| Administrative History | Following correspondence with CMS supporters in Madras and the arrival of the first CMS missionaries in India 4 July 1814, the Madras Corresponding Committee was formed 30 November 1814. It consisted of chaplains and officials from government and the services and its task was to advise and assist the London headquarters, to act as the medium of correspondence between the missionaries and London, and to raise funds. As with other Corresponding Committees in India it had almost autonomous power and this led to serious differences both between clerical and lay members of the committee and between the committee and London.
A split in the committee over the actions of the secretary William Bannister, leading to his resignation in 1829, was followed by controversy over how far, if at all, the missionaries should provide services for the English rather than the local population. CMS headquarters intervened and by a letter of 22 May 1832 reconstituted the committee on a normal footing. Rev. John Tucker was appointed mission secretary and the committee thenceforth met regularly each month and dealt with every aspect of the administration of the mission.
Mission secretaries [including those acting in interregnum]:
1814-1818 Marmaduke Thompson; 1818-1818 George J. Casamajor; 1818-1820 Henry Mortlock; 1820-1822 Charles Church; 1822-1825 John M. Strachan; 1826-1828 John Hallewell; 1828-1828 James A. Dalmahoy; 1828-1829 William Bannister; 1829-1830 Henry Harper; 1830-1832 Frederick Spring; 1832-1833 Charles Alfred Browne; 1833-1847 John Tucker; 1847-1852 Thomas Gajetan Ragland; 1852- 1852 Charles Alfred Browne; 1852-1854 Nicholas James Moody; 1853-1854 Charles Alfred Browne; 1855 William Knight; 1856-1861 Peter Sorensen Royston (clerical); 1858-1862 Theodore T. Ford (lay); 1862-1866 William Gray; 1866-1871 Peter Sorensen Royston; 1871-1876 John Barton, 1872-1876 David Fenn (joint); 1875-1876 David Thomas Barry; 1876-1878 Reginald Chambers MacDonald, 1876-1878 David Fenn (joint); 1878-1881 Albert Henry Arden |