| Level | Sub-sub-sub-fonds |
| Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure) | CMS/B/OMS/C1 |
| Title | 'North-West America mission' later 'North-West Canada mission' |
| Extent | 53 volumes, 2932 items |
| Date | 1821-1930 |
| Description | Records compiled by the committees of the CMS Overseas (Foreign) Division, London, up to 1930.
Comprising papers under the Committee of Correspondence 1821-1880 and under the East Asia ('Group 1') Committee 1880-1930. Including incoming correspondence from the mission to CMS in London 1822-1930, outgoing correspondence from the CMS in London to the mission 1821-1930, office copies of the incoming correspondence 1822-1876 and office summaries (précis) of the incoming correspondence 1881-1930.
The bound volumes compiled by the clerks in London under the Committee of Correspondence and the individual letter-books under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee have entries for British Columbia mission (known as 'North Pacific mission' until September 1896) as well as North-West Canada mission. |
| Notes | When the catalogue was created names of mission stations were standardised but there was no attempt to give present-day place names where these differ from place names in the records. The bulk of names in the sub-number references are the spellings used in the documents.
Work is underway to address outdated, discriminatory, and offensive language in finding aids used by the Cadbury Research Library, and to improve accessibility of the online catalogue in line with current standards including adding present-day place names standardised according to 'The Times Atlas of the World', comprehensive edition, 2023. Copies of the original catalogues have been retained as a record. |
| Arrangement | The clerks in the CMS London office working under the Committee of Correspondence used the same volumes for both of the CMS missions to what is now Canada. One set of individual letter-books, letter-books, and mission books contain the outgoing correspondence of the British Columbia (North Pacific) mission and North-West Canada (America) mission. To a lesser extent, the same practice continued under the Group 1 Committee: there is only one set of Individual letter-books for the missions to Canada. In the CMS Archive, these shared volumes are filed with the North-West Canada mission papers.
The early letter-book volumes used in the London office continued to be used after the day-to-day administration of the mission passed from the Committee of Correspondence to the Group Committee. Researchers interested in outgoing correspondence dating from 1881 to 1887 will need to consider records held under finding numbers CMS/B/OMS/C C1 I and C C1 L as well as CMS/B/OMS/G1 C1 I and G1 C1 L.
Papers under the Committee of Correspondence are arranged as:
I: Individual letter-books 1852-1887 (including entries relating to North Pacific mission)
L: Letter-books 1821-1882 (including entries relating to North Pacific mission)
M: Mission books 1822-1876 (including entries relating to North Pacific mission)
O: Original papers 1822-1880
Papers under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee are arranged as:
I: Individual letter-books 1887-1914 (including entries relating to the British Columbia (North Pacific) mission)
L: Letter-books 1882-1930
O: Original papers 1881-1930
P: Précis books 1881-1930 |
| Access Conditions | For conservation reasons, microfilm or digital copies are made available in place of the originals. |
| Finding Aids | Click on the Finding Number to display the full online catalogue of the Overseas Division mission series up to 1934, including the lower level entries for North-West Canada (North-West America) mission 1821-1930. Alternatively, the original paper catalogues for the mission series can be consulted in the Cadbury Research Library and CMS (Oxford). The North-West Canada (North-West America) mission papers 1821-1930 are listed in the ‘East Asia (Group 1) Missions’ catalogue, volume one. The paper catalogue includes details of the items missing from the papers under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee.
Guides to the Adam Matthew microfilm and digitally published copies of the North-West Canada (North-West America) mission papers are available online and in CMS (Oxford), Cadbury Research Library, and other subscribing institutions. |
| Access Status | Open, but subject to some access restrictions |
| Physical Description | The papers under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee are missing hundreds of items [CMS/B/OMS G1 C1].
The incoming papers under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee are individually marked in red ink. This number, plus the year, comprised the archive reference for each item, for example, G1 C1/1886/54. When the records were transferred to the University of Birmingham and the online copy of the catalogue was created the archive finding numbers for the records of the Overseas Division were extended: the letters CMS/B/OMS were added at the beginning of the filing numbers (denoting records of the Church Mission Society Archive: Overseas Division: Overseas Mission Series). In addition, for the papers under the East Asia (Group 1) Committee, a letter denoting the type of record (O for Original papers or L for Letter-book, etc) was added after the mission reference, for example, CMS/B/OMS/G1 C1/O 1886/54. |
| Administrative History | CMS work in what is now Canada began in 1822, primarily amongst First Nation Inuit peoples. In the records, the now outdated colonial term 'Eskimo' is used when referring to the Inuit people. The mission worked in present-day Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan. Initially called the 'North-West America mission' it was renamed 'North-West Canada mission' in 1896.
Main stations listed by start date with present day or alternative place names in square brackets:
1822 'Red River Settlement' [Winnipeg]
1840 'The Pas'
1852 'Lac la Ronge'
1858 Fort Simpson [Líídli Kúé]
1854 York Factory
Work in the Arctic amongst the Inuit people was handed over to the Canadian Church in 1907. From 1903, CMS made annually decreasing grants for the support of a locally appointed ministry and all work was finally handed over to the Missionary Society of the Canadian Church in 1920. |
| Archival Note | Catalogued by Rosemary A. Keen, CMS. Copied to the University of Birmingham online archive catalogue by L. Needham, 2000. Revisions underway by I. Frlan, Cadbury Research Library, 2024. |
| Copies | Available on microfilm and online.
Microfilm:
'Church Missionary Society Archive': Section V: Missions to the Americas, Parts 2-3.
Publisher: Marlborough: Adam Matthew Publications, 2003.
Location in the Cadbury Research Library: microfilm drawers B2, B3, B7 and C8; the microfilm reel in drawer C8 is in a box titled 'Addendum reel: additional C C1 O'.
Digital publication:
'AM Scholar - Church Missionary Society Archive': Missions to the Americas: North-West Canada
Publisher: Adam Matthew Digital.
Access: by institutional subscription: free to members of the University of Birmingham and visitors to the Cadbury Research Library and other subscribing institutions. |
Microfilm in the Public Archives of Canada:
The original organisation of the papers under the overall superintendence of the Committee of Correspondence was divided into two chronological sequences. For the period before 1868 there were groups of papers relating to such matters as correspondence with bishops, medical certificates, indents and printed papers; there were also papers and journals for the individual missionaries and agents etc Then from 1869 till 1880 the documents were arranged roughly in years in the order in which they were entered in the mission books.
With no detailed indexes or finding aids this arrangement is awkward and the first archivist (1951-1953) decided to incorporate the 1869-1880 documents in the pre-1868 method of arrangement. This re-arrangement had not been done for the Canada mission files when the bulk of the series (mainly pre-1890) was microfilmed in 1955 for the Public Archives of Canada, but had been completed by 1959. The catalogue of the series now bears no relationship to the order of the documents on the microfilm [as listed in the transcript of the film A-480 'CMS Finding Aid']*; and although an attempt has been made with the small 'British Columbia' section to identify each individual item on the microfilm, the magnitude of the task has prevented a similar attempt being made for the 'North-West Canada Mission'. Some items on the microfilm list were not found when the present catalogue was compiled.
*A copy of this was presented to the CMS Archives Office in 1965 by the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land, Anglican Church of Canada, and may be consulted by researchers at CMS (Oxford). |
| Related Material | CMS Overseas Division: British Columbia mission series (CMS/B/OMS/C2). |