| Description | Minutes of the [General] Committee including, from February 1800, the names of those proposed, or proposing themselves, as missionary candidates with a brief note of their interviews with the Committee and related correspondence; much concerning the Berlin Seminary for instruction of missionaries from which the Society's first missionaries were recruited, and the recruitment, departure, early work and character of the Society's first missionaries to be sent overseas, [Melchior] Renner and [Peter] Hartwig; proposals for the establishment of future missions and much regarding missionary finances and minutes concerning the Society's deputation to the [British Government] requesting the insertion of a clause regarding the promotion of Christianity in India into the East India Company's new Charter 1812-1813. Also including:
p 18 proposal for a scheme to educate African children in anticipation of their qualifying as missionaries to their own countrymen, minutes 4 November 1799;
p 19 resolution to attempt to establish the Society's first mission at Sierra Leone, minutes 4 November 1799;
p 54 resolution to enquire into the possibility of recruiting missionaries from outside the UK, minutes 7 December 1801;
p 119 [unfulfilled] proposal to procure a passage to Sierra Leone for Renner and Hartwig on board a 'slave ship' [a ship that was engaged in transporting enslaved people], subject to the missionaries having no objection to this mode of transport, minutes 3 October 1803;
p 154 report of Renner and Hartwig's arrival 14 April 1804 in Sierra Leone, minutes 6 August 1804;
p 290 letter concerning John Thomas Anser, cabinet maker, son of Robin Anser, late King of Old Calabar [Nigeria], who wished to return to Africa as a missionary, minutes 4 July 1808;
p 292 John Thomas Anser's interview with the Committee, minutes 1 August 1808 (see p 290);
pp 437-442 revised rules of the Society including the procedure for appointing missionaries, minutes 6 March 1812;
p 525 proposal by Rev[erend] William Marsh that 'an African Boy should be redeemed [amended from 'returned'], and named Launcelot, in compliment to Launcelot Austwich, Esq[uire] Mayor of Reading', minutes 11 December 1812;
p 574 approval of missionary [Gustavus Reinhold] Nylander's proposal to establish a missionary station at Yongroo and to receive under his care two [Congolese] boys and girls 'from among those received from slave ships', minutes 26 April 1813 |