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Record
XCMS - Church Mission Society archive - 1799-2009
B - Overseas Division (initially 'Foreign Division') 1799-1959 - 1803-1959
OMS - Overseas mission series - 1803-1934
A5 - East Africa (Kenya) Mission - 1841-1934
Level
Series
Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure)
CMS/B/OMS/C A5 I
Title
Individual letter-books [outgoing]
Extent
1 vol.
Date
1863-1888
Description
From 1826 onwards one of the Secretaries at headquarters had the primary task of writing personal letters to individual missionaries [as distinct from the official letters to the mission secretary]. A series of volumes for these private and confidential letters was used by many of the Secretaries from 1852 to about 1880. Most of the volumes are marked as 'Individual Letter-books' and contain not only personal letters, such as those of condolence or censure, but (for some Secretaries) topics that the individual Secretary had a special interest in.
Access Status
Open
Administrative History
Christopher Fenn was the last Secretary to be appointed specifically to write these personal letters and he continued the practice until his retirement in 1894.
Related Material
For East Africa all the letters (apart from one in 1863 from Robert Lang) are from Fenn. Private letters from Dandeson Coates, Henry Venn, Edward Hutchinson and Robert Lang are to be found in the main letter-book series [/L].
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