Record

LevelSub-fonds
Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure)CMS/ACC36
TitleAccession 36: Papers of Archibald Downes Shaw
Extent18 items, 2 files
Date1880-1889
DescriptionPersonal and family papers relating to Archibald Downes Shaw's service as a CMS missionary in East Africa. Including his journal of a trip undertaken in Kenya in 1882, manuscript and printed written works by Shaw and letters to and from Shaw.

Also including letters from Amy Shaw [first wife of Archibald Downes Shaw and niece of Frances Ridley Havergal] and correspondence between CMS and Mrs Shaw [mother of A. D. Shaw].
ArrangementThis collection forms part of the Church Missionary Society Unofficial Papers. It is arranged into one series: Family Papers
Access ConditionsAccess to all registered readers
LanguageEnglish
Finding AidsA catalogue of this collection (forming part of the wider CMS/ACC unofficial papers catalogue) is available on the online archive catalogue. Click on the Finding Number to display the summary contents list of the catalogue and to view the full catalogue. A paper copy of this catalogue is also available for consultation at Special Collections.
Access StatusOpen
Administrative HistoryArchibald Downes Shaw (1857-1939), Anglican clergyman and missionary of Clifton, Bristol was accepted by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1876 when he was sent to St Paul's College, Hong Kong as a missionary student. He subsequently attended the Church Missionary College in Islington. In 1881 he was ordained deacon and then priest and served briefly as curate of Doddington, Cambridgeshire. Later the same year he went to East Africa as a CMS missionary first at Kisulitini (1881-87) and then at Frere Town (1887-88); and in 1889 he transferred to Mauritius where he was appointed as chaplain of Vacoas and Black River. In 1890 he was invalided back to England and his connection with the CMS then ceased.

His subsequent career involved many moves: Curate, Littleton, Middlesex, 1890-93; Organising Secretary, Church Army, 1893-1894; Chaplain, Dr Barnardo's Homes, 1894-1898; Vicar, Church of King Charles the Martyr, Tunbridge Wells, 1898-1902; Rector of Kettlestone, Norfolk, 1902-11 ; Vicar, Great Horton, Bradford, 1911-15; and Rector, Scotton, Lincolnshire, 1915-24. He then retired to Cornwall.
Reference: References: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905), and unpublished additions to this register in the CMS archives

He was married firstly in 1882 to Amy Havergal (niece of Frances Ridley Havergal) who died in Mauritius in 1890 and secondly Alice Montagu in 1893.
Custodial HistoryPresented to the CMS per CMS Regional Administrative Secretary, Nairobi 1962; transferred on permanent loan to the Special Collections Department by the CMS in the 1980s
Related MaterialThe Special Collections Department holds the Church Missionary Society Archive, the official archive of the society, (GB 0150 CMS) which includes papers relating to Shaw's service as a CMS missionary. It also holds an account of a journey made by Archibald Downes Shaw in 1877, with associated papers (GB 0150 MS12)

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