment of crowded inquirers' classes,
numerous baptisms and eager willingness of the members
both to give and to work, the pastors did not wait for con
sultation but went ahead, each using the present oppor
tunity to the best of his ability to strengthen and extend
Baptist work in his district. Again, in the pressing need of
more pastors, brethren were taken into office in the island,
or brought over from Europe, on the initiative and at the

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 71
choice of this or that Pastor and Deacons' Board. It is
hardly necessary to record that this excessive independence
carried serious risks, and has not proved itself an unmixed
good. The other movement was in the opposite direction, and
appears to have had its impulse from a recommendation by
the Union at its annual meeting in 1861 : " We respectfully
recommend that associations of Churches in any one district
be formed wherever practicable." The parishes into which
Jamaica was divided by Government formed a convenient
basis of division, and from that time forward our Baptist
Churches, amid many vicissitudes, have been grouped into
such associations as the North Cornwall, the Trelawney, the
St. Catherine's, and the St. Mary's. Thus, if individual
Churches under the stress of sudden and large additions
ceased to some extent to depend on the direct guidance
of the United Board, they were brought to their own great
good under the influence of the District Board — the smaller
council of ministers and delegates in their own neighbour
hood. The advantages of such an arrangement hardly need
to be pointed out. It is on the analogy of almost all human
organizations in communities constitutionally governed.
Union is strength, and it is to be earnestly hoped that that
valuable fellowship and co-operation which do not interfere
with independence, but guide it for its good, will be main
tained and fostered by all the Churches which now con
stitute the Baptist Mission in Jamaica.
(5) The Jubilee of the Jamaica Mission. — This event was
celebrated in 1864, and forms another landmark in the
story of the Mission. Spiritually it found the Churches
still enjoying the wave of blessing the Revival brought,
but financially and socially it found the Jamaica com
munity, both employers and employed, in deepening dis
tress. The sugar industry had gone down, and to make
up for the shortage of revenue the House of Assembly,
mainly composed, as it had always been, of employers of

72 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
negro labour, was still pursuing the mad policy of trying to
make the labouring population pay for everything. Perhaps
the traditional idea of trying to show that Emancipation
was a mistake underlay this policy ; perhaps it was merely
that selfish class-interest, which is the temptation of any
legislative body that does not represent in proper proportions
all classes of the community they govern. In 1862 the
Baptist leaders had had some hope of a change for the
better under the then Governor, Mr. Edward John Eyre.
With the lives of their negro members purified and uplifted
by the great Revival, pastors and officers had viewed with
increasing disapproval and regret the notoriously loose lives
of many of the employers and Government officials, and
from the Baptist Union a petition had been sent to the
Governor to the following effect : " That this meeting, feeling
a deep interest in the morals of the community, and having
had its attention directed to the low state of morals, records
its conviction that greater progress in morality and religion
would take place if persons who are appointed to occupy
places of trust or honour in the community were invariably
men of irreproachable character and good moral life. It there
fore resolves to memorialize His Excellency the Governor
that in all appointments made by His Excellency he would
be pleased, so far as can be ascertained, to appoint to offices
of trust and honour only such persons whose moral character
may so appear as to be an example worthy of imitation by
the community at large."
The response of the Governor was so cordial, backed as it
was by firm opposition to the class favouritism of the House
of Assembly, that the Baptist Union hailed Mr. Eyre as the
friend of their cause, and did their best by petitions to the
Home Government to get him promoted from Acting or
Lieutenant-Governor to Governor in full. Great then was
their disappointment when a short time later he appointed
to a vacant post under Government a man well-known
to be living a grossly immoral life : " Put not your trust

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 73
in princes," says the wise old Book, "but in the living
God." From these untoward circumstances it was a great relief
to the brethren in Jamaica to prepare to celebrate their
Mission's Jubilee — to raise their Ebenezer with the grateful
inscription "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." And
indeed, amid all the trials and disappointments that attend
the earthly service of God in every sphere, how much there
was in the fifty years' story of the past to encourage the
Jamaica workers ! As Mr. Phillippo says : " Think of thirty
thousand souls converted to God in this our island alone !
Every one of them once depraved, but now regenerated sons
and daughters of Ham, together with the thousands now
before the throne of God and the Lamb; and thousands
more gathered into the fold of Christ through the instrumen
tality of other societies, altogether amounting, on a moderate
calculation, to little ' less than two hundred thousand souls
who, had it not been for missionary exertions, would, in all
probability, have been still either sitting in darkness and the
shadow of death, or have entered upon a state of hopeless
and interminable woe." Writing of this Jubilee, fifty years
later still, it is interesting to notice the preparations then
made and the names of the leading men. A Jubilee Com
mittee was formed, consisting of brethren Clark, Dendy,
East, Fray, J. E. Henderson, and Phillippo, with Mr.
Hewett in the chair. Their recommendations include the
following :
1. " That the Jubilee be commemorated by the holding of
the Union Meeting in Montego Bay in February, 1864.
2. " That Tuesday, February 23rd, 1864, be devoted during
the sittings of the Union to the commemoration of the
Jubilee. 3. " That special prayer-meetings be held at each station
the first week in February, 1864, to supplicate the Divine
blessing on the Jubilee Services, and that other devotional
services be held during the year.

74 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
4. " That each Church be recommended to set apart a day
as well as a Sabbath day for special Jubilee Services.
5. " That ministers, neighbours to each other, or associa
tions be recommended to originate meetings to commemorate
the Jubilee.
6. " That during the Jubilee year an earnest effort be made
to raise a sum of not less than three thousand pounds in this
island for the advancement of the Saviour's cause in con
nection with the Churches of Christ associated in the Union ;
that one-third of this sum be raised for Africa, one-third for
the repair of Mission premises to be spent at stations raising
the amount, and one-third for a fund to promote education.
7. " That each Church be left to adopt its own plans to
raise as large a sum as possible for the Jubilee Fund.
8. " That the Committee ascertain whether a public meet
ing can be held in Kingston."
Different tasks in connection with the Jubilee were as
signed to capable brethren. Thus Messrs. Clark, Dendy, and
Teall were to prepare the requisite literature; Mr. Clark an
epitome of the history of the Mission; Mr. Teall a four-
paged tract of the importance of keeping Jubilee, and Mr.
Dendy a series of Jubilee Hymns. The chief service ar
ranged in connection with the Baptist Union Meetings was
held in Montego Bay on February 23 — the Anniversary
of the landing of Mr. Rowe, our first missionary, in 1814.
The Baptist Chapel in which the service was held replaced
one that was burnt down by the Church Defence Union in
1831. Though accommodating 2,000 people, it was crowded
to excess on this Jubilee Day ; and there they praised God
and rejoiced together — pastors, officers, and people, free to
worship God as they would and none daring to make them
afraid. Of the brethren whose names are mentioned as
taking part — Reid, Millard, G. R. Henderson, Kingdon,
Maxwell, Webb — one only remains alive. They left their
mark, however, or rather their Master's mark, on hundreds of
lives for time and eternity. The names of some of them are

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 75
household words in the people's homes, and their works do
follow them.
Jubilee Meetings were held that year at almost all the
Churches in the Union, and although severe drought, wide
spread sickness, high prices for clothes, and low wages on
the sugar estates, crippled and discouraged the efforts of the
people, there were many fine services held, and the Churches,
according to their ability, offered willingly unto the Lord.
To secure sympathy and help from home in connection
with this fiftieth anniversary, Mr. Teall went to England as
a deputation, and brought back a Jubilee Fund, afterwards
supplemented by money raised in Jamaica. This was used
for developing and multiplying the day-schools attached to
the Churches, all of which were then supported on the
voluntary principle.
In 1865 — to complete the story of our Churches up to the
time of the next historical landmark — the Jamaica Churches
felt in severe form that reaction which history tells us is
likely to follow a period of general excitement, no matter
of what nature. In human history, as in mechanics, a
strong swing of the pendulum in one direction is followed
by an equal swing in the other. Think of Puritan life in
England under the Commonwealth, and of what it changed
to under Charles II. One fact, however, should not be lost
sight of in considering the sad phenomenon of spiritual
reaction after a revival. It is not the solid good gained that is
again lost, but the show, the noise, the nervous excitation —
in a word, what was not quite real, that turns afterwards into
indifference and relapse. The manuscript chronicle says:
" There can be no doubt that at the time of the religious
awakening, which was accompanied by so much bodily
excitement, large numbers of persons were baptized or re
stored and added to the Churches who had never felt the
saving power of Divine grace: minds with little training
that mistook emotion for conversion, and mere hysteria for
the indwelling of the Spirit. When the outward signs of

76 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
revival were past, and no more exciting meetings were held,
these weak souls fell away and yielded themselves again to
the world, the flesh, and the devil." The Union report
for 1865 is speaking of these when it says : " Large numbers
of persons have had to be excluded, most of them for the
grossest of fleshly sins, and but few are seeking restoration
or manifesting anxiety about their souls." The Board
surely acted wisely, and took the one course that promised
better things, when they decided to humble themselves
before God, and implore Him to restore to the Churches
the joy of His salvation.

V
Historical Landmarks from Jubilee to Centenary
(1) The Revolt in St. Thomas in the East. — The year 1865
in Jamaica is referred to by the peasantry as the time of
" Martial Law," and as prominent Baptist workers were
publicly declared, both in Jamaica and in England, to
be the instigators of the trouble of that time, just as
Knibb, Burchell, and their comrades had been accused of
being the instigators of the slave revolt in 1831-32, the
story of this event in abbreviated form must have a place
in the story of our Jamaica Mission. It has been mentioned
more than once in the previous chapter that at this time
Jamaica was suffering from severe commercial depression,
which was increased instead of relieved by the policy of the
House of Assembly. In 1865 the distress among the negro
labourers became so keen that the Baptist Missionary
Society made a large grant of money — £2,500 — to relieve the
dire poverty of the Baptist congregations and their pastors.
Rev. D. J. East, President of Calabar College, in his reminis
cences, unpublished, says : " There was hardly any employ
ment for labourers on the sugar estates through the failure
of the crop. The provision grounds of the people scarcely

DR. JOSEPH ANGUS.

REV. J. J. FULLER.

DR. UNDERHILL.

VETERAN FRIENDS OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST MISSION.

T'oyace /*. 77.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 77
produced anything (through the prolonged drought); for
corn-meal and flour all classes had chiefly to depend on
imported supplies. Even to buy these the poor had to run
into debt at the island stores, thus crippling their resources
for years. In some districts the mango-plum, growing wild
by the wayside, was the only food of the people."
Dr. E. B. Underhill, then secretary of the Society, who
had visited the island a short time before the Revival, and
maintained the warmest interest in it ever since, was so
concerned at the accounts he received of the prevailing dis
tress, that he wrote an official letter to the Right Hon. E.
Cardwell, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In this
letter he sums up the situation in Jamaica thus : " The
immediate cause of this distress would seem to be the
drought of the last two years ; but in fact this has only
intensified the suffering already existing. There is not
sufficient work for the people, nor the capita! at hand to
employ them. Hence the alarming increase of crime, espe
cially larceny and petty theft. The people steal because
they are too poor to buy food. Hence also the ragged and
even naked condition of so many of them, so contrary to
their usual taste for dress. To quote the testimony of a
member of the House of Assembly : ' Hardly a boy under
ten years of age has a frock to cover him, and adults from
the raggedness of their garments go about not decently
clad.' "
Of the second cause of distress, the policy of the Legis
lative Council, Dr. Underhill speaks guardedly thus : "I
shall say nothing of the course taken by the Jamaica Legis
lature : of their abortive Immigration Bill, of their unjust
taxation of the coloured population, of their denial of poli
tical rights to the emancipated negroes, of their refusal of
just tribunals." On this matter he recommended a search
ing inquiry by Government into the laws passed since
emancipation, into the incidence of the taxes, and the
administration of justice. He further recommended that

78 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
the Government should encourage peasants to grow produce
for exportation other than sugar and rum.
The charge of injustice towards any section of British
subjects or dependents has always been regarded as a serious
one by British public opinion. So far as it existed at this
time, it would seem to be due to the following circum
stances : By reason of the restricted franchise the members
elected to the House of Assembly were almost all sugar
planters, elected by some two thousand persons whose
interests were with that class. Again, the magistrates
appointed were from the planting community. Then, as
now, it would have been difficult to find J.P.'s elsewhere,
unless missionaries would accept the position ; but the result,
as testified by reliable witnesses, was extremely disastrous.
At some courts the peasant could never win a case against
employer. The reports of this, passed about on market days,
created among the labourers a distrust of the Magistrates'
Court — in itself a most unfavourable condition for the public
weal. In some districts, indeed, negroes and coloured
people gave up taking cases into court, and instituted a
kind of private court composed of their own leading men.
Dr. Underbill's letter was forwarded to Governor Eyre
for consideration and comment in February, 1865, and by
the Governor it was sent out with a circular to practically
all Government officials and ministers of all denominations.
Naturally it became scattered broadcast, was reprinted in
the papers, and became the general subject of discussion.
Meetings were held in all the Jamaica towns which were
called " Underhill Meetings." These public meetings dis
pleased Governor Eyre, who spoke of them as "got up
mostly through the agency of Baptist ministers," and " that
Baptist ministers in many instances took a prominent part,
addressing the mob, and vouching for Dr. Underbill's alle
gations." In April a number of the peasants in St. Ann's
addressed a petition direct to the Queen, describing their
condition and complaining, among other things, that their

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 79
little holdings and gardens were trampled under foot by the
cattle of estate owners, who refused compensation, and
asking Her Majesty to grant them land elsewhere.
In due time a document was issued from King's House,
entitled "The Queen's Advice," and purporting to be
(though this was never officially stated) Her Majesty's reply
to the petition. Its tone was curt and harsh, and it was
felt by the people to be a mere mockery of their distress.
In May the Governor of Jamaica sent in his report to the
Colonial Office. He speaks of the Underhill Meetings as
"got up for the most part by political demagogues," and
refers to "the serious mischief done amongst an ignorant
and easily led population when the missionaries residing
amongst them, and professing to be their friends and
teachers, endorse such statements as those contained in
Dr. Underbill's letter." No notice was taken by the
Governor of Dr. Underbill's recommendation that a Royal
Commission should be appointed to inquire into the real
facts of the suffering and discontent.
Where public wrong is practised and persisted in in spite
of lawful remonstrance there inevitably comes a crisis or
climax when the primal instincts of human nature take the
matter into their own hands and decide it by force. This
should never be necessary in a civilized community, and,
alas ! cannot happen without widespread loss and damage.
It was on October 7, at Morant Bay, that the revolt began.
The details have been set forth in many publications and
need not be repeated here. It is enough to record that an
arrest was resisted, the constables overcome, and that shots
having been fired into the crowd, Morant Bay Court House
was attacked and burnt and eighteen people, including the
Custos and the Parish Curate, were put to death. Once
started, the revolt spread quickly from estate to estate, and
though there was no further killing there was much burning
and plundering. The revolt was short-lived. Martial Law
was declared over the eastern parts of the island and con-

80 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
tinued to November 13, but by Monday, October 16^-three
days after the revolt began — all resistance was over, and the
first court was sitting to try prisoners. The scenes among
the eastern mountains when the soldiery with their officers
were let loose to hunt down rebels and to terrorize the
peasant population are best not described in detail. The
writer has talked with survivors of that time, both soldiers
and peasants, and has heard at first hand tales of barbarity
and of suffering which we trust will never more stain the
annals of our island story. The findings of the Royal
Commission sent out from home were mainly these :
That Martial Law was continued unnecessarily long ; that
the punishments inflicted on supposed rebels were too severe,
and the punishment of death too frequent ; that the floggings
were reckless, and at Bath positively barbarous ; that the
burning of a thousand houses in the eastern districts was
wanton and cruel. It is recorded that four hundred and
thirty-nine peasants were put to death, eighty-five of them
without trial. Of the many unjust executions the most
notorious was that of G. W. Gordon, a coloured man, and a
member of the House of Assembly, where he proved himself
a strong advocate of the interests of the negroes. This
unfortunate man, supposed to be an instigator of rebellion,
was arrested in Kingston where Martial Law did not obtain,
and carried by the Governor's orders into St. Thomas in the
East, where by Martial Law he was tried, condemned, and
executed. Of this transaction the Lord Chief Justice of
England said: "It was altogether unlawful and unjustifi
able." The atrocities of the suppression of the revolt were
increased by the employment of the Maroons. These negro
descendants of the early slaves of the Spaniards, living then,
as they do now, amid the peaks and gullies of the Cockpit
country, were employed by the military to scour the
mountains of eastern Jamaica and hunt out supposed rebels.
In these raids many persons were shot and one hundred and
forty cottages were destroyed.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 81
One other incident connected with the suppression needs
to be mentioned here because it concerns a Baptist minister
of good standing. The Rev. Edwin Palmer was minister of
the Baptist Church in Hanover Street, Kingston. Earlier
in the year of the Rebellion, in May, 1865, he had spoken,
as so many others had done, both ministers and laymen, at
one of the Underhill Meetings ; in October Mr. Palmer was
arrested on an unstated charge, put on board a ship of war,
and conveyed to Morant Bay, where Martial Law prevailed ;
and it was only after thirty-four days of imprisonment and
ill-treatment that he was released on a Writ of Habeas
Corpus, and ordered to come up for trial in Kingston before
the Special Commission. It was then only that he learnt
he was charged with using seditious language. A prejudiced
jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to two months'
imprisonment. The writer remembers Mr. Palmer twenty-five years later
when he was closing a long ministry of usefulness and
general respect at the Kingston Church.
The remaining story of the revolt can be quickly told so
far as it affected our Baptist Mission. Before the Special
Commissioners Mr. Eyre did not advance his accusations
against Dr. Underhill and his Baptist comrades in Jamaica —
a curious analogy to the withdrawal of the charges against
Mr. Knibb after the revolt of 1832. On the other hand,
charges were instituted against Governor Eyre and Provost-
Marshal Ramsay, who had conducted the executions in the
affected district of Jamaica, of irregular and cruel procedure ;
and although no sentence of condemnation was obtained,
either in Jamaica or in England, the Governor was super
seded, nor was he sent out again in Colonial service.
(2) Consolidation and Extension. — It is the blessed law of
Providence, as declared long ago by the prophet, that for all
true servants of God good comes out of evil and light out of
darkness. Just as the attempt to destroy our work after the
revolt of 1832 brought about the destruction of slavery and
6

82 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
the public recognition of missionary work as an agency for
good, so the attempt to fasten upon the Secretary of the
Society in England and leading workers in Jamaica the
responsibility for the Morant Bay rising resulted in the
removal of the plantocracy from the island government, which
had been for so long — ever since freedom came — the chief
hindrance to missionary work and the chief obstacle to the
general progress of the coloured population. Immediately
after the revolt the House of Assembly ceased to exist, and
was replaced by a system of Crown Government, which, with
the addition of a certain number of elected members, pre
vails to the present time. Capable and fair-minded men,
sent out in succession from the Homeland, represent the
Sovereign power of the King, and are assisted by colleagues
nominated by the Crown, or elected by the inhabitants of
each parish. The relief to Church work, when the Members
of the Government are not tempted by personal interest to
oppose its progress, is very great, and in the contrast pre
sented by our happier circumstances, we must the more
respect and admire the courage and persistence of those
earlier workers who carried on God's work against such odds.
Another event soon following the revolt, and due to that
same spirit of reform which the sadness of that time en
gendered, was the disestablishment and disendowment of
the Episcopal Church in Jamaica. Up to that time the
clergy and institutions of the State Church had received sup
port from the island funds in the same way in which the
Established Church is maintained as a national institution
in England, but in 1870 complete disestablishment was
decided upon. Henceforth the Episcopal Church had to be
supported by its own funds and the contributions of its
adherents, just as is the case with Wesleyan or Baptists.
The lav/ framed to regulate the standing of the Bishop and
his clergy in Jamaica was framed very much on the principle
of the laws adopted in Canada and in Ireland. In fairness
to the then clergy in charge of Island Churches, these were

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 83
to continue to receive their incomes so long as in office. In
the forty years and more that have followed this Act almost
all of the Island curates, as they were called, have passed
away. There was a third reform, which must be mentioned here
because of its connection with Church life, although it will
find its proper place in the chapter on education. Hitherto,
although our Baptist workers, like those of other societies,
had been the founders and supporters of day-schools for the
peasantry — and without these the bulk of the children would
have grown up without any school education at all — the
judgment of the Baptist Union had gone strongly against
the acceptance of any aid from State funds, even for the
support of ordinary secular education. Baptist missionaries,
such as Burchell and Phillippo, had built school-houses,
trained and employed native teachers, and systematically
taught the three R's to multitudes of little black children,
thus doing what was undoubtedly important public work, at
their own risk, getting from the parents such fees as could be
collected, and making up the rest of the cost by voluntary
contributions from friends, and not infrequently out of their
own pockets. The letters of the early missionaries to the
Missionary Secretary and other friends show only too clearly
how heavy a burden the support of these schools was, and
what a constant source of toil, worry, and anxiety. One
writes, for instance : " I am about £2,000 in debt, and do not
see yet how to meet this amount, but cannot lessen my
school work nor even refrain from extending it ; it is so neces
sary for the uplifting of the people, and so full of promise."
Under an intelligent Governor, tempting offers had been
made to our brethren to accept financial help, which would
have greatly eased this burden; but it was so difficult to
define assistance for secular education in such a way as
should completely distinguish it from a State endowment for
religious work, necessarily involving some measure of State
control over missionary efforts, that it was thought best by

84 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
the brethren in council to decline it altogether. In 1867,
however, under the reformed Government, a system of grants
in aid was introduced with which, after careful considera
tion, the Nonconformist missionaries were able to agree.
Gardener's " History of Jamaica " says of this transaction :
" In 1867 there were three hundred and seventy-nine ele
mentary schools in the island, mostly under the superinten
dence and management of clergymen and missionaries ; two
hundred and twenty-six of these received aid from the Govern
ment. Nearly half were connected with the Established
Church, for a very considerable number of Nonconforming
ministers had persistently refused to accept Government aid.
Nor was it until they were convinced that there was no
intention whatever to interfere with the religious education
imparted, and that the amount of aid would be regulated
solely by the attainments of the children in secular sub
jects, irrespective of denominational distinctions, that they
gradually fell in with the plan."
A last result of very great interest was the extension of our
work into the seat of the rebellion itself — the parish of
St. Thomas. In earlier years, through the intense hostility
of the planter magistrates, the east end of the island had
remained closed to missionary effort, and one may well
suspect that this was one of the reasons why the relations
between employers and employed were strained to the break
ing-point in this particular parish. After the revolt, Sir
Henry Storks, head of the special Commission, on his return
to England, urged upon Dr. Underhill the importance of
opening Mission stations in this neglected region. In March,
1866, Mr. Phillippo and Mr. Thomas Lea were sent out as a
deputation by the Baptist Union, and spent ten days ex
ploring the scene of the late rebellion. They saw sad signs
of the devastation occasioned by the outbreak, and its sup
pression, and heard sad tales of ruin and bereavement from
the sufferers. Especially melancholy was it to visit hamlets
where the houses had been burnt down, women and children

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 85
wounded by stray bullets, and there were hardly any men
left. Everywhere the stricken survivors welcomed most
gratefully the Union's proposal to build chapels and estab
lish religious work in their midst. The deputation's report
having been sent to England, the Committee voted a sum of
money to establish stations in and around Morant Bay itself,
and to maintain them for three years, a period afterwards
extended to seven. Very soon the Rev. William Teall, at
the request of the Committee, left his loved people at the far
west of the island, and took in hand this pioneer work in the
extreme east. With great success he built chapels, gathered
Churches* and set up schools at Morant Bay, Monklands, and
elsewhere, and at the present time the work he began is
being extended by able hard-working pastors, who are
gradually winning "dark St. Thomas" for the Kingdom of
Light. Two features of this section of the work have made
it specially hard : One is the neglected and backward state
in which the bulk of the population lived in comparison with
more favoured parts of the island ; another is the presence
of workers of that sect, whose origin is probably due to
negro immigrants from America, and which is known as the
Native Baptist Church. Some of these Churches are com
munities of earnest hard-working people of the labouring class,
supporting their own pastor, who, in many cases, is not a
college-trained man; but others are discreditable and un
worthy, and should more properly be called fanatic than
Baptist — Churches where morality is not insisted upon as a
sine qua non for membership, and much religious hysteria and
crude African superstition mingle with the worship and
practices of the members. It is aggravating at times to hear
all these spoken of as Baptists, as if forming one company or
denomination with ourselves. In an earlier paragraph in
this book the essential differences have been clearly set forth.
One is thankful to report that gradually native Baptist
Churches in St. Thomas, that have the root of the matter in
them, are being absorbed or taken into fellowship under our

86 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
trained Baptist workers. From the others members occa
sionally come who are dissatified with the mere travesty of
Christian worship, and anxious for the better way.
In the year 1867, the year after the revolt, the statistics
presented at the Baptist Union showed 78 Churches in
membership. Of these 6 were then pastorless, the remain
ing 72 being under the care of 32 pastors. The total mem
bership was 16,218. In 1868 the following comparative
statement was presented of the progress, or otherwise, of
the Churches since the reaction and depression which
followed the great revival : " In 1864 there was an average
decrease in each of the reported Churches of 24 members.
In 1865 it was 25 ; in 1866 it was 16 ; and in 1867 the
decrease had shrunk to 3. How do matters now stand with
regard to 1868 ? We rejoice to report that instead of a
decrease there has been an increase. The returns received
from yy out of 80 of our Churches are as follows : Losses,
by death, 394; by exclusion, 627; by dismissal, 214; by
withdrawal, 35 ; erased from the Church books, 129 ; total
losses, 1,399. Additions : by baptism, 664 ; by restoration,
648; received from other Churches, 378; total additions,
1,690, making a net gain of 291. Moreover, of the reported
losses, 186 were members drafted off from Savanna-la-Mar
Church to form a new Church at Sutcliffe Mount, not yet
received into the Union. Deducting this number from the
total losses, the net gain for the year becomes 477, which
gives an average gain of 6 members per Church for the
77 Churches reported upon." The same report gives the
number of inquirers as 1,606, after striking off the roll those
who by carelessness or inconsistency could not be con
sidered as being in earnest in the matter. Commenting on
this report, the unpublished chronicle says : " Thus the dark
night of spiritual depression gave way to a bright morning of
hope and joy, which continued with the Churches and the
brethren in charge of them for many succeeding years."
Released at last from the disadvantages of hostile legis-

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 87
lation and commercial depression, the Baptists in Jamaica
found time to examine their buildings with a view to neces
sary repairs. The Chairman for 1868, the Rev. E. Hewett,
urged upon pastors and delegates the importance of repairing
and improving the chapels, manses, schools, and class-
houses belonging to the denomination. Let them remember
that these properties were theirs, according to the trust deeds
under which they were settled, for the purposes of God's
work in Jamaica. Let all the Churches be both open-
handed and united in efforts to put all the Baptist premises
into creditable condition. A special committee was ap
pointed, with the Rev. C. E. Randall as chairman, to
prepare a building scheme for the guidance of the Churches,
and we find in the recommendations of this committee the
following cautious resolution : " That the existing rules to
govern chapel cases, as printed in the manual, be adhered
to, and that none but recommended cases shall be aided by
the Churches." Under the stimulus thus given to building
and repairing a new start was made. Thousands of pounds
were raised by the people and expended on their Church
premises, and the zeal thus shown has been continued by
many of our Churches to the present time.
From this year, 1868, commenced the steady uninter
rupted labour in Church work which, to a large extent, has
resulted in progress in all departments of the Baptist
Mission year by year. In the year 1870, for example, at the
anuual meeting held in Kingston, ten new Churches applied
for admission into the Union, and the baptisms rose to
1,260. The same year brought the added relief to the
Baptist and the other Free Churches in the island of their
being placed on a footing of complete equality with the
hitherto State-endowed Episcopal Church. The two resolu
tions of the Union upon this matter give so vivid a picture
of that event in its historical setting that they may suitably
be quoted in full.
Resolved — I. "That the attention of the members of this

88 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Board having been called to the fact that since their last
annual meeting the Episcopal Church in this Colony has
been disestablished and disendowed, they now record the
pleasure they feel in witnessing the termination of a contest
in which they, in a constitutional manner, have been engaged
during a period of twenty-six years, a contest publicly com
menced in a petition to the late House of Assembly in the
year 1843, when sentiments were cherished and language
was used against the petitioners of the most unjustifiable
character. Conscious, however, of the rectitude of their
motives and conduct, and in spite of misrepresentations
and calumnies, they persevered in the use of legitimate
means, and now have the satisfaction of knowing that they
and their people are not only regarded as peaceable, obedient,
and loyal subjects, but they are rewarded in seeing their
efforts crowned with success in the disestablishment and
disendowment of the hitherto State-aided Church."
II. "That the members of this Board rejoice to know
that the views and sentiments they have ever entertained
(the holding of which was preferred against them as a grave
offence at the Colonial Office) are now cherished and advo
cated by the most enlightened and eminent statesmen that
perhaps Great Britain ever produced, as may be seen in the
measure of justice on this subject dealt out toward Ireland ;
and they now rejoice that under these statesmen, and with
Sir J. P. Grant as Governor, the question of the severance
of Church and State is for ever settled. That the grateful
thanks of this Board are most respectfully tendered to the
Right Honourable the Earl of Granville, Secretary of State
for the Colonies, and to the other members of Her Majesty's
Government in Great Britain ; also to His Excellency Sir
J. P. Grant, Governor of this island, for the great blessing
which this act of justice will confer on Her Majesty's
subjects in this Colony, and which they believe will promote
harmony and the best interests of true religion."
In view of the crowded congregations and the increase in

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 89
the number of chapels the question of ministerial supply
again became urgent, and the Union, on the resolution of
the Rev. G. E. Henderson, sent an appeal through the
Baptist Missionary Society to friends in England for
£4,000 to assist the extension work, and for two or more
ministers from the Homeland. The appeal seems to have
been justified by the statistics of 1871, which showed n
additional Churches received into the Union, with 1,028
members and 169 inquirers. Total number of Churches, 95.
The finance return showed that the people themselves had
contributed during the year £1,952 for repair and building
work, while from outside £2,575 had been received for the
same purpose. The appeal was generously responded to.
About £2,000 was raised, and the Home Society undertook
to select and send out additional workers, two of whom they
would support for a limited number of years. Mr. T. L. Rees,
the first of these, arrived in 1871 ; and Mr. Philip Williams
came the next year, in which year also Mr. J. E. Gummer
came from Demerara, and joined the Mission.
The last effort of this period of the Jamaica Mission's
history, which must be to all sympathetic readers a welcome
relief from the struggle and depression of earlier years, was
to induce the Government, who had just issued a most
favourable report as to the finances of the island, to spend
their surplus in three directions : Extended elementary educa
tion for the children of all classes in Jamaica; a better
method for the registration of marriages, births, and deaths,
so that as in other parts of the Empire the birth, the death,
and the marriage union of any British subject in the island,
coloured or European, should be legally recorded ; the con
struction and repair of the roads and bridges. The wording
of the resolution on this last matter gives a picture of the
times: "We urge upon the Government the exceeding
importance of spending such an amount of public funds
as will put into a good state of repair the second- and third-
class roads in the interior, over which the masses of the

90 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
people travel both to church and market. It is our opinion
that the produce grown in the mountains becomes much
deteriorated in value, and that education, civilization, morals,
and religion are at present hindered in their operation for
want of better roads and bridges." The chronicle adds :
"The present generation have no idea of the kind of
mountain tracks and river fords that their fathers and
mothers had to trudge over as best they could."
(3) Calm and Storm. — We have seen how, when set
politically and socially free to do its appointed work, with
a fair field and no favour, the Baptist Mission in Jamaica
steadily strengthened and spread so that the Annual Reports
for 1871-72 were favourable and encouraging. In fact, a
religious awakening passed over the Churches ; not, however,
demonstrative and even violent like the Revival of 1861, but
calm and gradual ; a summer rain, not a deluge ; a day-dawn,
not a flash of lightning. There seems to have been no wild
rushing of excited crowds to the sanctuaries, no hysteria, no
convulsions; but men and women, stricken in their con
sciences by the Spirit of God, sought salvation through
Jesus Christ, and the young people, just reaching manhood
and womanhood, sat at the feet of the Saviour, and there
learnt to choose the better part which cannot be taken away.
Such an awakening as this makes happy times for pastor,
officers, and people in a free and independent Church. Con
scious of Divine guidance, and untrammelled by the rules
and traditions of some mere human authority, they just go
as they are led, and they prosper, and it is well with them.
Such times, however, like all events and periods of earthly
life, are of uncertain duration : the powers of evil operating
from without, or, alas ! from within, succeed at length in
staying the prosperity and disturbing the peace.
Thus in the Report for 1874 we read of spiritual decline.
Severe droughts in some districts and epidemics of disease in
others disabled the people from coming to service, and the
spirit of fanaticism took possession of those who stayed

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 91
away, substituting the disorder, excitement, and animalism
of a pagan orgy for united prayer and praise and the study
of God's Word. To combat this inroad of evil the Union
determined on a week of united prayer, and the programme
of those services shows how unchanged have been the pros
and cons of Christian Church life from the Jerusalem days
to the present time. " 'Tis the repeated tale
Of sin and weariness ;
Of grace and love yet flowing down
To pardon and to bless."
Sermons were preached on a " Revival of Religion in the
Soul : What is it ?" and prayer was offered for the outpouring
of the Spirit, for power to accompany the preached word,
for ministers, Church workers, members and inquirers,
backsliders, and, not least, for parents and children of the
families attending service. The chronicle adds, as if it were
part of the answer to these prayers : " In this year five
Churches were added to the Union." An event of another
kind but equally favourable as a sign was this : The English
Missionary Society being anxious to extend their work in
the Bahama Islands, 500 miles north of Jamaica, selected
a Jamaica pastor, Mr. W. N. Brown, a native, and trained
at the Baptist College, to be their missionary at Nassau,
New Providence, Bahamas. When we come to the story of
the educational work of our Mission, other instances will be
given of Jamaica-trained workers selected for special service.
The year 1873 was marked by a movement of much im
portance in consolidating Baptist work in the island. After
much correspondence and careful consideration both in
England and Jamaica the Home Society succeeded in getting
many of the various Baptist Mission premises in Jamaica
brought under the operation of a suitable Trust Law, there
by securing the use of these premises for all generations of
worshippers for the purpose for which they were intended,
and putting an effectual stop to the disturbances and

92 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
divisions of past times, as to the exact ownership of the land
or buildings that constituted the Mission premises. By the
help of the Home Society the brethren secured the passing
of an Act by the Island Legislature entitled " The Baptist
Missionary Society's Trust Law," and the heavy cost of this
was met by the English Society.
The years 1876-77 initiated another method of assisting
the Jamaica Mission, which has been made use of many times
since. Mr. Taylor, an evangelist, visited Jamaica, and held
special services from place to place. The visit of the
stranger excited interest, the new voice was listened to
attentively, and the pastors and officers of the Churches
visited saw with delight the quickened religious life inside
the Church, and the large numbers of young people brought
into the inquirers' classes. Another marked result of the
good evangelist's visit was a large number of marriages,
chiefly between people who had been living together without
the sanction of the law. This practice — unwedded union — a
direct heritage from slavery days, has long been a scourge
and a curse in the West Indies, and a sore hindrance to
Church life and service. Scores of men and women thus
living are reputed to be faithful to each other though not
made husband and wife by law. Many of them attend
service regularly and send their children to day and Sunday
schools ; but the lack of sanction, both Divine and human,
to their relationship excludes them from membership, and
shuts them off from the Lord's Table, and their example in
the neighbourhood is exceedingly harmful in seeming to
sanction loose living among the young people. The Baptist
chronicle adds : " Much of the fruit of Mr. Taylor's evangel
istic efforts remains to this day." In 1876, Mr. G. E.
Henderson, son of the Rev. G. R. Henderson, became pastor
at Brownstown, and has given full proof of a wide ministry
until this day.
At the close of December, 1878, the number of Churches
in the Union was 117, of which 98 sent in returns showing a

| $^S.

REV. J. KINGDON.

REV, T. L. WEBSTER.
PASTORS OF BAPTIST CHURCHES, JAMAICA.

REV. W. PRATT, M.A.

Tojtuefi. 93.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 93
total membership of 21,856, and inquirers 3,310. The
baptisms for the year were more than for some years past,
showing a total of 1,827. The total gains for the year were
9,690 ; the net gain after deducting losses, 1,095.
Good times continued for some while to gladden the
hearts of our Baptist workers. Thus at the Annual Meeting
in 1879 the following resolution was thankfully adopted:
"That this Board has heard with much gladness and satis
faction the written and verbal reports of the Churches in
connection with the Jamaica Baptist Union, indicating a
degree of spiritual life and activity that has resulted in the
conversion and baptism of nearly 2,000 persons and the
gathering of three to four thousand young people into the
inquirers' classes. We also wish to express our thankfulness
that the congregations are large, and said to be increasing in
almost every district where there are places of worship in
which the Divine Word has been faithfully preached."
The years 1879-80 were marked by the removal by death,
in quick succession, of several of the Fathers of the
Mission — veterans who had borne for long the burden
and the heat of the day. There were three of these, the
years of whose active service added together made 149 years,
very nearly an average of fifty years apiece : James Reid, of
Montego Bay First Church ; James Mursell Phillippo, and
John Clarke, of Jericho. Mr. Phillippo's length of service
was fifty-six years : he was one of the first of slave-time
missionaries. Mr. Clarke, beside doing fine pastoral work
in Jamaica, was one of the pioneer missionaries from
Jamaica to Africa in 1840, of which expedition an account
will be given in the chapter on Missionary Work. Mr. Reid,
an accomplished scholar, had charge of the big chapel at
Montego Bay, which Mr. Burchell built to replace one which
was burnt down by the slavery party in 1832.
But while saddened by losing these veteran workers, the
Baptist Church in Jamaica had the joy of receiving new
workers, some of whom have laboured long and, under God's

94 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
blessing, done good service. In 1878, Messrs. Edward Jesse
Hewett and A. G. Kirkham came to Jamaica ; and in 1879
Messrs. J. J. Kendon and W. D. Henderson. Of these Mr.
Hewett, son of Mr. Edward Hewett of Mount Carey, and
grandson of Mr. Burchell, has but lately passed from us,
leaving a memory in the hearts of his people which will not
pass. Born in Jamaica, and well acquainted with the actual
condition, social and moral, of the black population, he was
known and loved in all the Churches. Mr. Kirkham still
holds, as he has done for several decades, a scattered and
difficult circuit on the great South-West Sugar Plain that
surrounds Savanna-la-Mar. Mr. Kendon, called home
some ten years ago, carried on and extended through many
laborious years the work of the Mission at Jericho. Mr. W.
D. Henderson, son of Rev. G. R. Henderson, is in full
service at Oracabessa in the north-west of the island.
The year 1880, though one of spiritual prosperity for the
Churches, was made calamitous by a terrific cyclone which
swept over the greater part of the island in the middle of
August, throwing down nearly 9,000 houses of various kinds,
injuring 6,800 people, and destroying all kinds of crops from
more than 14,000 acres of cultivated land. As is always the
case in these West Indian whirlwinds, several of our chapels
and other church buildings went down or were badly
damaged. Disaster of this kind falls with special severity on
the pastor and people of a self-supporting Church in the
West Indies. Most of the members being of the peasant
class, it has not been possible to accumulate any considerable
central fund from which to meet this kind of emergency;
and the members, however zealous and willing, can neither
replace the fallen buildings nor for the time being support
their own pastor, their own cottages and provision grounds
having been destroyed or seriously damaged by the same
hurricane that unroofed the chapel. Being self-supporting,
moreover, neither people nor pastor has any claim on the
funds of the Society at home. In such an emergency — and

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 95
there have been three of them in Jamaica within the last ten
years — the chief resource is an appeal to the charity and
goodwill of the Baptist Churches in England. On this
occasion they contributed a considerable amount of money,
through the Baptist Missionary Society, which was entrusted
to the Rev. D. J. East for disbursement at his discretion.
The report for the year 1881, which must end this section,
tells of the reception of seven new pastors into the ranks of
the Baptist Union : Mr. Charles Brown, from Scotland, for
some years minister at Montego Bay, and for much longer
the pastor of a self-supporting Church at Belize, British
Honduras, Central America ; Mr. George House, whose chief
ministry was at St. Ann's Bay, and who is now in the
States; Mr. T. Gould, of Clarksonville ; Mr. P. F. Schoburgh,
one of the best known of the Jamaica-born pastors, trained
at Calabar College; and Messrs. R. R. James and James H.
Gayle, also trained at Calabar — of whom several have since
" fallen on sleep."
The manuscript chronicle says: "The report of the
Churches for this year was perhaps the most satisfactory re
ceived up to that date. There were baptized as many as 2,394
persons, while on the inquirers' roll there had been during the
year the names of 4,446 young people. Congregations were
large, in some cases overflowing, and new Churches were
being formed and housed. Ministers and their helpers were
energetic in holding evangelistic services in chapel and class-
house, preaching in the open air, and visiting from house to
house." The chronicle, written some ten years ago, adds :
" All these efforts were instrumental, under the Divine bless
ing, in producing a condition of religious life and activity in
the Churches most devoutly to be wished for in the present
cold, dull, and degenerate days."
(4) Baptist Missionary Society Centenary and Visit of Third
Deputation. — The centenary of the year 1792, when at
Kettering, in England, the Baptist Missionary Society was
formed, was kept with much enthusiasm, not only in the

96 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Homeland, but at the Foreign Mission centres, and could
William Carey have come back to survey the work he began
he would have had to journey from India, his first field, to
China, Central Africa, and the West Indies, besides making
a call in at Baptist stations in France and Italy.
In Jamaica itself the Centenary celebrations aroused much
interest, and many were the expressions, from black men
brought up in Christian civilization, of gratitude for the debt
due to the Society, whose first missionaries helped to set free
the slave. The young people of the Churches enjoyed the
festivities, but, as was natural, were not much moved by
their meaning ; but the old people, who remembered slavery,
were deeply moved, and full of reminiscences which they
found "dis generation" not too willing to listen to.
Jamaican Baptists gave offerings by way of thanksgiving,
and the students at the Calabar College made a collection of
their own.
A deputation was sent out from England, the third of its
kind, one of whom, Mr. J. G. Greenhough, visited the
isolated Baptist stations at Trinidad, Turks Islands, Puerto
Plata (San Domingo), and Hayti, as well as making a
longer stay in Jamaica. Between them, Mr. J. Bailey and
Mr. Greenhough visited a considerable number of the
Jamaica Mission stations, as well as the Bahama Islands,
and had practical experience of the incidents common to
Mission-house life — the long rough journeys, breaks-down by
the way, delayed meals through failure of market supplies or
the forgetfulness of a servant, the midday heat, the night
noises, the lizard, the ant, the grass-lice, and the mosquito.
Despite these disagreeable reminiscences, the report they gave
of the progress of the Churches, under the more favour
able conditions of Crown Government and just legisla-'
tion, gave great delight to the Baptists in England, and
helped to strengthen the ties of affection and interest
between the Home Society and the self-supporting Jamaica
Churches.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 97
(5) Emigration of Jamaicans. — Throughout the decade
from 1880 to i8go the Baptist Churches were constantly
weakened by the emigration of young male members, and
sometimes of whole families, to other lands, and especially
to Central America. In 1879 the French Panama Company
was formed for connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
by a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. Agents with
glowing prospectuses passed through the West Indies to
collect labourers, to whom were offered high wages and many
other advantages if they would enter the Company's service.
They were not told how high the price of things would be,
how rough and hard the housing and general conditions of
living, or how the swamp of the proposed course, and the
insanitary condition of the towns at each end made the canal
zone a hotbed of fever. Nor were they told with what
contempt and harshness the ordinary black labourers would
be treated by their " bosses," still less how law-abiding self-
respecting Jamaicans, members in good standing in our
Churches, some of them class-leaders or deacons accus
tomed to chastity and sobriety, to read the Bible and to keep
holy the Sabbath Day, would be expected to live the godless,
intemperate life common on the zone, and the cruellest
pressure be brought to bear on them to make them do this.
Thousands of our more vigorous men accepted this offer,
and shipload after shipload was borne away south to
Panama, too often leaving the cottage home with wife and
children and old parents unprovided for. Hundreds of these
men died in Panama, were buried off-hand as "Jamaica
stiffs," without word being sent to their relatives in Jamaica ;
and our missionaries, especially in St. Thomas in the East,
were constantly petitioned by distressed black women to
find out whether father, husband, or son, who had gone to
Panama, was yet alive.
The labourers who returned were strangely altered, both
in morals and manners. Public life in some districts was
visibly affected for the worse, especially perhaps in the
7

98 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
matter of manners. The failure of the Canal Company,
in 1889, and the flocking back of numbers of Jamaican
labourers without employment, was financially disastrous,
but it was a good thing for the Jamaica Churches when the
work on the canal shut down.
With the resumption of the work under the American
Government in 1903 the emigration set in again, and again
our Churches suffered the loss and inconvenience of their
more enterprising young people going to Panama; but at
the other end the labourers are very much better looked
after, properly housed, cared for in sickness, and punctually
paid. The wonderful hygienic enterprise of the United
States' doctors and engineers has completely changed the
health record of the canal zone, and while the two cities
— Colon and Panama — which are only partially under
America's control, are still centres of much moral evil, the
locations along the canal course are well-ordered and
healthy. Most of all to be commended, and surely worthy
of record in this history of Christian enterprise, are the two
grand rules : First, that no strong drink shall be used during
working days on the canal ; and, second, that no man shall
be admitted into the Canal Commission's service who brings
with him as his companion a woman to whom he has not
been married.
(6) The Cyclone of 1903. — The Spanish Main seems to be
the natural home, one might almost say the nursery, of that
terrible phenomenon — the cyclone. The great spiral of
whirling air, a hundred or more miles across, and spinning
at the rate of two miles a minute, forms near the Equator,
moves westward along the Caribbean, and too often, as it
veers to the north, sweeps over one or other of the West
Indian Islands. Of these whirlwinds Jamaica has of late
years had her full share. The darkening sky, the eerie
scream of the wind, the flying spray, the rushing pitiless
rain, the veering of the wind with the curve of the column,
the broken stormy weather that follows, making it so hard

CYCLONE WRECKAGE : MOUNT CAREY MISSION HOUSE.

CYCLONE WRECKAGE : SHORTWOOD CHURCH (OUTSIDE VIEW).

CYCLONE WRECKAGE : SHORTWOOD CHURCH (THE INTERIORS

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 99
to repair the damaged house, are well-known experiences in
an island which is normally so sunlit and balmy.
In 1903 a storm of this nature swept over Jamaica, striking
the island at the north-east coast, which it devastated,
sweeping over the fertile uplands of the centre, and only
prevented by the high mountains from descending in full
force upon Kingston and the south. In this cyclone the
Baptist stations suffered severely — from Belle Castle in Port
land to Refuge in Trelawney ; and many places between these
points felt the full force of the hurricane, and had chapels
and manses unroofed or blown down ; and equally disastrous
to the progress of the Mission were the personal losses in
flicted on hundreds of the Baptist Church members. The
cottage was laid low, the palm or bread-fruit tree was broken
down, the growing cane or corn or coffee crop lay battered
and sodden. Thus, just when extra help was wanted from
the members to rebuild the chapel or re-roof the manse,
they were disabled from giving their ordinary Church
subscriptions, and had to get help from Government in
order to live.
In this emergency the Jamaica Mission again made an
appeal to the Home Society. This has no fund from
which to made* a grant, nor could anything be drawn on
this account from general revenue; but permission was
given for two brethren to visit England and appeal to the
Churches, with the sanction and recommendation of the
Mission House, and collect what they could. Most years
from one part or another of the far-extended spheres of the
Home Society's work two or three special appeals from
abroad are going the round of the Churches, and it is far
from an easy problem how to adjust and control these
special appeals, so as to give to each its chance of getting
an adequate response without interfering with the collection
of General Revenue, or vexing willing donors by a multipli
cation of clamorous claims.
Messrs. Ellis Fray and W. Pratt were sent to England by

ioo "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
the Jamaica Baptist Union. They had a kind reception,
and their story aroused much sympathy, the more so as one
of them, Mr. Fray, was the pastor of sorely stricken Churches.
They collected upwards of £2,000, which was handed to the
Executive Committee of the Union in Jamaica ; by whom it
was carefully disbursed among the stricken spheres in pro
portion to the loss sustained.
(7) The Great Earthquake, 1907. — Jamaica, like other West
Indian Islands, has frequently been visited with earthquake
shocks. Two or three times a year — in some districts oftener
— there is a quivering vibration of the ground, at times accom
panied by a subterranean rumbling. Usually these shocks
do little damage beyond alarming the nervous ; a wall may
be cracked, an upright be made to lean, but that is all.
History, however, shows that the earth beneath these
islands covers fissures or caverns where at times the volcanic
forces accumulate and may at any time break into violent
action. Such was the earthquake of 1692 which destroyed
Port Royal.
A terrific upheaval took place in Jamaica on the afternoon
of January 14, 1907. Without any warning, the island
quivered from end to end, and under Kingston the ground
swayed and rocked almost like waves of the sea. Man's
strongest works are nothing before the powers of Nature :
" He looketh on the earth and it trembleth." Less than a
minute of this violent rocking brought the strongest buildings
of the city in ruins to the ground, and amid sinking roofs
and falling walls some 1,400 people speedily lost their lives.
It is not for this Baptist History to give the earthquake
scenes in detail, except to record with pride and thankfulness
that, in that awful hour of peril and of fate, when mere
conventional action and civilization that is not real but
assumed are thrown aside, and men act just as they really
are in head and heart — in that dire emergency it was not
the trained European only who showed courage, resourceful
ness, and self-sacrifice ; black men and women, descendants

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 101
of slaves, risked life and met death or maiming to save the
lives of others, and there are some who go crippled for life,
like British Chelsea pensioners, by reason of their efforts to
rescue the perishing.
Again, as in the cyclone of 1903, our Jamaica Baptist
Mission suffered severely. Some of our strongest buildings,
as, for example, East Queen Street Chapel, were seriously
damaged; others, like Hanover Street Chapel (also in
Kingston), were completely thrown to the ground. The
writer can never forget clambering cautiously in the moon
light over the ruins of the last-named sanctuary, where
nothing seemed left in its proper place except the baptistery.
Many Baptist members were injured in the earthquake, some
were killed ; and a great many more who keep shop, or serve
among the stores, or teach, or do needlework, lost their trade
along with their homesteads, and were left for the time
destitute. The Island Government, by means of a deputation to the
Imperial Parliament, obtained grants and loans from which
our Baptist people in Kingston and elsewhere received assist
ance for their temporal losses, but it was decided by the
Legislative Council, with the entire approval, among other
religious bodies, of the Jamaica Baptist Union, that Church
buildings used solely for the purposes of religious work and
worship should not receive this aid. It was left to each
Christian Church or denomination to re-erect God's house
and the minister's manse.
Again, as after the cyclone, a deputation went to England,
and received much sympathy as he moved about among the
Churches. The net total he was able to forward to Jamaica
was £1,800. In this disaster none of our Baptist workers
suffered more severely than the Rev. W. Pratt, M.A., who
succeeded Mr. East in 1893 as pastor of our largest Kingston
chapel. Mr. Pratt was struck down behind his manse by a
falling wall, receiving injuries which have left him lame for
life. He went to England for treatment, and, enabled by his

102 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
strong vitality and courage to regain general health and
strength, to the great joy of his Jamaica comrades, he re
turned at the close of the year, and speedily resumed the
duties of his large pastorates, as well as the many other
functions, denominational and public, which he had previously
discharged. It may be fitly asked at this point, What effect, if any, do
disasters such as these have upon the Church life ? How do
they affect the beliefs and the conduct of the members? Let
the facts carefully considered give the reply. Financially,
cyclone or earthquake is a very heavy blow to Church work.
For a time the people can neither support the pastor nor
meet the working expenses of the Church in the usual way.
It also affects them badly by lessening the attendance at
services. The people set much store on dressing neatly to
attend God's house, and when unable to do this many of
them stay away. This non-attendance works badly in three
directions : spiritually, they miss the services and are the
weaker for the want of them ; they get out of touch with
what is going on, and so lose interest ; they also get into the
habit, which all too readily becomes chronic and is sadly
infectious, of spending the Lord's Day in idleness or frivolity
instead of in His worship.
On the other hand, it is to be thankfully recorded that
neither cyclone nor earthquake avail to shake the people's
faith in God as a good God and doing all things well. The
faith of some in Jamaica from more advanced races, or such
faith as they had, gave way before the widespread ruin and
suffering and loss of life; but not so the faith of that
labouring population of African descent who form the bulk
of our membership.
And if the members were trustful and patient before the
" act of God," it was good to see how kind they were to one
another. Whoever had a house standing shared it with his
homeless neighbours. Men bore the brunt of danger in
assisting women and children ; and very thrilling was the

""¦.

:

***

— .',

n
^f
V
REV. W. HEAD.
(Secretary of Baptist Sunday School Society of Jamaica.
THE LATE MR. T. B. STEPHENSON.
(A notable Native Schoolmaster.)
REV. PHILIP WILLIAMS.
(Secretary of Jamaica Baptist Union.)
To face p. 102.
EARTHQUAKE WRECKAGE: EAST QUEEN STREET HAPTIST CHAPEL AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE OF JANUARY, I907.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 103
scene, and of far more moral significance than the good folk
themselves had any idea of, when Baptist Church members,
cut, bruised, and in rags, came hurrying through the debris
to the Mission premises to see if the chapel was standing
and to know if " minister " and his family were safe.
A third result, which belongs especially to the earthquake
time, was the awakening of the careless and the trifling to
the solemn realities of life. Men who had felt the solid
ground shake and seen their fellows suddenly done to death,
were .forced to face, at least for a time, the grave spiritual
possibilities of man's life. . A measure of revival followed the
earthquake of 1907, and the statistics for the year showed
the addition of some 5,000 to our membership. Some of these
have fallen away again since, showing that it was terror, not
a change of heart, that made them seek membership; but
others have stood firm.
(8) The Cyclone of 1912. — Again, in November, 1912,
the stormy wind swept Jamaica's hills and plains. A
cyclone of unusual severity passed over the fertile west end
of the island on Sunday and Monday, November 17 and 18.
The wind reached the extraordinary rate of 160 miles an
hour. The centre of the cyclone traversed the island from
Savanna-la-Mar to Lucea, and the havoc it wrought reminds
one of the prophet's description of the destroying army :
"Before it is the garden of the Lord, and behind it a
desolate wilderness." To us as a denomination this hurri
cane was particularly disastrous ; it destroyed or damaged
some of our largest chapels, and devastated the holdings of
a peasantry, a very large proportion of whom are Baptist.
Again a cry of distress went up from stricken Jamaicans,
and their hands were held out, and rightly so, towards the
Home Society and the Baptist community of England.
This time, however, it was thought best by the English Com
mittee to avoid the expense of a deputation coming from
Jamaica and to make the appeal from the Mission House,
assisted by the efforts of some former Jamaica workers now

104 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
residing in England. At the time of writing the relief fund
has not got beyond £1,000, the sustentation scheme of the
Baptist Union overshadowing for the time being all other
claims. This circumstance, however, surely does not lessen
the duty of Baptists in England to assist their stricken
brethren in Jamaica any more than it lessens in the least
the extent of the loss or the depth of the distress. " Bear
ye one another's burdens," said our Master, " and so fulfil
the law of Christ." This dire calamity among the Baptists
in Jamaica — the third that has befallen them in the space of
nine years — should be to all other Baptists an opportunity
for showing obedience to that gracious command.
(9) The Fourth Visit of a Deputation from England. — In
1909 another deputation came from England to consult the
brethren in Jamaica with regard to' proposed alterations in
the educational work at Calabar College, and especially to
consider the possibility of securing united action with other
evangelical bodies in the training of ministers for the
Churches in the West Indies. By special request of the
Home Committee this deputation included the Rev. C. E.
Wilson, B.A., then the General Secretary of the Home
Society, now Secretary of the Foreign Department, with
whom was associated T. S. Penny, Esq., J.P., Chairman of
the Western Committee, which handles the Baptist Mis
sionary Society work in these islands. These gentlemen,
like their predecessors, spent a month of the cold season in
making a tour of the Churches in Jamaica, examining on
the spot the problems connected with the college work,
and having interviews with the leading brethren of sister
denominations. They were privileged (!) to witness one of
the heaviest rainfalls on record in the island, happily without
harm to themselves. One specific good result of that visit
has been mentioned in the chapter on education, namely,
a definite proposal from the brethren of another denomina
tion with a large membership, to unite with the Baptists
in the important matter of the training of ministers.

SELF-SUPPORTING BAPTIST CHURCHES 105
In the year of the Centenary of our Jamaica Mission, for
which this volume is being prepared, it is expected, and
earnestly hoped in Jamaica, that a strong deputation will
come over from Great Britain to share in the thanksgiving
of the Jamaica Baptist Mission for a hundred years of
Christian life and service.

CHAPTER IV
THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION
I. Formation and Early History.
II. The "J.B.U." as a Factor in Baptist Church
Life. Gives the Churches a Corporate Existence.
Forms Means of Contact and Co-operation.
Places the Wisdom of the Ablest at the Service of
Each and All.
Provides a Channel for the Distribution of Funds
and Forces.
III. Auxiliaries of the J.B.U. in Baptist Church
Life. The Baptist Sunday-School Society.
The Christian Endeavour Society.
The Monthly Magazine.
IV. The J.B.U. in the Social and Political Life of
Jamaica. In Personal and Domestic Life it urges as obli
gatory on all Classes Chastity, Respect for
Marriage, and the Moral Training of Children.
In Political Life, Freedom of Conscience, Re
ligious Equality, Legislation without Racial or
Class Distinction, Educational Advantages for
all Jamaica Children.
V. Attitude and Action of the J.B.U. on certain
Public Questions.
Denominational Teaching in Day^Schools.
The Endowed Schools of the Island.
1 06

THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION 107
The Importation of Indentured East Indian
Labourers.
The Drink Traffic.
Laws respecting Gambling.
The Suppression of Vice.

Formation and Early History
The first Missionaries sent to Jamaica took their orders
from England, and were towards each other independent
agents or comrades in the same service. Necessarily, how
ever, as their number increased, they formed themselves into
a kind of association or union, and began to meet periodic
ally to discuss the state of the business and arrange plans.
Thus, after the burning down of the chapels in 1832, we find
the missionaries meeting in assembly at Spanish Town and
appointing Messrs. Abbot and Knibb to go home as a depu
tation. The letters and other records of those early days
show that as the Mission stations spread to the farther parts
of the island two associations, or unions, were formed : the
brethren of Eastern Jamaica from Spanish Town to Yallahs
belonged to the Eastern Union ; while those of Falmouth,
Brownstown, Montego Bay, Savanna-la-Mar, etc., composed
the Western Union. The two branches appear to have met
annually at what came to be called the Annual Association,
now known among us as the Annual Meetings.
The Western Union, numbering among its members such
leaders as Burchell and Knibb, appears to have been the
stronger of the two, and its name appears oftener in the
reports of meetings, etc. Again, as all combinations of men
tend to acquire a character and policy of their own, so the
Western Baptist Union would seem to have been the Radical
section of the denomination, while the Eastern was Moderate
or Conservative. The two sections were at one in fighting
slavery, welcoming freedom, and forming townships of freed
labourers ; but when, in 1842, William Knibb and his brethren

108 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
proposed the principle of independence or self-support, this
was opposed by Mr. Phillippo and other brethren of the
east. In letters of about this date to friends on the English
Committee, Mr. Phillippo makes almost bitter reference to
" not being in the secrets of the Western Union," and de
precates the Committee at home recognizing that Union and
the Annual Association as having any authority over the
action of individual pastors and Churches.
In 1845 we find the Western Union assembled at Mount
Carey appointing a kind of Executive or Committee of
Management to regulate pastoral appointments and change
of spheres, and in the record of this meeting no mention is
made of an Eastern Union; and it was this Western Union
that arranged for the collection of statistics year by year to
be sent home for information to the English Committee.
Finally, in 1854, at the Annual Meeting at Falmouth, when
twenty-one pastors were present, Mr. Phillippo himself gave
notice that at the next Annual Meeting he would move that
" the word ' Western,' now employed as one of the distinguish
ing characteristics of our Union, be deleted, and that the
word ' Jamaica ' be put in its place so as to include in the
membership the Churches of the whole island." This reso
lution was unanimously adopted next year at Spanish Town,
and thenceforward the designation of the Union became the
Jamaica Baptist Union, referred to (amongst us) as the
"J.B.U." From that time, 1854, up to the present, the
J.B.U., with varying fortunes, has had a continuous exist
ence and been a real factor — a power to be reckoned with in
the story of our Jamaica Baptist Mission. Some of the ablest
and most influential of our brethren have held the position of
Secretary, notably Mr. Benjamin Millard and the present
Secretary, Mr. Philip Williams. All the brethren who
have held this office have been ministers in full service,
usually with large Churches under their charge and many
schools. With the development of the Mission the internal organi-

THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION 109
zation of the Union has developed, and it includes now an
Executive, a Council, and a Sunday-school Committee.
Not all the Baptist Churches or Baptist ministers of Jamaica
belong to the Union ; both are admitted by vote on their own
application. In accordance with Free Church principles
the membership is voluntary, the Union having no real
power except to " withdraw," as the expression is, from any
Church or minister that shows unworthiness or will not
abide by the rules of membership. Subscriptions for the
work of the Union are asked and expected, but the Union
has no control over the money of individual Churches nor
any voice, except that of counsel and admonition, in respect
to the pastor's salary. All readers acquainted with the
Baptist Churches in England and the larger Colonies will re
cognize as familiar the principles of management here stated.
If any change can be traced in the relation of the Union
to its members in the progress of years it would seem to be
this : that in 1842, when the Churches were fewer the Union,
by consent of its members, exercised a greater control over
the appointment, transference, and removal of pastors than
is now the case. It should be noticed, however, that what
ever control it had, or has, has always been what was
voluntarily agreed to by Church or minister on accepting
membership. II
The "J.B.U." as a Factor in Baptist Church Life
That the Union has been a real factor in this sphere the '
story of our Churches abundantly shows. It has given them
for one thing a corporate existence : a living body capable
of speech and action. Whenever necessary our Baptist
Churches, by means of the Union, can make a public
proclamation of religious principle, can communicate with
other religious bodies, can appeal to their brethren in
England, or to the Island Government, or to the English

no "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Parliament. Union in these matters is strength. There
have been times when it has been the salvation of our work
as a denomination in Jamaica. It is greatly to be desired
that all our brethren should recognize the value of this cor
porate existence, and by their loyal co-operation cause the
whole body to be firmly knit together. Need it be added,
that the Head of this body, as of all unions of truly Christian
Churches, is Christ. His Word, to the best of our understand
ing of it, is our law; His presence is earnestly sought at
every meeting, and His blessing alone can make the work of
the Union of any real good. " Severed from Him we can ,
do nothing."
Another benefit of the Union is as a means of contact for
Churches and Church workers. Some of our Baptist chapels
in Jamaica are in remote places, perhaps cut off from fellow
ship with their neighbours by the difficulties of mountain
steeps and unbridged rivers. Some ministers, again, in their
ordinary rounds of work live lives far lonelier than any
casual visitor would suppose possible. It means much to
the minister and the delegates who represent the Church,
that at the Union Meetings they have several days' inter
course with brother ministers and delegates.
The Union, again, is of value in that it places the wisdom
of the ablest workers at the service of each and all. In such
matters as the choice of a pastor, the enlargement or repair
of a chapel, the extension of the work over a fresh district,
many a young pastor and many a Deacons' Board would
make fewer mistakes, and be saved from much waste of
money, much disappointment and heartache, if they would
take counsel by means of the Union with brethren experi
enced and successful in handling these problems.
The Union also provides a channel for the application of
its forces and the distribution of funds. The strong can
thus aid the weak, and the sorrow of any one member gets
comfort from all the rest. In the earlier rougher times, if
illegal action was taken by the House of Assembly, or some

THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION in
Government official, against Church services, or Church
property, or the opening of a school, the oppressed did not
have to fight his battle alone ; and the same concentration
of forces and funds is possible now when it is wanted. Again,
when some one district has been desolated by the forces of
Nature, by drought, flood, cyclone, or earthquake, by means
of the Union the Churches round about are able to send
help " to the poor saints which are at Jerusalem."

Ill
Auxiliaries of the J.B.U. in Baptist Church Life
And here may, perhaps, be the most appropriate point at
which to mention certain auxiliaries of the Union which
have to do with the development of Church life from within.
Foremost is the Baptist Sunday-School Society, which brings
the different Sunday-schools of our Baptist Churches into
touch with one another, provides lesson notes to help the
teachers, and periodical examinations to test and encourage
the scholars. For many years the Rev. William Head, of
Cave Valley, has been the Secretary and moving spirit of
this part of the good work. It is greatly to be desired that
all our Sunday-schools should make as . full use of this
Society as possible, especially, perhaps, in trying to get
books, lesson notes, topic- pictures, and teachers' preparation
classes. The Sunday-school is the nursery of the Church,
and while an increasing number of the children of our
members learn the three R's at day-school, it is at the
Sunday-school, if anywhere, they will learn that fear of God
which is the beginning of wisdom, and lay hold on that
better part which cannot be taken away from them.
The Christian Endeavour Societies are not organically a
part of the Union, but, like the Sunday-school, they are a
valuable auxiliary. The Christian Endeavour movement has
taken strong hold upon the young people, v and carefully

112 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
directed — for this is essential — has shown itself able to turn
young disciples from mere hearers of the Word into doers.
Should it only get them into the habit of systematically
reading the Bible, and attending and strengthening the
public services of the Church, it will have accomplished much.
The monthly paper — the Jamaica Baptist Reporter —
might rightly claim mention here as being the means of
conveying the messages of the Union to the Churches in
membership ; but this had better be deferred for the chapter
on our missionary work, as it is through our Jamaica Baptist
Missionary Society that the Baptist Reporter is maintained.
IV
The J.B.U. in the Social and Political Life of
Jamaica
Slavery left to the people a sad heritage of evil, but perhaps
nothing has done, and is doing, more harm than popular
indifference to the sins of the flesh, and popular disregard
for the necessity and sanctity of the marriage bond. Nor is
it among the negro labourers only that this wrong thing
prevails, but just as in earlier times the sugar estate head
man, book-keeper, overseer, and attorney thought no more
of this sin than the imported African slave, so through all
classes of society outside the estates there has been a
prevalence of the same loose notion. Hence the Churches
of Christ in their attitude towards the island life have had to
take a strong stand, and speak with no uncertain sound with
regard to the duty before God of personal chastity, respect
for marriage, and the importance to the children of home-life
of which father and mother have no cause to be ashamed.
On these matters no Christian body has taken a stronger
stand than our Baptist Union. The person convicted of
unchastity is not permitted to remain in membership in any
Baptist Church ; nor can he or she receive the right hand of
fellowship again, or sit at the Lord's Table, until some

THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION 113
months of probation have emphasized before the other
members, the heinousness of this sin, and tested the reality
of the sinner's repentance.
The Union also made its solemn public protest against
indifference to this evil among the moneyed and ruling
classes, when, in 1862, it petitioned Governor Eyre not to
give responsible appointments to men, however capable or
influential, who were known to be men of loose life.
In the sphere of island politics the Baptist Union has ever
insisted upon the individual's right to absolute freedom of
conscience. No pressure must be brought upon him, no
unfair temptation displayed to induce him to worship this
way or that, or to do what his conscience forbids him to do.
The impact of the law must be without distinction of class
or race, and in the direction of morality and sobriety. Laws
have been made in Jamaica that disgraced the Statute Book,
yet only failed to come into operation through being dis
allowed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Against
these laws the Union has ever lifted up its voice, though at
times it has been but a voice crying in the wilderness.
In the sphere of Education the Union has advocated edu
cation for all children independently of the colour, creed,
"caste," or condition of the parents.
Special interest attaches to the —
V
Attitude and Action of the J.B.U on Certain
Public Questions
Denominational Teaching in Day -Schools. — The Baptist
Union has insisted that Government-granted money ought
not to be used for this purpose, and for many years, up to
1866, the Baptist managers of schools refused all money
grants from the Government because they included, or were
used as including, assistance in denominational teaching.
Endowed Schools. — Several of these in Jamaica, founded

114 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
on ancient bequests, were for many years regarded as being
the special property or under the exclusive management of
the Established Church. It is due to the untiring research
and dogged determination of a few Free Churchmen, and
not least of the Secretary of the J.B.U., the Rev. Philip
Williams, that these valuable institutions have been rescued
from exclusive usurpation, and become again the channels of
public good which the framers of the bequests intended them
to be.
Coolie Immigration. — A year or two after Freedom came
the pro-Slavery planters, having been foiled in their attempt
to make the freed labourers de facto slaves by forcing them
to accept unjustly low wages under threat of being driven
out homeless from the hovels they had occupied as slaves,
tried next to supplant them, and leave them workless and
wageless, by importing East Indian labourers from Calcutta.
The plea was that the freed men's labour was no longer
reliable now that it had ceased to be compulsory, and thus
the work on the sugar estates, the staple industry of the
island, was threatened with collapse. The reply of the
earlier missionaries was that, given proper wages, black
labour in plenty was available, and would be gladly given ;
but the reply was discarded, and the House of Assembly,
composed chiefly of estate owners, taxed beyond reason the
labourers' cottages, tools, and provision-ground materials,
and spent the money in importing the brown " coolies " on
five years' indenture, whose services would be completely at
the command of the planter who hired them from Govern
ment. Year after year, as the estates went down and
poverty increased, the missionaries protested against sugar
planters being supplied with foreign labour at the expense of
general revenue. The method employed was modified more
than once, a larger proportion of cost was thrown on the
planter, a public protector speaking the Nagri tongue was
appointed to look after the Indian immigrants; but the
Baptist Union, voiced by its Secretary, ceased not from

THE JAMAICA BAPTIST UNION 115
protest and appeal until about three years ago from the
present date, the Government grant for the importation of
East Indians was abolished, and the planters who required
such labourers were made liable to pay the whole cost of
their introduction and repatriation. The island revenue is
still charged with the cost of the Protective Department,
and of medical attendance for the indentured coolies.
The Drink Traffic. — Time was when sugar and rum were
the chief commodities produced in Jamaica for exportation.
For many years past the banana-tree has been ousting the
sugar-cane. The old estate has been thrown up, and instead
of being left to become ruinate, it has been planted with
bananas, and few sights in the green island are pleasanter to
the eye, or more welcome to the heart, of the lover of
Jamaica than the well-ordered banana plantation with the
broad-leafed trees in rows twenty feet apart, and perhaps the
dark-leafed chocolate plant midway between. There is,
however, still a great deal of cane grown, from which a large
quantity of rum is produced. This has caused incessant
legislative combat between traders whose interest it is
to push the rum traffic and missionaries who would dis
courage and suppress it. The Baptist Union has ever kept
a watchful eye on the action, first of the House of Assembly,
and, in later years, of the Legislative Council in this matter.
It is hardly necessary to state in detail all the laws and
regulations proposed by representatives of the drink interest,
protested against by missionary bodies, modified or disguised,
in a futile attempt to disarm the protest, and, finally, either
withdrawn or disallowed by the Colonial Office in England.
There are two points upon which the Baptist Union has
firmly insisted. First, that it shall not be permissible for
magistrates to grant a licence for the opening of a rum shop
if the consensus of opinion in the neighbourhood is against
it. Secondly, that no new rum shop shall be opened within
a fixed distance of a Church or day school already in opera
tion. These reforms have not yet been adopted.

116 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Laws respecting Gambling. — It has been the earnest en
deavour of the Baptist Union, as of other religious bodies, to
discourage the habit of gambling, and especially to lessen the
temptation to the young people of Jamaica to indulge in this
vice. In general, though perhaps not very effectively,
gambling has been forbidden by law, but by a strange legis
lative freak this prohibition is relaxed at Christmas, when, in
all parts of Jamaica, games and methods of sale, based on
gambling, proceed in public unchecked, like a weak imitation
of Paris. The J.B.U. believing that gambling is an evil
always, and everywhere, and in everybody, has sought to
secure a uniform and universal enforcement of the provisions
of the law against it, so that neither in respect to time or
purpose or class shall there be any exemption.
The Suppression of Vice. — There is little on this subject
that can advisedly be put into print. The shocking pre
valence of animalism in the over-crowded yards of Jamaica
towns, especially at the seaports, the effrontery with which
this evil is paraded, and the gross unconcern with which its
presence is regarded by the community, are deplored by all
sections of the Church of Christ; but the most effective
efforts to suppress the evil are those that are made in
dividually and in private, with only the Master's eye looking
on, and the consciousness of His approval as the all-sufficient
support and reward. It is only when laws have been pro
posed tending to sanction this vice and safeguard its
perpetrators that public action becomes advisable or useful.
In every such case the Baptist Union has made its voice
heard, and, thank God, not without some measure of success.

CHAPTER V
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST
MISSION
I. Jamaica Missionaries as School Managers.
The Earliest Schools for Black Children.
Goverment Action in Successive Stages.
Grants in Aid and Part Payment of Teacher.
Full Payment of Teacher.
Government Training of Teachers.
Formation of Board Schools.
Technical Schools.
II. Baptist Efforts at Higher Education.
Early High Schools at Kingston and Spanish
Town.
Calabar High School for Boys, East Queen Street.
New High School for Boys, Chetolah Park.
Westwood High School for Girls, Stewart Town.
Education Behind the Scenes : Private Tuition
by Ministers; Girls' Classes by Ministers'
Wives.
The Education Side of Sunday-School Work.
III. The Baptist Training College, Calabar.
The Story of its Commencement.
First Period, on North Coast. President Tinson.
Second Period, at East Queen Street. President
East.
Third Period, Removal to Chetolah Park, Presi
dent James. Closing of the Normal School.
Fourth Period, President Price. New Develop
ments.
Honorary Service Behind the Scenes.
117

n8 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "

Jamaica Missionaries as School Managers
When the early white settlers in the West Indies, finding
the climate too hot to allow of white men being employed as
labourers, began to kidnap the black inhabitants of Central
Africa, and bring them to the island to be slaves, they had
naturally no idea of giving the children of this weaker race
education. The enterprise was strictly commercial, as it was
also absolutely immoral. The human stock were brought to
market just like horses, mules, and oxen, and like these were
to be used solely for their owners' profit. It soon became
the custom, however, because obviously economical, to
give the more promising negro boys such technical training
as would enable them to do the skilled labour of the estates ;
thus some were trained as carpenters and cabinet makers,
some as coopers, and some as masons. Visitors to Jamaica
to-day are surprised to see on the old thrown-up estates
strong stone walls of excellent workmanship, whether
cornered or circular, and when told that these were built by
black men, they contrast this fine work with what they see
being done to-day, and draw the inference that under
slavery the negro worked better than he does as a free man.
The facts, however, are these : A slave lad, being wholly his
master's property, could be placed compulsorily under a
skilled Scotch mason at such an age and for such hours as
were best for turning him out by-and-by as a competent
workman. Similar training to-day, were it practicable,
would produce the same excellence.
But while, for their own purposes, estate owners taught
these trades to carefully selected lads — some of the lasses
meanwhile being similarly trained in domestic service —
almost nothing was done to give either the grown-up slaves,
or the growing children, any general training of such kind as
renders any community civilized instead of savage. And

EDUCATIONAL WORK 119
alas ! as we have seen, all the conditions of a slave's life on a
sugar estate were against that higher training of head, heart,
and spirit, which makes a good man instead of a bad one.
As in all such untaught communities, missionaries were
the first schoolmasters. The " fathers " of the Mission, while
they preached to the adult slaves and gathered converts into
Churches, could not fail to see the importance of schooling
for the children ; and, accordingly, wherever a Baptist Church
became firmly established, an attempt was made to gather
the children into a school. This was made difficult by the
reluctance, or sometimes the contempt, of the slave-owners,
and by the practice on so many estates of having a children's
gang to work in the fields — that is to say, the black children
that were old enough and strong enough were taken out to
the plantations under the charge of one or two women and
put to do whatever light work was within their strength.
This compares in English history with the employment of
little children from six years of age in factories and coal
mines until the practice was put a stop to by Act of
Parliament through the intervention of "the good Lord
Shaftesbury." On the estates of Jamaica skill, kindness, and persistence
gradually won their way, and numbers of surprised little
children found themselves under the strange white school
master, who was so different from massa at the Great House,
"learning book." The first schools would appear to have
been day and Sunday school combined, much as was the
case with the early Ragged Schools in England. Scripture
was taught along with, and in illustration of, the three R's.
The Bible, indeed, was the textbook for most of the teaching,
as we are told it is to-day in so many of the schools at the
Congo stations. Naturally one of the most pressing needs
for these Mission schools was the trained teacher, and in the
published lives of the early missionaries we have interesting
accounts of their attempts to meet this need. Promising
young men received partial training from the missionary

120 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
himself, and were then put in charge of schools to do the
best they could. Another and more ambitious method was
to get out white men as teachers. It was in this way that
the two brothers Knibb, and later Mr. G. R. Henderson and
others of our best European workers, were drafted into the
Jamaica sphere. The final solution was to have teachers'
classes, where training in the art of teaching could in some
measure be given ; and under theenergy and enthusiasm of
the grand men who pioneered our Mission, it was not long
after freedom came before the Calabar Institute was founded,
in the Normal Department of which the teacher became, as
far as circumstances permitted, fitly prepared for his work.
Space would fail to tell of the quaint things that happened
betwixt manager, teacher, and scholars in the early days. A
male teacher, called up to headquarters for examination, was
asked : " What have you done with the boys of your school
to keep them occupied while you are away ?" " Please, sir,"
he replied, " I went round with the cane, and gave them all
a good thrashing."
The relation of the Government and the upper classes to
these schools has passed through the following phases: First,
indifference, or even hostility ; secondly, voluntary help to the
missionaries' efforts on the part of planters, magistrates, and
officials, of good principle and goodwill; thirdly, in 1850,
under the Marquis of Sligo, the public recognition of the
value of general education for the children of Jamaica, and
the offer of a Government subsidy to assist that and other
missionary enterprises. This offer was rejected by Baptist
managers, but accepted by those of some other denomina
tions. Next, in 1866, under the Reformed Government, this
offer was renewed in such a form as enabled our missionaries
to accept it. The subsidy was apportioned to the merits of
the school and the numbers in attendance, and the schools
were regularly inspected by Government inspectors. In 1867
there were 379 such schools under missionary management.
Later on grants in aid were made to denominational colleges

WESTWOOD GIRLS SCHOOL.

To face p. 121.

EDUCATIONAL WORK 121
that trained teachers, provided these were able to pass year
by year the Government examination, and a large endowed
institution, the Mico, named after Lady Mico, by whose
bequest it was established, was utilized for the same purpose.
Finally, in 1901, the Educational Department of the Jamaica
Government undertook more fully the business of training
teachers and paying their salaries, although, for the most
part, their appointment and dismissal were in the hands of
the missionary managers of the schools. Since 1902 a few
board schools, under joint management, have been substi
tuted for denominational schools in suitable districts, and
a model school and a technical school, entirely under
Government management, are now to be found in Kingston.
Not a few managers entertain the hope that in due course a
complete system of National Schools will be established,
which will relieve the Jamaica pastor from the heavy re
sponsibility and incessant petty worry of the management of
the day-schools in his district.

II
Baptist Efforts at Higher Education
The first of these were the boys' schools opened at Kingston
and Port Royal by the earliest Baptist missionaries, into
which seem to have been gathered chiefly the children of
free people of colour. To look round Kingston, or any
Jamaica settlement to-day, and note the positions occupied,
and the good service rendered to the community, by men
and women of mixed parentage, is to see the success that
has attended this early effort to bring education within the
reach of that large number whose home is the island of their
birth, and who have shown themselves capable of becoming
so valuable a section of the island community.
Mr. Phillippo, at Spanish Town, opened what he called a
Metropolitan School, which for many years did the same

122 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
kind of work, sending out into the business and technical
life of the island workers who were neither slaves nor
owners of slaves, but fitted, we may say, to bridge the gulf
between these two, giving to some extent an element of
stability and unity to the whole population. This is similar
to the development of the middle and trading classes in
England that filled the gulf between Norman noble and
Saxon serf, blending them eventually into one English nation.
Many years later, when Calabar premises at Kingston had
become an educational centre, the College tutors opened a
High School for Boys, where Jamaican lads, for whom a
higher education was wanted than the day-school could
supply, became fitted to be clerks and accountants, or for
apprenticeship to one of the learned professions. The
opportunities for such training for the children of black or
coloured parents were very small, and the opening of this
school was hailed with much thankfulness. For many years
the Calabar High School served its purpose well, and
merchants and Government agents of middle age can be
seen in town or country to-day who owe their success to the
training they received there.
A somewhat similar effort has quite recently been made
on the new college premises in the north of Kingston, where,
under the management of the President, the School for the
Higher Education of Boys has been opened with great
success. It will have struck the reader that in the schools men
tioned only boys are provided for. We proceed therefore to
describe a well-known and flourishing girls' school. The
Westwood High School for Girls, as it is now called, is
situated near Stewart Town, on the healthy uplands of
North Jamaica, and numbers about eighty boarding pupils.
This school, it should be mentioned, is not denominational
in character ; the daughters of parents of all other denomina
tions are as free to enter as those of Baptists. Nor is any
denominational tinge given to the life and teaching at

EDUCATIONAL WORK 123
Westwood. But it is mentioned here because the initiation,
development, and present success of the school are due to
the enterprise and perseverance of a well-known and
honoured Baptist minister of Jamaican birth, the Rev. W.
M. Webb. A marked feature in this school is the domestic
department, where, apart from books, the girls are trained in
all those practical arts which fit a woman to look well after
the ways of her household.
Under this especial heading — the Higher Education of
Girls — it is a pleasure to mention the work behind the scenes
that has been done, and is now being done, at some of our
Baptist manses. Just as the minister at many places con
ducts a Young Men's Bible Class, and gives private tuition
in other than Bible subjects to young men of the congrega
tion who want to improve themselves and to qualify for
some coveted position, so, from the earliest days of our
Baptist Mission, the minister's wife, where she has had
the strength and qualifications, has conducted educational
work outside her Church and especially among the more
thoughtful and industrious young women. In addition to
Bible teaching they have learnt needlework, cooking, house-
management ; have heard books read aloud that improve the
mind, and have been encouraged to read them themselves,
and have been led a little way into those finer arts that
improve the taste and develop the sense of beauty — music,
painting, and decoration. Such service as this is not adver
tised, nor can its results be tabulated, but its value is
unquestionable. As daughters, as wives, as mothers in
Jamaican homes, as neighbours in the mountain hamlets,
as workers in Church and Sunday-school, manse-trained
girls can be found all over Jamaica, who are, unconsciously,
centres for good to the womanhood around them. Their
minds are wider, their tastes more refined ; they have better
judgment and self-control ; they have higher ideals by reason
of that early training.
A word should be added here upon the educational value

124 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
of Sunday-school work in Jamaica. In many schools the
teaching is necessarily very primitive, because the teachers
have no opportunity of training, and there are cases where,
with the advance of day-school teaching, this lack has
become a serious hindrance to the Sunday-school work ; but,
on the other hand, in schools where the teachers are more
apt to teach, or where the minister conducts a Teachers'
Preparation Class, the educational value of the school is
borne witness to by the better manners, purer morals, and
higher tone of conversation among the growing boys and
girls. Ill
The Baptist Training College
It is an accepted principle in Foreign Mission work that
the natives of the country are destined to be the chief
instruments in its evangelization. While great things are
done under God's blessing by the foreign missionary in
introducing the Gospel, gathering converts, and forming
Churches, and later on, in organizing and superintending
the general work of the Mission, the work itself becomes
more and more dependent on native agency. This was the
Apostle Paul's method, as his Epistles show; and in the chief
Baptist fields of to-day — in India, China, and Africa — more
and more of the actual work of preaching, teaching, and
pastoral service is being done by converted natives of the
land. Obviously, then, when a Mission has found its feet, and is
beginning to possess the land and gather the fruits, nothing
is more urgently needed than arrangements for training
native workers.
The importance of this was realized from the first by the
Jamaica pioneers. Burchell, Knibb, and Phillippo all speak
of it in their early letters, and urge it strongly upon the
Committee at home, but until the destruction of slavery in

Pip''

IE" ^ 1

:

REV. A. JAMES, H.A.
THE LATE REV. D. J. EAST.
REV. E. E. PRICE, B.A., li.D.
A GROUP OF THREE PRESIDENTS.
EDUCATIONAL WORK 125
1838, no general scheme could be attempted. How were
young native converts to get a college training when all
their time belonged to the owners of their bodies ? At the
United Meeting, however, in 1839, our missionaries solemnly
resolved to establish a college for the training of such
Jamaica converts as seemed likely to become able ministers
of the New Testament. At that early date in Mission
history this was a bold venture, for no institution of exactly
this kind had yet been tried in the Mission field. It is true
that the College of the Mission at Serampore, India, had
been founded twenty years earlier, but its main object was
"to instruct Asiatic Christian and other youth in Western
literature and science " ; a secondary object was " to give
the native evangelist such a knowledge of Christian truth as
would fit him to propagate the faith among his countrymen."
But the Jamaica College was to be distinctly a college for
the training of missionaries and ministers ; and this idea, in
such circumstances as those of Jamaica and of Mission work
in general, is strong evidence of the far-sightedness of those
early missionaries ; of their faith, not only in God but in the
capability of the native converts, recently rescued from
slavery, to become by training able ministers, missionaries,
and teachers of the Word of God.
It was first proposed to have the College in Kingston, and
in 1840 premises were secured and fitted up to accommodate
six students, and Mr. Josuah Tinson, then pastor of Hanover
Street and Yallahs Churches, was appointed President. The
attempt was postponed because of Mr. Tinson's breakdown
in health and return for a time to Europe ; but the idea was
by no means given up. A committee was appointed to find
a suitable site, and one of the announced objects of William
Knibb's visit to England in 1842 was to secure the assistance
of the Home Committee, which he most successfully accom
plished. The site finally chosen was a place called Calabar, in the
parish of Trelawney, at about two miles distance from Rio

126 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Bueno, on the north coast. The cost of purchase and fitting
up was about £1,000. There was much difference of opinion
about the suitability of the site ; one substantial advantage
was that it was within easy reach of most of the Mission
stations then existing, a matter of great practical importance
to committee-men, who had to make long journeys by
mountain path and unbridged river to get to the College.
Mr. Tinson came back to the island in April, 1843, and on
October 6, Calabar College was formally opened with ten
students in residence. A public meeting was held in the
open air, when the President gave an address on "The
Advantages of an Educated Ministry," Mr. William Knibb
on " The Duty of Supporting Theological Institutions," while
Mr. John Clark of Brownstown gave a personal address to
the students. Here for some years President Tinson carried
on work of that kind which makes little outward show,
produces no sudden startling results, but, like the yeast in
the flour, spreading silently and unseen, gradually leavens
the whole lump.
It would be interesting to see a curriculum of the course
of study at that first college, but whatever it was, in Mr.
Tinson's hands, who was a lover of learning and a born
tutor, the training given did its work in developing the
students — ex-slaves and sons of slaves, and but recently de
scended from the unevangelized savage — into capable
Christian workers, able to preach acceptably, and to conduct
the ordinary business of a Christian Church.
Mr. Tinson had charge of the College, as well as of the
pastorate of Rio Bueno Church for seven years. An inde
fatigable worker, he was not robust in health, but when con
fined to bed would have the students round him, and so keep
the classes going. Mr. Tinson passed away in December,
1850, and was carried to the grave by the students of the
College, who made great lamentation over him.
Two years later, in 1852, there came from England a
most worthy successor to Mr. Tinson in the person of the

EDUCATIONAL WORK 127
Rev. D. J. East, the memory of whom, as " Father East," is
cherished by numbers of workers who received their training
as his students. Mr. East took both offices, the College and
the Church. Within a year the progress of the College was
so marked that at the Annual Meeting, 1853, a Special
Resolution was passed recognizing it. Native-born ministers
who were educated there were accustomed to speak of the
all-round character of the training given, how the students
had to keep things tidy about the premises, work with hoe
and machette on the grounds, and, in general, do all those
things for themselves which by-and-by they would have to
see done at the Mission-houses. They spoke, too, of the
healthy strictness of discipline exercised by the President,
the uncompromising reprimand they received for slackness
or disobedience, the President's punctuality in holding
classes, the conscientious care with which he did whatever
he said he would do, his promptitude in answering letters,
and his insistence on having his letters replied to. All
this integrity, thoroughness, and businesslike despatch
Mr. East himself attributed to the impression made on his
mind as a youth by Foster's Essay on " Decision of
Character," then a comparatively new work. One of these
old students amusingly described Mr. East's inborn faculty
for bringing wrong-doers to order by unaided moral force :
" He had a habit of looking at us which made us wish we
could go down through the floor. We would all much rather
the President had thrashed us than look at us like that."
Feeling strongly that the fewness of the theological
students was a serious disadvantage to college life, Mr. East,
with help from friends at home, enlarged the premises, and
opened a Normal Department for the training of teachers,
thereby raising the number of students from an average of
ten to one of thirty-five. This development was in every
way a success. It not only made possible more social
fellowship during college days; it brought the theological
students into healthy competition with their brothers of the

128 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
desk ; it supplied teachers for the Mission schools who had
grown up in sympathy with Baptist principles, and experi
ence showed that the Normal School was the best possible
nursery for competent candidates for the ministry.
The College continued at Rio Bueno until 1869, when it
was transferred to Kingston. The circumstances were these :
The Church at East Queen Street, founded in 1816, and at
one time numbering 3,000 members, had fallen on bad times.
With the formation of new Churches in the districts round
the city great numbers of the members had been drafted off
from the City Church. A further decline of numbers had
accompanied a serious disturbance within the Church. This
was the more to be regretted because the Mission premises
included a considerable piece of land, a commodious chapel
and schoolroom, and a well-built Mission-house. It was
accordingly suggested and agreed to that Calabar College
should be transferred to Kingston, and re-erected on the
chapel premises, where a second house could be built for a
tutor, and that the College President should be pastor of
East Queen Street Baptist Church. The cost of the transfer
and building work amounted to £1,420, which was raised
chiefly in England by Mr. East's personal efforts.
Mr. East himself told the writer, then a tutor of the
College, of the desolate appearance of the premises when he
first inspected them with a view to taking charge; of the
broken pew-backs in the chapel, and of the boltless doors
through which the goats from the Kingston yards wandered
at will into the sanctuary ; of how Mrs. East sat down and
wept at the sight, only to be reproved by the President's
characteristic comment : " Crying won't make it any better."
The chapel was soon cleaned, refloored, and reseated by
the vigorous action of that Foster-like decision of character,
which "gets things done," and before long a fine college
building with a pillared portico looked down a well-ordered
carriage drive into the main street. The manse renewed its
youth, and the sheltered garden, lying on a level many feet

EDUCATIONAL WORK 129
above the dusty street, became one of the best managed
private gardens in Jamaica. There was a touch of William
Carey about D. J. East's workmanship most interesting to
notice ; he developed Calabar premises into a little Seram-
pore. Like Carey, too, he spent his forty years of well-
planned and strenuous labour, which has left its mark for
good on the whole community.
A strong day-school was attached to Church and College
on these Kingston premises which, on the one hand, gave
the Normal students the practice they needed in the art of
pedagogy; and on the other, constantly sent the growing
boys and girls onwards as candidates into the inquirers'
class of the Baptist Church. This school, under the
mastership of the late Mr. T. B. Stephenson — acknowledged
as one of the ablest teachers Jamaica has produced — for
many years stood one of the foremost in the marks gained at
examination, and in general character amongst the Govern
ment inspected day-schools of Jamaica.
As the College grew an additional teacher was housed on
the premises, who, beside teaching in the College, in the
capacity of Normal School tutor, conducted for some years
a boys' boarding school referred to in a previous paragraph.
In his dealings with Government, especially with the
Education Department, President East rendered service not
only to the Baptist cause, but to all the Nonconformist
Churches of the island. His mingled firmness and courtesy
could generally secure attention from any official at head
quarters, however prejudiced or indifferent, while the moral
Tightness of his requests, always carefully reasoned out
beforehand, and his unmistakable determination to get what
he aimed at, generally led him to success. He absolutely
refused to see privileges granted specially to the schools of
one denomination which ought to be accorded equally to all.
He insisted on recognition by the Government of publicly
useful work done in the schools or colleges under Noncon
formist management. 9

130 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Men of this type Baptist Missions in the Colonies have
always needed. Let us thank God that in Jamaica, as
elsewhere, His providence has always supplied them.
Mr. East gave up his post in 1892, having laboured
strenuously far beyond the three score years and ten. He
retired to England with Mrs. East, who, long before her
thirty years' service in Jamaica, had worked with Jamaicans
in the African Mission at Fernando Po, West Africa. And
in the Homeland, after a peaceful eventide, both passed
away. Visiting the venerable ex- President in his last illness,
the writer was privileged to be the last colleague with whom
he talked over Jamaica matters ; nor can he ever forget the
dear old man's broken ejaculations and sobs when prayer
was offered for the field he loved so well.
In 1893 a new President arrived in the person of the
Rev. Arthur James, B.A., who gave up his pastorate at
Thrapston, Northamptonshire, after twelve years of happy
ministry, at the call of the Missionary Society, for the work
in Jamaica. This presidency continued till the close of
1910. The tutors at that time were James Balfour, M.A.,
classical tutor (who taught mathematics and euclid), and
L. Tucker, M.A., Normal School tutor (whose section of the
curriculum included Latin and Greek).
Two important events marked the history of the College
under Mr. James. In 1901 the Education Department of
the Government proposed to undertake the training of all
male day-school teachers, withdrawing the grants hitherto
made for this purpose to denominational colleges such as
Calabar. While opinions differed as to the effect the closing
of the Normal School might have upon the general status of
the College, especially within the denomination, it was felt
that the proposal of Government was in the natural order
of things, and in no sense a reflection on the quality of the
work done by the denominational Normal Schools. In the
progress of civilization and the development of organized
government in any community, there comes a time when

EDUCATIONAL WORK 131
the Government itself can undertake the whole business of
providing education for the children. It was also recognized
that by handing over the training of teachers to the Mico
Institution, which the Government was arranging to utilize
for this purpose, we were setting free the missionary agents
who formed the College staff, to give their services wholly
to ministerial training and the assistance of the Churches.
At the present time young Baptist men of the Jamaica
Churches who want to be teachers try to qualify for entrance
into the Mico Institution. While there they attend East
Queen Street Baptist Chapel, whose pastor, the Rev. W.
Pratt, M.A., exercises pastoral oversight over them, and in
general befriends and assists them during their College
residence. Among the Churches there was some disappoint
ment at first because the members could no longer send
their promising lads to a college of their own denomination
to be trained as teachers, but on the whole the new order
of things was soon acquiesced in. The most disadvantageous
effect was on the College itself. Not only was the number
of students reduced from thirty to about ten, but the supply
of ministerial candidates, who had had the great advantage
of Normal School training and practical experience among
the young, was lessened.
The same year that the Normal School was given up, the
senior tutor, Mr. James Balfour, resigned his post, and
migrated with his family to U.S.A., where, under the severity
of the American winter, he contracted pneumonia, in 1904,
and passed away. Tutor Balfour was well known in Jamaica,
and ¦ respected and loved by students and Churches alike.
He took a great interest in the Jamaica Teachers' Union,
which included day-school teachers of good character from all
parts of the island. His sympathy with their efforts at self-
improvement, and entire absence from his bearing and inter
course of racial prejudice and " side," won him the confidence
and affection of the teachers to their own great advantage
and his constant joy. Mrs. James Balfour was a daughter of

132 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Mr. East. At the time of writing, Mrs. Balfour, with her
daughters, is resident in Canada.
Before leaving the subject of Normal School training, a
word might be added on the position of the day-school
teacher in Jamaica. In the earliest schools he was wholly
the employe of the missionary, who held the position of
manager; and at the present time most of the day-school
teachers, though paid indirectly by Government, hold their
positions under the management of some minister or board
on which ministers predominate. The teachers'1 higher
education gives him a position of respect and influence in
the district, and very often, and very naturally, he holds
office of some kind in connection with the Church. He
is sometimes choirmaster and organist ; perhaps superin
tendent of the Sunday-school, and when any anniversary
is coming on, "teacher " is looked to to organize and take
a leading part, if in himself he is good and godly, and
of sound judgment, "teacher" can do great things for the
progress of religion and its manifold blessings in his district ;
if otherwise, alas ! he has endless opportunities of mischief.
Some of the finest native workers in Jamaica to-day are
those who are teachers of the right sort.
An even more important event was the transference of
the College from East Queen Street to new premises in
April, 1904. There were important reasons for this change.
The old College buildings, which had been added to from
time to time without much regard to architecture or hygiene,
were becoming worn out. Rat-bat, cockroach, duck-ant,
and climatic decay had, after many patchings, made them
no longer worth repairing. Moreover, for health's sake and
comfort it was desirable to get new buildings embodying the
great improvements which modern science has brought
about in College construction. After consultation with the
Home Committee, whose consent was necessary, and much
inquiry and visitation of possible sites, President James drew
the attention of the College Committee to Chetolah Park, a

EDUCATIONAL WORK 133
small property in the north-west of Kingston, a mile inland
from the harbour, and therefore higher up the rising ground
than was the case with the old premises. The property
comprises about eleven acres of land lying west of a main
thoroughfare, and away from its noise. Part of the land,
with a house upon it, was rented to a tenant, an arrange
ment which still holds good. On the other part, the north
section, a fine building was put up, comprising, in one
block, library and lecture-rooms, students' quarters, and the
residence of the President. The building is on a strong
cement foundation, the lower story of brick, the upper of
wood, and the whole range, ground floor and upper, is
surrounded and protected from sun and rain by a broad-
roofed veranda. The surrounding ground is laid out as a
garden with lawns large enough for tennis and croquet ; a
back portion forms a cricket ground. Thus far the hygienic
arrangements have stood the test of cold season and May
and October rains, of tempest, cloud-burst, and the fierce
heat and merciless dust of severe drought. In the terrible
earthquake of January, 1907, Calabar College was one of
the very few buildings of its size that stood the strain with
out serious injury. The total cost of the new premises,
including £900 purchase money, against which may be set
the yearly rental of a portion of it, was £3,500 ios. 7d.,
towards which the parent Society in England gave the un
appropriated balance of legacies that had been left for the
College, amounting to £692 12s. 5d., with permission to add
whatever sum could be obtained by the sale of the old
premises. Mr. James collected £414 us. iod.
The foundation stone of the new Calabar was laid in April,
1903, by Captain Baker, a large proprietor and steamship
manager ; and less than a year later, on April 13, 1904, the
building was publicly opened, the Rev. Charles Williams, of
Accrington, coming over from England to represent the
Home Society.
When the new College was opened, Mr. James was the

134 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
only resident tutor, Mr. Tucker having left in the summer
of 1902. Arrangements were, however, made with the Rev.
W. Pratt, M.A., of East Queen Street Chapel to take classes
in certain subjects.
An attempt was made to hold evangelistic services on
Sundays in the large class-room for the growing population,
that surrounded the property. This was done with a view
to the possibility of gathering a Baptist Church in North-
West Kingston, a project which has just become an accom
plished fact.
A word may be fittingly said here as to the kind of training
theological students at Calabar receive, and their relation to
the Churches of the island. An essential qualification for
acceptance as a student is convarsion. None are wanted as
preachers of the Gospel who have not first accepted it them
selves, and begun to show the evidence of this in a consistent
Christian life. Secondly, there must be aptness to preach
and to teach. If the Master calls a man to proclaim His
message, one sign of the call will be a natural facility in
public speaking. A third requirement is the ability to study,
which includes the ability to be taught. The gift of speech
alone, without the power to keep acquiring fresh knowledge,
especially knowledge of the Bible, will not equip a man to
make known to a congregation month by month, and in due
order, the whole counsel of God. A fourth requisite is a
certain degree of elementary education already acquired. A
College tutor's time and strength should not be employed in
teaching the three R's. Of these four qualifications, however,
it is obvious that the last is the least important, partly
because it can so easily be gained by anyone who possesses
the other three. At Calabar College an otherwise promising
candidate might be put back a year or so because of want of
general education, but he would not be ultimately refused.
In the theological classes a knowledge of Divine truth as
set forth in the Word of God is the main thing aimed at,
together with such guidance and training in the habit and

EDUCATIONAL WORK 135
methods of study as will enable a student after he leaves
College to continue his Bible studies. Book-learning of other
kinds is of course added, with a view to his mental efficiency
in the pulpit and out of it. The historical setting of the
Scripture canon, the history of the Chosen People, the history
in outline of the Christian Church from the times of the
Christ and His Apostles, New Testament Greek : these are
obviously valuable accessories to an understanding of the
Word of God. Next may be mentioned practical training in
the preparation of sermons and in their delivery, with all
that belongs technically to what may be called the craft of
the public speaker ; training in English grammar and com
position, and the proper pronunciation of those words and
vowel-sounds that so often go wrong in ordinary Jamaica
speech ; lectures on Church management and other practical
functions of ministerial life ; training in book-keeping, with
special application to Church accounts. These studies, by
the testimony of former students, have proved of real value
in actual ministerial life. Other branches of learning not
strictly ministerial have from time to time been studied,
such as general history, geography, physiography, logic, and
psychology. Mention was made of Mr. East's practice of making the
students of the College keep the premises clean ; at one time
they worked strips of provision ground. This subject has,
perhaps, never been accorded a place on the official cur
riculum, but few will deny that it has its moral worth. One
well-wisher to the College has long urged the addition of
practical training in the building and repair of chapels and
manses !
The connection of our students with the Churches is much
the same as in England. From time to time the students
are sent out to conduct the Lord's Day services, the seniors
more often than the juniors, and during the summer holiday,
which lasts two months, most of the students reside with
some minister, and assist him in the capacity of temporary

136 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
assistant pastor in all branches of his work. Granted reality
and earnestness on both sides, and it would be difficult to
say which gets most benefit from these ministrations, the
congregation or the preacher.
In accordance with Free Church practice, when a student
leaves college after a term of training approved by the Staff
and the Committee, he is qualified to accept pastoral charge
of any Church that invites him. In some cases, however, he
becomes for a year or two assistant minister to one of the
elder brethren, thereby gaining practical experience without
the heavy responsibility of complete charge. More than one
of our ablest and most successful Calabar-trained ministers
have testified to the value all through after-life of this early
assistantship. Some students on leaving hear the Master's
call to regions beyond, and are sent by our Jamaica Baptist
Missionary Society to needy spheres in other West Indian
Islands or in Central America, or through the English
Baptist Missionary Society to Central Africa. It is pleasant
to record that at Calabar, as in English and American
Colleges, the college friendships formed frequently continue
through life, and men " of the same year," foregathering
many years afterwards, renew at once the unrestrained ease
and good-fellowship of the "golden days."
To the above description of the position of a student a
word may here be added about that of the staff. By the
agreement made with the Home Society in 1842, when our
Baptist Churches became self-supporting, the College staff
were to be supplied and supported from England. In the
members of the staff then, the Jamaica Mission has two or
three highly trained workers not dependent on island funds
for their support. They are often looked to as preachers or
speakers at any special function among the Churches ; and
their position has enabled the staff to render valuable service
as emergency men. A Church may be suddenly left pastor-
less. Other pastors in the district, who would gladly help,
have their hands already more than full with their own

EDUCATIONAL WORK 137
Churches and schools. But here is a member of the College
staff, busy enough during the week, but with his Sundays at
his own disposal : forthwith, if invited, he takes temporary
charge. Again, in vacation time the members of the staff
are able to do good work by holding a round of special
meetings among the Churches of some scattered district
where the face of a visiting minister is all too seldom seen,
or by residing for a fortnight at the Mission house of some
hard-pressed brother whose labours he can lighten by
sharing them, as well as by cheering him with Christian
intercourse and companionship. Again, in the visitation of
our Mission stations in other islands, the vacation weeks of
a College tutor have sometimes been utilized with great
advantage. The welcome given to these services and the
goodwill and gratitude evoked are among the most delight
ful incidents of a missionary tutor's life.
Mr. James's presidency ended in December, 1910, when he
retired to England. To the first President, Mr. Tinson,
belongs the honour of initiating and shaping the Training
College for Native Ministers, the first of its kind in any
Mission field ; to Mr. East, of developing the work and of
adding the useful Normal School Department, also of re
moving the College to the capital of the island and securing
its due recognition among the educational forces of Jamaica ;
with Mr. James, the third President, lies the credit of
choosing and securing a better site and of the erection of
the present admirable building.
Mr. James was succeeded by the Rev. Ernest Price, B.A.,
B.D., who gave up his pastorate at Sheffield, at the request
of the Committee, to become President of Calabar College.
With Mr. Price, as with Mr. James, the frequent affectionate
messages received from his former flock show in what
esteem he was held and how reluctantly they let him go.
For two years, whilst negotiations concerning the change
of President and other matters were proceeding, the office of
tutor was occupied on behalf of the Home Committee by

138 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
Mr. L. Tucker, formerly Normal School tutor, who re
turned to Jamaica for this purpose. In the summer of 1911
a tutor was appointed in the person of the Rev. David
Davies, B.A., B.D., recently of Bristol College, and for a
short time pastor of the Baptist Church at Street, Somerset
shire. These two gentlemen, Mr. Price and Mr. Davies,
both trained at Bristol College, and both holding similar
University degrees, form now the European staff supplied
and supported from England according to the agreement
made with the Jamaica Committee in 1842. The following
new factors have been introduced into the work at Calabar
College under the new President :
First, the Calabar High School for Boys, for which new
premises have been erected. Its purpose is to supply higher
education — equivalent, it may be said, to that of the
Grammar School in England — for the sons of Jamaica
ministers and of those Church officers or members of good
standing who want to give their boys a higher education
and personal training than the Government day-school
can supply. The scheme was definitely proposed by
Mr. Price to the committees in Jamaica and England in
the summer of 1911. It received their united sanction, and
within twelve months the necessary buildings were up and
the school in operation. It is also hoped by means of this
school the children of our leading Baptist members will
remain attached to the denomination as they grow up ; that
some will enter the College to recruit our under-manned
ministry ; that some will become teachers ; and that others
who enter business will supply what many West Indian
Churches so sorely need, laymen of light and leading in all
branches of Christian work.
The following particulars of this effort, received as we go
to Press from Mr. Price, are gladly inserted, and will be read
with thankfulness by all friends of the Jamaica Mission.
Though only a year old, the High School opens its autumn
session (1913) with eighty scholars, of whom thirty-eight are

EDUCATIONAL WORK 139
boarders. It stands on the Government list of approved
Secondary Schools, and its headmaster has a seat at the
Headmasters' Conference. The fees for day scholars are on
a par with those charged at Hope College or the High School
in Vere.
Special concessions are made for the sons of Jamaica
Baptist ministers, and it is hoped to institute scholarships for
those of Baptist Church officers and leading members. It is
not intended, however, to limit the benefits of the school to
Baptist families or to the Jamaica-born. The doors are open
to all denominations, and at the present time sons of English
ministers are among the scholars.
It may be added that this enterprise has the goodwill and
confidence of the Baptist Missionary Society Committee in
London no less than of workers in the island.
Second, European students at the College. Three such
are now under tuition : young men from England, looking
forward to pastoral or missionary work, who are taking their
training at Calabar instead of at some English college. These
candidates purpose entering the Jamaica ministry or some
other West Indian field at the close of their course. Mean
while they are becoming accustomed to life in the tropics and
testing their ability to stand it ; they are learning "Jamaica "
at the same time as New Testament Greek, and should they
enter our ministry they will do it with first-hand experience
of things Jamaican, which will be of great gain to them and
to the Churches they serve. It is also hoped that the inter
course in the free fellowship of college life between European
and Jamaica-born students will be mutually helpful during
college days, and an enduring bond of good understanding
and sympathy when they become ministers or missionaries.
Third, co-operation in college training with brethren of
other denominations. During 1910, in response to an
earnest invitation brought from the English Committee by
Messrs. Wilson and Penny, a deputation from England, a
series of conferences were held at Calabar by delegates from

140 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
the Boards, or Synods, of six Free Church denominations at
work in Jamaica : Congregationalist, Presbyterian (both the
Scotch Kirk and the United Free), Moravian, Wesleyan
Methodist, and Baptist. By these a scheme was drawn up
and agreed to for the establishment of a united training
College, to which all these Christian bodies, and perhaps
others later on, could send their students for training. This
scheme was worked out at successive meetings in consider
able detail, but it should be distinctly understood that no
denomination was thereby committed to its acceptance. The
delegates were only empowered to bring back from the con
ference a scheme for consideration by each Board or Synod
concerned, nor was the Home Society that called the con
ference in any way pledged to the issue.
In the result the Jamaica Baptist Union, which met first
of the Boards concerned, did not see their way to accept the
scheme as it stood, and in view of this finding the scheme
was reported only, but not taken into consideration by the
other Boards represented. No conference of delegates has
since been summoned, but it is most gratifying to report that
one of the denominations represented in 1910 has definitely
proposed to the Home Committee and to the College Com
mittee in Jamaica united action in this important matter.
Let us hope that others will follow. Let it be remembered
that co-operation amongst the agents of missionary societies
in any one field, was one of the most urgent recommendations
of the great Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910.
The practicability of it in the training of students is almost
too obvious to need emphasis : so much of the training that a
candidate needs will be the same whatever the denomination
he belongs to. The advantages are equally obvious. The
staff that teaches a few students can as easily teach more.
Moreover, a large college makes possible a more highly
equipped staff, and better class-rooms and apparatus. Again,
a college of twenty students is better for the men themselves
than a college of eight, and the fellowship in college of young

EDUCATIONAL WORK 141
men of different Christian denominations gives good hope of
that co-operation in responsible work by-and-by, the lack of
which has often been so serious a hindrance to the general
progress of the work itself, and to its influence on the
unbelieving or non-Christian world. In India, China, and
Africa at the present time Baptist missionaries are in active
union with those of other denominations in this particular
matter of the training of candidates. Let us hope that the
workers in Jamaica, all those at least who seek first and
foremost the " Kingdom of God and its righteousness," will
soon have possessed themselves of the same advantage.
This record of the College would hardly be complete unless
mention was made of the honorary services of those who
have shared the responsibility of the institution with its paid
staff. Thrice a year the Committee have met, a company of
twelve or so Jamaica ministers, some of them trained at the
College, who give their time and thought without charge
to the College business. Every candidate is interviewed
personally by this Committee, and his written answers to the
usual questions are read before them. One or two of them
arrange to hear him conduct service; and, apart from the
official interview, they give him kindly words of encourage
ment or counsel.
The heaviest burden, however, falls on the Secretary who
has to summon the Committee, carry out their instructions,
and conduct a great deal of laborious correspondence with
and about candidates all the year round. The office of
Secretary was filled for many years by some agent from
England, the last of whom to hold it was the Rev. Philip
Williams, of Bethel Town, who added this secretariat to his
many and heavy burdens as pastor of large Churches in the
Western district, and Secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union.
Mr. Williams resigned this office in 1904 after thirty years of
service, and the position is now held by the Rev. T. Gordon
Somers of Spanish Town, a native of Jamaica and a former
student in the Theological Department of the College.

CHAPTER VI
MISSIONARY WORK OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST MISSION
I. Missionary Impulse of the Freedmen's Churches.
II. Mission to the Cameroons.
The Fullers. Miss Vitou (Mrs. D. J. East).
III. The Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society.
(i) Formation and First Stages.
(2) Home-work of the J.B.M.S.
(3) Assisting the African Mission of the English
Society.
(4) Missions in the Spanish Main, Hayti, Cuba,
Isthmus of Panama, Costa Rica, Cayman
Islands, Belize.
IV. Publications of the J.B.M.S.
The Jamaica Baptist Reporter.
V. Fields Waiting.
The Heathen at our Door.
" The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come." It is one of the most delightful incidents
in the story of our Jamaica Mission that when our Church
members, who were slaves, were made free, and even before
they became free themselves, their thoughts turned earnestly
toward their black brethren of pagan Africa and of islands
around Jamaica not yet favoured with the Gospel. This
seems to have been largely due to the broad mind and wide
sympathies of the missionaries through whom freedom
came. In William Knibb's letters, and not less in those of
142

THE LATE REV. E. J. HEWETT.

REV. ELLIS FRAY.
(Grandson of William Knibb).

SECRETARIES OF JAMAICA BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

To face p. 143.

MISSIONARY WORK 143
his brethren, one may trace the same large conception and
grandeur of purpose that marked William Carey, as it did
the Wesleys and other pioneers of Gospel extension. Carey,
while preaching to Hindoos, was planning the evangelization
of all Asia, indeed of all the heathen world, and William
Knibb, while destroying British slavery, was scheming to
abolish it from America and all other communities. The
Gospel which Burchell preached at Mount Carey and
Phillippo at Spanish Town was, in the purposes of these
good men, to be proclaimed in Cuba, Hayti, and Trinidad,
in South America, and throughout the Dark Continent.
Few scenes of those early days are more impressive, or
perhaps more edifying, than that of a large congregation
composed almost wholly of slaves, listening, deeply moved,
to Knibb's account of the benighted condition of their
brethren in Africa, and then bowing their heads while one
and another among them pleaded with the God of Missions
for an opportunity to carry to their brethren the Gospel
light that was already shining on themselves.
The first Baptist Mission that visited the west coast of
Africa sailed from Jamaica, and of the missionary band
composing it the majority were of Jamaica birth and African
complexion. The story of that Mission is briefly this:
When William Knibb visited England in 1840 one purpose
in his mind was to persuade the English Society to com
mence missionary work in that part of Africa from which
the majority of the slaves or their forefathers came. He
told them of interviews he had had with Africans in Jamaica.
There were, he said, fifty thousand Baptists there who
wanted their fatherland to receive the Gospel. The English
Society forthwith sent two pioneers, John Clarke (afterwards
of Jericho) and Dr. Prince, who reached Fernando Po
January 1, 1841. In February, 1843, we find Knibb back
in Jamaica holding a crowded meeting on behalf of Africa.
Among the many engagements of that year the Jamaica
missionaries found time to search out among the Churches

144 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
a missionary band, chiefly young black men, who were
prepared to go as pioneers to their heathen fatherland. One
of these Knibb had trained himself; one was the super
intendent of his own Sunday-school ; one was a lad named
Fuller going to rejoin his father in Fernando Po, and who,
as J. J. Fuller, lived a long and honourable missionary life
in the African service, and in his later years was known and
loved and welcomed among all the Churches in the Home
land as the best of missionary deputations. A vessel named
the Chilmark was chartered in England, came over with
Clarke and Prince to Jamaica, and on December i, 1843,
left Falmouth Harbour for its voyage to Africa, William
Knibb himself, by the captain's permission, and with his aid,
steering the vessel out of the harbour.
This first African Mission, it should be understood, was
under the auspices of the English Society, but the inspira
tion and most of the workers came from Jamaica. And
here may fittingly be mentioned a later memorial link
between the work in Fernando Po and our Jamaica Mission.
For more than thirty years that President of our College,
who held office longest, the Rev. D. J. East, had by his
side a wife who was known at all our Mission houses for her
devotion to him personally as well as to the work he loved.
Long years before, in the early days of the African Mission,
this lady, as Miss Vitou, went to Fernando Po, being the
first of single lady workers to go to that far region, where
at one time she lived absolutely alone, save for the school
children and native families among whom she worked.
Returning to England, after some years, in ill-health, she was
asked by Mr. East, then a widower, to become his partner,
and, returning with him to Jamaica, she shared his life and
labours to their close. Mrs. East's reminiscences of the
African Mission, as the writer heard them at first hand, were
of the greatest interest ; and when she was buried in England
at a great old age, within a year or so of the home-call of
her husband, great numbers of the children of Africa far

MISSIONARY WORK 145
across the seas shared in spirit the respect expressed for her
memory. We come now to the story of the Jamaica Baptist
Missionary Society— that is, the Society formed by our
Jamaica Churches for doing missionary work. The outline
of its history here given is taken direct from the chronicle,
prepared a few years ago by two of our best known
workers. It was in Kingston, in January, 1842, immediately after
they had resolved to become independent of the funds of
the Baptist Missionary Society, that the Baptist missionaries
decided to form the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society.
They were led to take this step because they realized that
" some provision should be made for the support of those
brethren the funds of whose stations would be inadequate,"
and in order that "stipends might be furnished to those
who should commence operations in new fields of labour in
connection with the Jamaica Baptist Mission." This Society
was dissolved in the following year, when the missionaries
divided themselves into an Eastern and Western Union, but
was immediately formed again in connection with the
Western Union.
The original constitution of the Society states that its
objects were "to provide for the spiritual destitution of
various parts of the island, to assist those associated
Churches not receiving aid| from the Parent Society, which
are unable to raise adequate funds for the support of their
ministers, to extend the Gospel in neighbouring colonies and
the land of Africa." No mention is made of a managing
committee, and the need of one was not realized until 1854,
when Revs. D. J. East, B. Millard, J. E. Henderson, and
E. Hewitt, were appointed to act as such. No mention is
also made of Calabar College, but from its inception the
Society has been responsible for the maintenance^of the
students in that institution, and the amount contributed
annually for this purpose has gradually increased from
10

146 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
about £100 in 1844 to £500 in 1885. This constitution
was amended and enlarged in 1861, when the first two
rules were made to read thus :
1. " That the Society be designated ' The Jamaica Baptist
Missionary Society,' in connection with The Jamaica Bap
tist Union."
2. "That the objects be to provide for the spiritual
destitution of various parts of this island ; to support the
Calabar Institution and Day-schools ; to send the Gospel to
Africa and to the islands by which we are surrounded."
Subsequently, but during the period now under review,
Sunday-schools and assistance to Churches in their building
operations were added to the objects of the Society.
Nothing is said in this enlarged constitution concerning
the allocation of the funds, but during the first forty years
of the Society's history it was the practice for each con
stituent Church to apportion its contribution to such objects
of the Society as it desired to help. While these objects
were few in number this practice does not appear to have
caused much inconvenience, but as they increased, and
especially after the inauguration of the foreign work, great
difficulty was sometimes experienced in maintaining certain
parts of the Society's work because of insufficient appropria
tions by the Churches. To obviate this difficulty, it was
decided at the Annual Meeting in 1877 that the allocation
of the funds should be made by the General Committee in
annual session assembled. In the following year, however,
on the insistence of the President of Calabar College, who
thought it would prove detrimental to the interests of that
institution, this decision was rescinded and a reversion
made to the former practice. Many of the Churches,
however, continued to leave the allocation of their contri
butions to the General Committee, and in a short time this
plan was adopted by all the Churches. For many years,
although the Society provided the funds, the allocation and
supervision of grants for building purposes were under the

MISSIONARY WORK 147
control of the Jamaica Baptist Union, but in 1882 these
were transferred to the Baptist Missionary Society.
Home-work of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society. — One
prime object of the Society being to carry the Gospel into
parts of Jamaica that were spiritually destitute, its first
operations took place in this sphere. " Beginning from
Jerusalem and all Judea." In 1843 two Churches in the
parish of St. Elizabeth, where frequent drought and sub
sequent poverty make the support of a pastor difficult, asked
help from the Society. It was granted, and long continued
in the form of an annual grant in aid, the Society requiring
each year an account of the work with statistics of member
ship and contributions. For a time a Scripture reader, or
colporteur, was employed in this parish, but this form of
work has not been continued. A Church in Clarendon was
at this time similarly assisted.
In 1862 the Eastern parishes of Portland and St. Thomas,
which, for reasons dating from slavery days, had had very
little Gospel teaching, were visited by a Jamaica deputation.
Two years later young native workers trained at Calabar
College were sent into Portland parish to open up work.
Some of these proved capable and trustworthy ; some not ;
but several Churches of to-day in important positions are the
result of that extension work, such as those at St. Margaret's
Bay, Port Antonio, and Buff Bay.
As for St. Thomas in the East, it will be remembered
from an earlier chapter that the people in that isolated,
mountainous, and storm-swept end of the island, had had
the serious disadvantage of property-owners and magistrates
incorrigibly hostile to the uplifting of the peasantry. It was
from St. Thomas that our earlier missionaries were shut out
from preaching by the refusal of a licence, and it was there
that the injustice of the magistrates' court towards black
people caused the serious uprising in 1865, which had such
disastrous results. Visiting this parish soon after Martial
Law, Mr. William Teall established a station at Morant

148 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Bay on the south-east coast, and thence at Prospect, Monk-
lands, Richmond Gap, and Yallahs. In this extension work
he was assisted by two students from Calabar, W. N. Brown
and A. P. Watson, for the cost of which assistance a grant
of fifty pounds annually was made for several years by the
friends of Myrtle Street Baptist Church, Liverpool. To
wards the whole expenses of this Mission the English
Society made an annual grant for six years of £250,
and other help was received through Dr. Underhill, the
Baptist Missionary Society Secretary, for purchasing
Mission premises. In 1870 a general appeal was made
by the Jamaica workers to the Home Committee for
money help in this extension work. In response a fund was
started, which it was hoped would enable the Society to
send out four more workers, who would be supported wholly
or in part from the fund for the first four years, by which
time it was expected that the new stations would become
self-supporting. Only two missionaries were sent out —
Mr. Rees, who was stationed at Balaclava, and Mr. P.
Williams, who settled at Mandeville. Mr. W. N. Brown,
after serving the Baptist Missionary Society for a time at
Nassau, Bahamas, took charge of Santa Cruz Church.
Of these workers the following brief note may here be
added : Mr. Rees retired again to Wales ; Mr. A. P. Watson
lived his life out among the eastern Churches and died in
1912 ; Mr. W. N. Brown, for many years the honoured
pastor of Salter's Hill Church, a valued member of com
mittee, and by repute and common consent one of the ablest
preachers and platform speakers our College has trained,
passed away in 1910. Mr. Williams, already frequently
mentioned, is pastor of important Churches and Secretary
of the Baptist Union.
Other Home Mission stations, not yet mentioned, are
Clonmel and Mount Olive in St. Mary's parish, Dallas
Castle and Green Valley in the Port Royal mountains,
Mount Charles in St. Andrew, Worsop in Trelawney,

MISSIONARY WORK 149
Hewett's View in St. Elizabeth, and Green Island on the
extreme west coast. With the increasing number of these
Home Mission stations it was found impracticable to super
vise them all from headquarters. The Managing Committee
therefore decided in 1879 to commit the management of the
stations in each parish to the Baptist Association of that
district, or, in default of this, to appoint a local committee.
Assistance to the English Society. — A second purpose of the
Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society was to engage in foreign
missionary work. This it was not able to do directly and
on its own account till thirty-two years after its formation.
Meanwhile, however, it worked indirectly in the far-off places
by assisting the parent Society. Every year a contribution
went from Jamaica for the work in Africa, first on the
Cameroons and later in Congoland. This contribution
began at £50, was increased to £100, and in 1885 had risen
to £200. In 1856 £100 was raised for the outfit and passage
of Mr. and Mrs. F. Pinnock, natives of Jamaica, whom the
parent Society had accepted for work in West Africa. In
1873 £108 were sent to assist in building the chapel of
Mr. J. J. Fuller in Cameroons, and in 1877 £162 odd
were sent for a similar work under the care of Mr. Pinnock
at Victoria. When the Baptist Missionary Society Congo
Mission was begun in 1875, the Jamaica Society wrote home
to know whether the application of young Jamaicans would
be acceptable. The Home Committee did not think that
this would be practicable during the pioneer stage of the
Congo Mission, but held out the hope that later on there
might be openings which they would be glad for Jamaica-
born workers to fill. This hope has been in a measure
realized. More than one worker from this island, bearing
by descent the same features and complexion that are found
on the banks of the. Congo, has served in that Mission, and,
at the present date, one, Mr. S. C. Gordon, is still in that
service. A few years ago, however, a new way of helping
was undertaken, which will always be acceptable. Our

150 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Jamaica Society undertook the support of a Congo
missionary leaving it to the Home Society without re
striction to allot this contribution to any one of their agents,
and at the present time Mr. G. Thomas, English (or rather
Welsh), is the Baptist Missionary Society worker whom we
support. He has visited Jamaica, and the personal relation
ship established forms a helpful and happy bond both
between the two Societies and the two Mission fields.
Fields of the Spanish Main. — Round about Jamaica lie
many other islands of the same geographical system, and
three days' voyage west, south-west, and south lies the thin
irregular curve of land that unites North and South America.
The fathers of the Jamaica Mission all cast longing eyes
at these possible fields for missionary effort, and at their
instigation the parent Society made tentative efforts at
certain points to bring to these lands the Gospel which had
done such great things for the people of Jamaica.
With the rise of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society
it was inevitable that the Baptist work in these spheres
should eventually be managed from this nearer centre, and
this has gradually come to pass.
Hayti. — As long ago as 1843 Protestants in the Black
Republic sent a request to the Jamaica Society to send them
a missionary. This, at the time, was impossible, and
one regrets to have to record that thirty years passed by
before this request was fulfilled. In 1871, a donation of £13
having been received for work in Hayti, Messrs. John
Henderson and Ellis Fray visited the island, and three
years later, in 1874, Mr. George Angus, a Jamaican of
coloured parentage, settled at St. Mark on the west coast.
For many years part of the expense of this Mission was met
by the friends at Tyndale Church, Bristol. After some
years, Mr. Angus severed his connection with the Jamaica
Society, with whom, however, he continued in friendly
touch, coming over to the island in 1883 to collect contri
butions for the erection of a Baptist Chapel at St. Mark ;

MOXS. L HERRISOX.
(Haitian Missionary.)

REV. T. GORDON SOMERS.
(Secretary of Calabar College.)

THE LATE REV. \V. M. WEBB
(Founder of Westwood School.)

To face p. 151.

MISSIONARY WORK 151
and here he continued his useful labour until 1900, when he
was accidentally shot dead during one of Hayti's frequent
revolutions. A second missionary from Jamaica, Mr. D. M.
Kitchen, trained at Calabar, settled at Port de Paix, where
he died in 1892.
On the south coast lies the important town of Jacmel,
which was till recently a port of call for ocean steamers.
The English Society, which had a Mission there, offered in
1882 to hand its work over to the Jamaica Baptist Missionary
Society. The money difficulty at first stood seriously in the
way, but on the English Society's consenting to support the
work for a term of years, the island workers took it over, and
in 1885 Mr. Rowe, native minister, was appointed. This
worker being obliged to leave through ill-health, Mr. L. Tom
Evans, from Wales, was appointed to Jacmel in 1893.
Mr. Evans held this sphere for one year only, being obliged
to resign because of his wife's ill-health, but during that
time a fine chapel, costing upwards of £1,000, was com
pleted and opened with school premises attached. These
buildings were destroyed by fire (a common catastrophe in
Hayti) with nearly the whole town of Jacmel in 1896. It
is gratifying to report that in 1908 our Society was able
to resume work in Jacmel under favourable conditions.
Mr. P. N. L'herisson, a Haytian of high education and good
standing in the community, who, from the time of his
conversion when he gave up a lucrative distilling business,
had been the leading spirit in the Jacmel Baptist Church,
and was for many years its acting pastor, agreed to take
over official charge of the Jacmel Mission on behalf of the
Jamaica Society. He came over to Jamaica in 1910 to
make the acquaintance of the Managing Committee, and
returning to Jacmel with the hearty confidence and good
will of all the brethren, has settled into a work for which
there could not be a better qualified agent.
At Port au Prince, the capital of Hayti, the Society for
three years had Mr. Lucius Hippolyte, M.A., as its agent.

152 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
In 1893 Mr. Hippolyte severed his connection with the
Society, but has since maintained the pastorate of the Church
while supporting himself, principally by school work.
The last agent sent by our Society to Hayti is Mr. Paul
de Lattre, who came from his native France by invitation
in 191 1, and has since been settled with wife and child in
Mr. Angus's former sphere.
Cuba. — This large island, lying only ninety miles north of
Jamaica, early attracted the attention of the Jamaica Baptist
Missionary Society. A Mission to Cuba was first proposed
in 1884. In 1886 Mr. Wood, the first agent, was appointed,
and three years later two sons of Jamaica, Mr. Mornan
and Mr. Ellis Fray, jun., joined that Mission. Mr. Fray
returned next year on the death of Mrs. Fray ; Mr. Mornan
continued till 1893, when he resumed pastoral work in
Jamaica. A few years later, as the result of war, Cuba
ceased to be under Spanish rule, and came under the pro
tection of the United States. It is a joy to add that the
American Missionary Societies undertook the evangelization
of the populace, which they are now vigorously engaged in.
The Isthmus of Panama, Central America. — Fully forty
years ago Jamaican labourers began to go to Panama in
search of employment, and in 1868 Mr. E. Hewett urged
the formation of a Mission there. In the early eighties
Mr. Teall visited this sphere, and in 1884 Mr. George
Turner went out to Colon as the Society's agent. Things
were then in a very bad way on the Isthmus. A French
company were attempting to construct a canal from the
Atlantic shore to the Pacific, and tempted by exaggerated
reports, black labourers by the thousand emigrated thither
from Jamaica, St. Thomas, and other islands. But these
poor men were not looked after by the authorities or
properly provided for. There was almost no public order,
and the emigrants from other nations were chiefly adven
turers and blacklegs. Numbers of our Jamaica people,
including many members of our Baptist Churches, never

MISSIONARY WORK 153
came back and have never been accounted for, while those
who returned brought with them not only the Colon fever,
but a moral plague of lawlessness and vice much more
harmful. It is gratifying to note and place on record the
immense improvement that is visible in the Canal Zone
under the management of the American Government. Mr.
Turner's health failed after one year's service, and it was
not possible at that time to secure a successor. Meanwhile
the emigrants from Jamaica, who were Church members,
attached themselves to any Christian company they could
find in the strange new lands of Central America, and in
some cases formed new Churches, which forthwith they
asked the Jamaica Society to take under its wings. Thus,
in 1894, the Church at Bocas del Toro was supplied from
Jamaica with Mr. Meredith as its pastor, the Society under
taking to find one-third of his salary. In 1898 Mr. Notman
succeeded to this post, and ten years later pastor and
Church discontinued their connection with the Society,
having become wholly self-supporting.
In 1900 several small Churches at stations on the canal
course were in like manner taken over, Mr. Loveridge, from
England, becoming their pastor. Seven years later this con
nection with Jamaica was given up, and the pastor and
Churches, by agreement between the two Societies, were
united with the Southern Baptist Convention of the United
States. Costa Rica. — It is, however, in Costa Rica, the central
State north of the Panama Republic, that our Society has
its chief work in Central America. This vast banana-growing
region was visited in 1888 by Messrs. E. J. Hewett and
J. H. Sobey, the latter of whom gave up his pastoral charge
at Montego Bay, and became the Society's pioneering agent
in Costa Rica. From Port Limon he made tours into the
interior of the State, visiting the various labour camps where
Jamaicans and others were congregated, and always and
everywhere speaking, preaching, and singing the Gospel.

154 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Mr. Sobey's name became well known in that rough region,
and not less along the canal course. A chapel was built at
Port Limon, which three years later was too small for the
congregation. In 1893 Mr. James Hayter, from Harley
College, went to Costa Rica as second missionary, with the
special idea of preaching to the Spanish-speaking natives,
while Mr. Sobey preached in English. Carefully trained in
giving by their missionary, the Costa Rican Churches from
the first were practically self-supporting. Mr. Sobey re
signed in 1899, to become a chaplain in the service of the
Isthmian Canal Commission. Other Baptist missionaries
in Costa Rica have been Mr. Forde, Mr. McDonald, and
Mr. Witt. Messrs. Forde and McDonald are still there, but
the Mission is no longer under the auspices of the Jamaica
Baptist Missionary Society.
A few smaller Missions remain to be mentioned.
The Cayman Islands. — These on the map are mere specks
of land, lying from 100 to 200 miles north and west of the
island of Jamaica. In two of these remote spots, Cayman
Brae and Little Cayman, our Society has had workers since
1886. Mr. J. H. Sobey was also the pioneer here, and
Mr. Rutty, Mr. Witt (mentioned above), Mr. J. Thrift, and
Mr. Charles Barron, have in succession occupied this remote
and lonely sphere. In 1898 the Jamaica Society ceased to
guarantee the salary of the pastor, but the sphere remained
under the auspices of the Society. There are five small
Baptist chapels on the two islands.
Belize {British Honduras) . — For many years there has been
a Baptist Church in this place, and in 1886 the members
petitioned the Society to take them under its care. In 1889
Mr. Charles Brown gave up his pastorate at Montego Bay
to become missionary in Belize. Here he worked till 1900,
during which period the Church was under the auspices of
the Society, although financially self-supporting. On Mr.
Brown's leaving, the Churches gave up their connection
with Jamaica.

MISSIONARY WORK 155
In the Bay of Honduras lie several little islands. To one
of these, Ruatan, Mr. C. S. Hobson had gone as pastor. In
1888 the sphere was taken over by the Society. Next year,
we grieve to record, the missionary and his wife were both
foully murdered. At Corn Island, off the coast of Nicaragua,
the English-speaking natives petitioned Jamaica for a
minister. Mr. John Macaulay (Calabar College) went out in
1904, and commenced a very promising ministry, which
was cut short by his being drowned at sea as he was return
ing to Jamaica on a visit.
" The Jamaica Baptist Reporter." — In order that informa
tion concerning the work of the Society might be sup
plied, both to its agents and its supporters, the Managing
Committee began in 1865 to publish a small paper, called
Quarterly Notes. This continued till 1871, when, in re
sponse to a general desire among our people for fuller
and more frequent information, an arrangement was made
with the proprietor of the Jamaica Instructor, a periodical
recently started in Kingston, whereby for £12 per annum
two columns of his paper were twice in the month reserved
for the use of the Missionary Society. These columns were
edited by Principal East, of Calabar College, but, as they
failed to give satisfaction, a return was made in 1872 to the
Quarterly Notes. Two years later the Society began to pub
lish a monthly paper, called The Jamaica Baptist Reporter.
Mr. J. Henderson, Mr. John Kingdon, and Mr. East were
successively editors, followed by Mr. W. M. Webb, Mr.
G. E. Henderson, M.A., and the present editor, Mr. W. Pratt,
M.A., of Kingston. The paper has eight pages, and includes,
among other useful matter, Monthly Lesson Notes for Sunday-
School Teachers, which are now prepared by a native
minister trained at Calabar. This paper has long been of
great benefit, no less to the missionary agents and their
families than to the members of the Churches. Full liberty
is allowed to contributors in the supplying of news and the
expression of opinion, and seeing that the value of a denomi-

156 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
national paper depends greatly on the extent to which the
members of the denomination supply it with news, it is
greatly to be desired that Baptist workers in Jamaica and
elsewhere should keep the Reporter as fully supplied as pos
sible. The Heathen at our Door. — A curious circumstance in the
island story has brought within reach of Christian workers a
considerable number of members of heathen communities.
The immigration of East Indian coolies has been several
times mentioned. At the present time there are said to be
about 18,000 natives of India in residence in Jamaica. More
recently the wave of emigration from China has carried
many thousands from that most ancient community to the
lands of the Spanish Main. Between two and three thousand
of them are at the present living and trading in Jamaica.
Both these Asiatics bring with them heathen cults. The
Indian coolie worships Vishnoo, or Sheeba, as the god on
whose favour his welfare depends ; the Chinaman swears by
Confucius or by Buddha. We pass these men on the road,
sit with them in the railway carriage, deal with them over
the counter ; and, as servants of the true God, it is laid on
our hearts to ask, Ought we not to preach to them the
Gospel? The Jamaica Society made an attempt at this
work when, in 1895, an East Indian was engaged to come
from Trinidad to be our missionary among the coolies. For
six years he was engaged in the work, when for grave reasons
the committee had to discontinue it. From that time we
have done nothing as a Society to evangelize these heathen
at our door, but gladly recognize the value of the work
carried on amongst them by the Presbyterian and some
other Missions. Individual Baptist pastors, however, in
estate districts where there are coolie colonies, have been,
and are, taking every opportunity to let these other sheep
hear through them the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Nor as a Society have we done anything yet for the
Chinese traders and laundrymen. We note with thankful-

MISSIONARY WORK 157
ness the efforts made by the Friends' Mission, and some
others who employ a Chinese catechist to hold service and
distribute vernacular tracts among these heathen of the very
far East.
The story of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society
would be incomplete without some record of the services
rendered by a succession of Jamaican ministers, who acted
as officials and committee men. The first secretary was the
Rev. Ellis Fray, who was born in Jamaica and educated at
Calabar College. His wife and helpmeet in his work was a
daughter of William Knibb. The next secretary was Rev.
Edward Hewett, senr., who came out from England in
1842, and succeeded Mr. Burchell as pastor of Mount Carey,
Betheltown, and other Western Churches. His wife was
Miss Burchell, well known to succeeding generations of
ministers as the " Mother of the Denomination." The third
secretary was Rev. Edward Jesse Hewett, son of the above,
and so long the well-loved pastor of Mount Carey and
Mount Peto Churches. His sudden call home left a blank
not easy to fill. The present holder of office is another
Ellis Fray, son of a former secretary and pastor of a group
of Churches at and around Kettering intimately bound up
with the great life-work of his grandfather, William Knibb.
The treasurers of the Society have likewise been hard
working pastors of Churches, who gave time and labour
voluntarily for love of the work. In order of succession they
are: Rev. J. E. Henderson, two of whose nephews are
ministers of long standing. He came to Jamaica in 1840,
and was for a long time pastor of Montego Bay and Watford
Churches. The next to hold office was Rev. John Kingdon,
who still, after fifty-two years of arduous service at Falmouth
and Unity Churches, as well as in many denominational
offices, is still on duty for the Master, despite lessened
strength and widowed loneliness. The late Mrs. Kingdon
was for very many years his indefatigable helpmeet in all
good works. The present treasurer, the Rev. William Pratt,

158 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
M.A., came to Jamaica in 1890, being recommended by the
English Baptist Missionary Society to the pastorate of East
Queen Street and associated Churches. The duties of this
important post he continues to fulfil, together with many
appointments on Government and philanthropic Boards,
despite severe injuries received in the earthquake of 1907.
He further serves the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society as
Editor of the Monthly Baptist Reporter.

CONCLUSION
When we compare Jamaica in 1814, when our first Baptist
missionary landed, with what it is a hundred years later, the
most conspicuous fact in the contrast, no matter from what
point of view we regard it, is the cessation of slavery. No
other event has been so large a factor in shaping the history of
the people of the island ; most certainly no other event looms
so large in the story of our Jamaica Baptist Mission. It must
not be supposed, however, that it was to work this great
social and political change that Rowe and his successors
were sent out by the English Society. They came to Jamaica
as Christian missionaries — to turn men from spiritual dark
ness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. They
were called by their enemies political agitators, but the
charge was false. The abolition of slavery, even to such
enthusiastic champions of freedom as Knibb and Burchell,
was an incident in their work, not its main objective.
Slavery had to go because it stood in the way of the
evangelization of the great bulk of the people of Jamaica.
It is in the same way and for the same purpose that our
Jamaica missionaries have from time to time taken a
prominent place, sometimes the leading part, in other move
ments and changes which in themselves may be righty called
social or political. How far, if at all, ministers should take
part in politics is not a question to be debated here. Time
and again in Jamaica opponents of Missions have made
replies to this query, which, analysed, can all be reduced to
the same principle : "Not if it interferes with my interest or
my enjoyment." Were any justification needed for the
strong political action taken by the Baptist Union as a
i59

160 " GLORIOUS LIBERTY "
whole, or District Associations, or individual ministers, it
would surely be found in the principles that animated the
Baptist champions of freedom : " We did it for the Gospel's
sake." A second wrong inference that opponents of the work
in Jamaica have often brought against us as a charge is that
the missionaries are the advocates of the negro inhabitant as
against the rest. This charge also is entirely false. It is
true that Knibb, for example, was the black men's friend
when being enslaved and oppressed they needed a friend.
He was in the same way the open and strenuous opponent
of the white community in the island simply because the
bulk of that community were the oppressors of the black.
But as Christian missionaries neither the Baptist pioneers
nor those who have followed them ever considered them
selves commissioned to any one race or section of the mixed
inhabitants of the West Indies. The Gospel they pro
claimed was glad tidings for every creature, even as the
Saviour who sent it died as a propitiation for the sins, not
of any one favoured race, but of the whole world. While the
bulk of the congregations of to-day are, and are likely to be,
of negro descent, partly because of the close historical ties
that bind so many of that race to our Mission stations,
partly also just because the bulk of the inhabitants of
Jamaica are of that race, membership in the Church is open
to all who have repented toward God and put their faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And while our brethren are free
from all un-Christly craving for the adhesion of what are
called in the language of the world the " upper classes," our
Sunday congregations, especially in the towns, show the
pleasant sight of men and women of different nationalities
and upbringing worshipping together — "one in Christ Jesus."
Could the personal letters of individual missionaries, which
the writer has been studying of late, be reproduced in full in
these pages, few incidents would be found more touching,
and at times more inspiring, than the ministrations of our

CONCLUSION 161
missionaries even in slavery days to the white man or
woman in the hour of sorrow or under distress of soul. Jew
or Gentile, bond or free, our brethren have felt themselves,
like Paul of old, debtors to them all. Spiritually, moreover,
it may safely be said that the white community in Jamaica
benefited by the abolition of slavery as much as the black ;
for to both alike that abominable system was the chief
barrier to a saving acceptance of the Gospel, as it was also
to that mutual understanding, co-operation, and goodwill
which have ever since been steadily replacing, under the
blessing of God, the old-time class-hatred and class-
separation. And if as a Christian Mission we believe heart and soul in
the essential oneness of man, and that the Creator of us all
is no respecter of persons, as a Baptist Mission we earnestly
desire to recognize the spiritual oneness of all true disciples
of the Christ. We rejoice greatly over every occasion when
this has shown itself in united action for the extension of the
Kingdom of Heaven, and we long for the time when there
shall be a greater manifestation of it among the really
Christian denominations in Jamaica than has yet been the
case; when in building new sanctuaries we shall recognize
each other's existence and refrain from overlapping as do
the missionary forces of to-day in such fields as China,
Ceylon, and Samoa; when we shall respect each other's
Church discipline upon matters upon which all Christians
are agreed ; when we shall show a united front against public
wrong whoever may be its advocate; when, without any
surrender of denominational principle, we shall love one
another as our Lord and Master has loved us, and so in our
measure fulfil His gracious desire for all His true followers :
" That they may be one . . . that the world may know that
Thou hast sent Me."

ii

LIST OF MISSIONARIES AND PASTORS
DURING THE CENTURIES*

From Abroad.
YEAR
John Rowe  1813
Lee Compere  1815
James Coultart  1817
Thomas Godden  1818
Christopher Etching ... 1818
Thomas Knibb  1822
Joshua Tinson  1822
Henry Tripp  1822
Thomas Burchell  1823
Ebenezer Phillips  1823
J. Fleming  1823
J. M. Phillipps  1823
William Knibb  1824
Edward Baylis  1826
James Flood  1826
T. Hudson*  1826
James Mann  1826
J. Allsopt  1827
S. Bromleyt  1827
Joseph Burton  1828
H. C. Taylor  1829
John Clarke  1829
W. W. Cantlow  1830
Francis Gardner  1830
Samuel Nicholls  1830
T. F. Abbott  1831
John Griffiths  183 1

John Shoveller
Josiah Barlow
Walter Dendy
John Kingdon
B. B. Dexter ...
John Hutchins
John Clark
Samuel Oughton
James Reid ...
David Day
T. B. Picton ...
H. J. Dutton ...
George Webb
E. J. Francis ...
George Rouse
Jabez Tunley...
Charles Armstrong
Henry Bloomfield
P. H. Cornford
J. Dallewell ...
J. E. Henderson
William Hume
John May
Benjamin Millard
Edward Woolley
John Williams
Thomas Dowson
Edward Hewett

1831
1831 1832 1832
1834
1834 18361836
1837 1838
1838 183918391839
183918391840
18401840 184018401840 18401840
184018401 841
1841

* This list is correct as far as can be ascertained at present ; but a
few names have been omitted of persons who, for grave misconduct,
became disconnected with the Mission.
t Connected with the General Baptist Missionary Society.
163

164

GLORIOUS LIBERTY"

William Lloyd

... 1841

George Turner

... 1883

James H. Wood

... 1841

Henry Suffolk

.. 1884

Robert Gay 

... 1842

Charles Chapman ...

... 1884

James Gibson

... 1842

Edwin Mowl 

.. 1884

William Claydon

.. 1842

Charles Barron

... 1886

G. R. Henderson

... 1842

A. W. Meredith

... 1886

Charles Silley

... 1842

Leonard Tricker

... 1888

T. F. Hands 

... 1843

James Duthie

... 1889

Thomas Gould

... 1843

E. Walters 

... 1889

William Nash

... 1843

Edwin Arnett

... 1890

James Hume 

... 1843

William Pratt

... 1890

William Teall

... 1844

A. Dickson 

... 1892

Samuel Jones 

... 1844

John Zair 

... 1893

G. P. Evans 

... 1844

Arthur James

... 1893

Samuel Hodges

... 1844

Frederick Edmonds

- 1894

George Milliner

... 1844

William Pearn

... 1896

Robert Middleditch ...

... 1844

J. B. Murphy 

... 1897

John Thompson

... 1850

A. H. Owens 

... 1900

D.J. East 

... 1852

J.W.Turner 

... 1900

J. P. Sillifant 

... 1852

D. M. Roberts

... 1901

John Nisbet 

... 1856

Joseph Thrift

... 1901

Thomas Lea 

... 1858

Alfred Miller 

... 1906

John Kingdon

... 1861

Ernest Price 

... 1909

C. E. Randall

... 1863

W. R. Phillips

... 1911

W. H. Porter

... 1870

T. L. Rees 

... 1871

Jamaica Born.

J. E. Gummer

... 1872

William Whitehorne

... 1831

Philip Williams

... 1872

Samuel Whitehorne...

... 1833

Thomas G.Griffiths...

... 1872

Larchin Lynch

...

E. N. B. Millard

... 1873

Richard Merrick

... 1838

W. F. Hathaway ...

... i87S

Joseph Merrick

... 1839

J. M. Denniston

... 1876

Robert Graham

... 1845

F. H. Dillon 

... 1876

Francis J ohnson

... 1847

Thomas Fraser

... 1877

Thomas Henry

... 1847

G. S. Collie 

... 1877

Thomas Smith

... 1847

A. G. Kirkham

... 1877

R. E. Watson i

...

S. V. Robinson

... 1878

Edwin Palmer

... 1850

C. B. Berry 

... 1878

W. L. McLaggan ...

... 1850

J. J. Kendon 

... 1878

Ellis Fray, sen.

... 1851

Charles Brown

... 1880

Joseph Gordon

... 1851

George House

... 1880

Richard Dalling

... 1852

William Head

... 1882

Alexander Brown . . .

... 1852

J. H. Sobey 

... 1883

H. B. Harris 

... 1853

H. M. Phillips

... 1883

J.G.Bennett 

... 1854

LIST OF MISSIONARIES AND PASTORS 165

Angus Duckett

YEAR
... 1855

R. H. Hobson

YEAR
... 1886

J. J. Steele 

... 1856

W. P. Sibley*

... I887

George Moodie

... 1856

W. H. Rutty 

... 1887

Patrick O'Meally ...

... i857

R. E. Bennett

... 1888

D. G. Campbell

... i8S7

C. S. Brown 

... 1888

Samuel Holt 

... i860

S. I. Marson ...

... 1888

James Maxwell

... 1861

E. H. Cunning

... I889

J. J. Porter 

...

W. D. Brown

... 189O

W. M. Webb

... 1862

J.T.Dillon 

... I892

James Barrett

... 1862

T. G. Somers 

... l893

J. B. Service 

... 1863

T. E. Marston

.- l893

Amos Silverthorn

»*.

W. M. Christie

... 1894

William Mcintosh ...

• ¦¦

A. G. Eccleston

... I894

James Elliott 

... 1869

E. J. Tonzalin

... I894

W. N. Brown

... 1869

W. J. Mornan

... l894

S. C. Morris 

... 1870

John McCaulay

- I895

A. P. Watson

... 1871

W. J. Thompson

... I89S

James Ashley 

... 1872

H. L. Webster

... I89S

D. B. Campbell

... 1872

E.V.Donaldson

... I89S

W.A.Gilling 

... 1873

T. U. Brown 

... I896

Charles Tharpe

... 1875

J. S. Linton 

... I896

T. C. Hutchins*

... 1874

C.M.Bennett

... I897

S. E.Porter 

... 1875

M. A. U. Shaw

... l897

W. A. Tucker, sen. ...

... 1876

W. D. Vaughan

... I9OO

G. E. Henderson* ...

... 1876

E. A. Bell 

... I90O

E. J. Hewett*

... 1877

J. A. Jpnes 

... I9OI

Andrew Brown

... 1877

R. G. Chambers

... 1902

N. A. James 

... 1878

C. C. Livingston

... I902

W. D. Henderson* ...

... 1878

F. W. Coore 

... 1903

P. F. Schoburgh ...

... 1880

W. A. Tucker, jun*

... I9O4

R. R. James 

... 1880

L. M. Beverley

... I9O4

B. R. Tomlinson

... 1880

M. B. Burgess

... I906

J. H. Gayle 

... 1880

E. B. James 

... I906

R. H. Rowe 

... 1881

W. C. Bennett

... I907

S. J. Washington

... 1881

A. V. Petgrave

... 1907

J. C. Dubaney

... 1883

E. G. Douglas

... 1907

S.W.Thomas

... 1884

T. B. Sawyers

... I907

G. C. Rowan 

... 1884

J. E. Reid 

... I908

A. C. Byfield 

... 1884

C. A. Lindsay

... I908

I. S. Tate 

... 1884

E. B. Heighington ...

... I9II

A. M. Gooden

... 1884

S. H. Helwig 

... 1912

C. E. Henderson* ...

... 1885

J. M. Walters

... 1912

Ellis Fray, jun.*

... 1885

* Sons of other missionaries or pastors.

1 66

"GLORIOUS LIBERTY"

PRESIDENTS AND TUTORS OF CALABAR COLLEGE
Tutors.

Presidents.
Joshua Tinson ... 1843-1850
D. J. East  1852-1892
A. James, B.A. ... 1 893-1909
E. Price, B.A., B.D. 1909-

J. H. Dick, B.A.
A. Gunning.
J. S. Roberts.
J. Balfour, M.A.
L. Tucker, M.A.
D. Davis, B.A., B.D.

MISSIONARIES OF THE JAMAICA BAPTIST MISSIONARY
SOCIETY IN FOREIGN FIELDS

BOCAS DEL TORO.
A. W. Meredith.
E. C. Notman.
F. G. Veitch.
T. H. Duncanson.
Cayman Islands.
W. H. Rutty.
A. H. Owens.
Stephen Witt.
Joseph Thrift.
Charles Barron.
Costa Rica.
J. H. Sobey.
James Hayter.
Stephen Witt.
A. N. McDonald.
William Forde.

Cuba.
W. F. Wood.
Ellis Fray.
W. J. Mornan.
Hayti.
George Angus.
D. M. Kitchin.
R. H. Rowe.
L. Ton Evans.
P. N. L'Herisson.
P. De Lattre.
Isthmus of Panama.
George Turner.
S. M. Loveridge.

BOOKS ON JAMAICA CONSULTED OR
REFERRED TO
History of East and West Indies. By Acosta, 1604.
Gardner's History of Jamaica, 1873.
Memoirs of a West Indian Planter. Rev. J. Riland, 1827.
Memoir of John Jenkins. G. Jackson, 1832.
Narrative of Recent Events, 1833.
Lights and Shadows of Jamaica History, 1837.
The West Indies in 1837. Sturge and Harvey, 1837.
A Winter in the West Indies. Gurney, 1840.
Controversy with Rev. R. Panton. Ed. Steane, 1840.
Jamaica, Past and Present. Phillippo, 1843.
Memoir of William Knibb. J. H. Hinton, 1847.
William Knibb. Mrs. J. J. Smith, 1896.
Memoir of William Knibb. James Hobey.
Memoir of Thomas Burchell. W. F. Burchell, 1849.
Memoir of Richard Merrick. John Clarke, 1850.
The Wesleyan Mission in Jamaica. Peter Duncan, 1849.
Reminiscences of Missionary Life. George Blyth, 1851.
Conversations about Hurricanes. H. Piddington, 1852.
Death Struggles of Slavery. Bleby, 1853.
Missionary Reminiscences. P. H. Cornford, 1856. <*
The Voice of Jubilee, 1865.
Jamaica's Jubilee. By Five Native Ministers, 1888.
Tragedy of Morant Bay. Dr. Underhill, 1865.
Memorials of Baptist Missionaries. John Clarke, 1869.
Jamaica Almanac, 1840-1841. 167

168 "GLORIOUS LIBERTY"
Jamaica State Papers — many volumes.
Jamaica Watchman — many numbers.
Manuscript Letters of Knibb, East, and others.
Jamaica Baptist Union Reports, 1848- 1860. Underhill.
Manuscript Notes of Chronicle of Jamaica Mission from 1842-
1907. By Leading Missionaries.

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD