Administrative History | Calcutta Corresponding Committee was formed in Calcutta in 1807 and grants of money were allocated to it from headquarters for translation work and for employing native readers. Because it was founded by supporters in India, rather than at the instigation of CMS headquarters in London it had far more independence than a normal CMS Corresponding Committee, and in 1817 it developed into an Auxiliary Society to promote the objects of the CMS through schools, tracts and missionary establishments, with almost autonomous power. Difficulties arose concerning the relationship between the CMS missionaries, the bishop and the Calcutta Auxiliary, as well as about matters of mission administration where the views of CMS London and the Auxiliary differed. This finally led to the resignation of the Auxiliary Committee in 1838. London then appointed a Corresponding Committee on a normal footing and from then on it met regularly each month and dealt with every aspect of the administration of the mission.
Secretaries: 1807-1826 Thomas Thomason 1820-1834 Daniel Corrie 1833-1836 Thomas Dealtry 1835-1837 Henry Chapman 1837-1840 Frederick Wybrow 1840-1847 James Innes 1847-1860 George Goring Cuthbert 1860-1871 Edward Craig Stuart 1871-1876 Joseph Welland 1876-1878 David Thomas Barry 1879-1880 Henry Perrott Parker
Assistant secretaries [no attempt has been made to distinguish the exact dates of their holding office] 1824 George William Crauford 1826-1828 Deocar Schmid 1828-1829 A. Hammond 1836-1841 J. A. Henry 1838 R. B. Boswell 1838-1839 J. Wallis Alexander 1842-1844 E. C. H. Longden 1843 G. Pickance 1845-1847 W. H. Haycock 1848-1864 D. Phillips 1851, 1854 H. Thomas 1857 Henry S. Fisher 1861-1862 John Barton 1865-1866 John Barton 1863-1864 Timothy Sandys 1871 Henry William Shackell 1876 William Russell Blackett 1877 Alfred Clifford |