History of William Carey - Father of Modern Missions
History of William Carey - Father of Modern Missions
William Carey was born August 17, 1761 in Northamptonshire, England. He was one of 5 children and had a knack for learning and languages. At age 11, he found a small Latin textbook in his father’s study and proceeded to teach himself the language. Carey suffered from a disease from childhood that resulted in painful blisters on his face and hands due to allergies from the sun. Because of this, he needed to seek an indoor trade. At age 14, he apprenticed as a cobbler. While working there, he continued reading and learning languages. Within 2 years, he had mastered both the Greek and Hebrew languages.
Although not quite religious himself, Carey attended his local church with his family, which was governed by the Church of English. He was invited to hear John Wesley preach. He heard the Gospel and about the need to have a relationship with Christ. Wesley preached about sanctification coming only by God’s grace and not by any perceived holiness from man. Hearing this, many people left the Church of English and followed other denominations like Baptists and Presbyterians. One of Carey’s fellow apprentices, John Warr, was a strong Baptist. During their work day, Warr and Carey had heated debates regarding salvation. Even through all of this, Carey was skeptical of his need for a Savior. But soon Warr’s words pricked his heart and on February 10, 1779, Carey accepted Christ at age 17.
Soon after, Carey married Dorothy (Dolly) Plackett. Many speculate that this was a youthful decision as Dolly was not educated and was 6 years older than Carey. They were married in 1781. On October 5, 1783, Carey was baptized. Carey and Dolly had a happy marriage, but were very poor. They had a daughter named Ann that died at 18 months old from fever. Dolly was haunted by her loss, while Carey threw himself into his work. On August 10, 1786, Carey was ordained as a Baptist minister and became the pastor of a small church, as well as the local schoolmaster. Carey certainly kept busy. He taught school during the weekdays, repaired shoes at night, and preached on Sundays. Amazingly, during this time, Carey also taught himself French, Italian and Dutch. That’s 6 languages since we began William Carey’s tale!
From 1785 to 1791, Dolly and Carey were blessed with 4 more children. The birth of these children seemed to help ease some of Dolly’s pain over the loss of their firstborn. But their 5th child also became ill and died at age 2. This sent Dolly into a state of depression, while Carey focused harder on his work.
While focusing on his work, Carey was convicted by God to pursue mission work outside of England. The church had objections, but Carey was steadfast. He wrote, “If it be the duty of all men, when the gospel comes, to believe unto salvation, then it is the duty of those who are entrusted with the gospel to endeavor to make it known among all nations for the obedience of faith!”. Carey wrote an argument for world missions that consisted of 5 sections, called The Enquiry. Thomas Potts, a tradesman, after reading it, offered to publish the essay. As soon as it was published, Carey began receiving speaking invitations. During these speaking engagements, Carey spoke the words that became the motto of his mission, “Expect great things from God! Attempt great things for God!”.
On October 2, 1792, a group of 14 baptist men joined with Carey to form the Baptist Missionary Society. The initial goal of this group was to provide financially as much as possible for foreign mission work and appeal to other Baptist churches to give to the cause. While searching for a missionary applicant, Carey received a letter from Dr. John Thomas, an English physician who was living and working in India as a surgeon and early medical missionary. After hearing about Dr. Thomas’ experiences and the questions from Indians about having New Testaments translated into their own languages, Carey immediately heard the call of God to serve the people in India. While he was ready to go, Dolly was not. After much pleading, she allowed her oldest son to accompany Carey on the trip. Carey went to many different Baptist churches to help fund this missionary trip, but to no avail. In addition, the British East India Company had also banned any British missionaries to go to India lest the people become more educated and no longer agree with their current trading agreements. Carey continued to pray for the journey as it seemed like there were many obstacles around him. Later, Dr. Thomas was able to find a workaround via a Danish ship. There were not as many checks if they traveled on that ship versus one that was English.
On November 7, 1793, Carey and Dr. Thomas landed in Bengal, india. As soon as their family and belongings were on the shore, Dr. Thomas preached in Bengali to all the people in the marketplace for 3 hours! Due to Dr. Thomas’ debts in England, he used the mission funds to build his own medical practice to earn money to pay off his debts. This left Carey and his family destitute. But Dr. Thomas was able to secure more funds so that the Carey family had a place to stay. Even with these adversities, Carey planted crops and worked with the locals to provide for his family. Funny enough, his allergy to the sun that caused blisters never occurred while he was in India. The next year Carey became a superintendent at an indigo plant in Bengal. He preached, taught, and began his first Bible translation. He was able to pick up the Bengali language with ease. Within a week, he was able to preach short messages without an interpreter.
Carey wrote, “All my hope is in, and all my comfort arises from, God; without His power no European could possible be converted, and His power can convert any Indian; and when I reflect that He has stirred me up to do this work, and wrought wonders to prepare the way, I can hope in His promises, and am encouraged and strengthened!”.
In 1794, Carey and Dolly experienced another loss of a child. This time Dolly slipped into an even deeper depression, which caused delusions. Carey continually prayed for her recovery. She recovered for a bit, but lapsed again after the birth of their seventh child.
Due to government and political pressures, Carey moved from his indigo farm to a Danish colony near Calcutta. In 1800, after 7 years of mission work, Carey finally saw his first Indian convert - Krishna Candra Pal. Although he was attacked after converting, KCP was baptized on December 29, 1800. Soon after, he led his wife, daughters, sister, and neighbors to Christ.
On March 5, 1801, the complete Bengali New Testament was finally printed and bound. This was the result of 8 years of hard labor by Carey and the printing staff. During this time, Carey also began learning Sanskrit and started working on its New Testament translation. In the same year, Fort William College was founded in Calcutta for Englishmen to learn finance and government, but they also needed to learn the Bengali and Sanskrit languages. Carey became an instructure, professor and finally a dean at the college, where he worked for the next 30 years.
On December 7, 1807 Dolly died after 26 years of marriage. Six months after Dolly’s death, May 1808, Carey married Charlotte Emilia Rumohr, a Danish countess who lived near the mission. Although confined to rest most of the time due to injuries in her youth, Charlotte was still able to help Carey in his translation work and in the growing ministry. They enjoyed 13 years of marriage together. During that time, 3 of Carey’s sons went on to become missionaries in India, Burma, and the Spice Islands.
As Carey’s influence began to grow, things progressed in rapid succession. In 1807, Carey was given a Doctor of Divinity degree by Brown University. In 1808, the New Testament was published in Sanskrit. In 1809, the entire Bible was published in Bengali. In 1811, the New Testament was published in Marathi and Pubjabi. In 1812, the entire Bible was published in Sanskrit. From 1807-1812, the mission team also worked on A Universal Dictionary of the Oriental Languages. According to Carey, it was supposed to help “biblical students correct the translation of the Bible in the Oriental languages after we are dead”.
On March 11, 1812, a fire broke out in the print shop. They tried pouring water on the roof, but the fire blazed back to life. The fire destroyed the dictionary, 10 different versions of the Bible, other manuscripts, and type fonts that were used for printing. Carey was very disappointed as years of work were gone in smoke. But, he trusted in God. In a surprising turn of events, the news of the fire reached Europe and America. The churches there prayed and sent thousands of pounds to India to fund the replacements for what had been destroyed.
When the British churches saw how much Carey and his team were accomplishing in India, they petitioned the Parliament to end the East India Company’s ban on missionaries. In 1813, the charter was amended to allow missionaries to enter India at will.
In 1818, Carey founded Serampore College, the first nondenominational Chirstian college in India. The Baptist Missionary Society refused to financially support the school since it was nondenominational, but Christians in England and India stepped in to help. Carey also encouraged the use of Indians as missionaries and led the formation of the Agricultural Society of India in 1820.
On May 30, 1821, Charlotte passed away and Carey mourned her deeply. On November 10, 1822, Felix Carey also died from liver disease. In 1823, William Ward also passed away from cholera. Carey was very down, but still sought his peace through Christ. After a time, Carey again married at age 59 to Grace Hughes, a 45 year old widow. She cared for Carey and the ministry during their 11 year marriage together.
In 1830, India was dealt a financial crisis which shut down Fort William College and wiped out the mission's funds. Serampore College remained open through the help of donations. Carey’s health began declining and he went to be with the Lord on June 9, 1834 in Shrirampur, India. He was buried beside his wife Charlotte. His gravestone had a quote as its inscription, “A wretched, poor, and helpless worm/ On thy kind arms I fall”.
By the end of his life, William Carey translated the Bible into 6 languages Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit. He also translated portions into 29 other languages and dialects. Not only did Carey and his mission team translate and print the first Bengali Bible, but also established the first Bengali newspaper and periodical which ran for 57 years. His founding of the Baptist Missionary Society became the model for missionary organizations around the world. Throughout his life and missionary journey, Carey never lost his faith. He fulfilled God’s calling to bring the Gospel to the lost of India.
If you would like to read up on William Carey, see below for some recommendations.
William Carey: Obliged to Go
By: Janet & Geoff Benge
God’s Generals: The Missionaries
By: Roberts Liardon
Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey
By: Timothy George
I Can Plod: William Carey and the Early years of the First Baptist Missionary Society
By: H.J. Appleby
The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture
By: Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi